Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993 TAG: 9311130093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
If a federal appeals court accepts that interpretation of the law, some obese people could be helped in resolving employment conflicts or even in getting comfortable seating in movie theaters.
"Before, if something was deemed voluntary, it wasn't a disability," Peggy Mastroianni, director of disabilities policy for the Equal Employment Commission, said Friday.
"That had some very disturbing implications - what if someone became paraplegic because they participated in a dangerous sport?"
The EEOC, in a brief filed in a court case from Rhode Island, said someone who is morbidly obese has a disability even if disease did not cause the person's weight. Morbid obesity is a medical term that means 100 percent over normal weight.
If someone is merely obese - 50 pounds overweight, for example - that person also could have a disability protected under this interpretation of the act, but only if the obesity were caused by a disease.
But the EEOC stressed that any obesity complaints filed under the disabilities act would be considered "on a case-by-case basis."
Lawyers say the decision probably would not affect a lot of people, but nevertheless is significant.
"Anytime someone is discriminated against because of a physical characteristic, that should fall under the ADA," said Jim Goodman of the Persons with Disabilities Law Center in Atlanta. "It will make a difference in accommodation of obesity. What does a movie theater do about seating? What does an airline do?"
He is representing a woman in Tennessee who wants to bring her own chair to movie theaters, putting it in the wheelchair section, because she cannot fit into the regular seats.
Mastroianni would not speculate on how far-reaching the EEOC decision might be.
"But my sense is there's a movement out there toward ending discrimination against the obese that has a life of its own beyond the ADA," she said. "The act will resolve some things but not everything."
Sally Smith, executive director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, agreed.
"What about someone who's 50 percent overweight, or 50 pounds overweight? For most fat people, it's not a disability, so this doesn't address the whole problem," she said.
The act protects obese people in cases where the obesity severely limits them and is caused by a physical disorder. It also protects people who are not limited but are regarded as disabled because of obesity.
Using that second provision, the EEOC filed a brief in July on behalf of Bonnie Cook of Rhode Island. The 300-pound woman was turned down for an attendant's job at a state school for the mentally retarded, the same job she had twice held earlier when she weighed about 100 pounds less.
A jury last year determined she probably had been discriminated against and reinstated her with $100,000 in damages. Rhode Island appealed. The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule soon.
The EEOC brief pointed out that Cook is protected under the disabilities act because her employer apparently thought her weight impaired her even though she said she had no limitations.
But the commission also took the opportunity to clarify the definition of obesity it will use in enforcing the act. It said that even if an obese person could lose weight, "it is not necessary that a condition be involuntary or immutable to be covered."
Cook's attorney, Lynette Labinger, said, "There has never been a decision that obesity" of whatever origin qualifies for protection, she said. "It's very significant that the agency that primarily enforces discrimination laws thinks now it does qualify."
by CNB