The term “disability” refers to a wide variety of conditions, including blindness, deafness, mental retardation, and mobility impairments. Some health professionals also consider the term to encompass learning disabilities, mental illnesses such as autism, and chronic or long-term illnesses such as epilepsy, diabetes, cancer, or AIDS. Depending on which disabilities are included, estimates of the number of disabled Americans range from 35 million to 43 million. In his 1993 book No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, Joseph P. Shapiro notes that “there are some 30 million African-Americans. So, even at the lowest estimate [of 35 million], disabled people could be considered the nation’s largest minority.”

People who have disabilities face problems stemming from their physical or mental impairments. Someone with mental retardation, for example, may have difficulty learning how to read or handle money, while individuals with cerebral palsy may need assistance...