D. Kansas on Blindness in One Eye and the ADAAA

Last week, Judge Monti Belot of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas issued an opinion on summary judgment in Markham v. Boeing Co., 2011 WL 6217117 (D. Kan., Dec. 14, 2011). The plaintiff alleged that he was terminated from his job as a security guard because he was blind in one eye. Applying the ADA Amendments Act, the court concluded that the plaintiff had presented sufficient evidence that his monocular vision was a disability, because he "testified that he has no depth perception and must turn his head 180 degrees in order to look to the right." But the court granted summary judgment to the defendants because the plaintiff "failed to offer any affirmative evidence that his blindness was a determining factor in defendant's employment decision."  This is another case that likely would not have reached the question of discrimination before the ADAAA.