Cite as: 527 U. S. 471 (1999)
Stevens, J., dissenting
even though the loss may be corrected through the use of a hearing aid. Likewise, persons with impairments, such as epilepsy or diabetes, which substantially limit a major life activity are covered under the first prong of the definition of disability, even if the effects of the impairment are controlled by medication." Ibid. (emphasis added).
All of the Reports, indeed, are replete with references to the understanding that the Act's protected class includes individuals with various medical conditions that ordinarily are perfectly "correctable" with medication or treatment. See id., at 74 (citing with approval Straithe v. Department of Transportation, 716 F. 2d 227 (CA3 1983), which held that an individual with poor hearing was "handicapped" under the Rehabilitation Act even though his hearing could be corrected with a hearing aid); H. R. Rep. No. 101-485, pt. III, at 51 ("[t]he term" disability includes "epilepsy, . . . heart disease, diabetes"); id., pt. III, at 28 (listing same impairments); S. Rep. No. 101-116, at 22 (same).2
In addition, each of the three Executive agencies charged with implementing the Act has consistently interpreted the Act as mandating that the presence of disability turns on an individual's uncorrected state. We have traditionally accorded respect to such views when, as here, the agencies "played a pivotal role in setting [the statutory] machinery in motion." Ford Motor Credit Co. v. Milhollin, 444 U. S. 555, 566 (1980) (brackets in original; internal quotation marks and
2 The House's decision to cover correctable impairments under subsection (A) of the statute seems, in retrospect, both deliberate and wise. Much of the structure of the House Reports is borrowed from the Senate Report; thus it appears that the House Committees consciously decided to move the discussion of mitigating measures. This adjustment was prudent because in a case in which an employer refuses, out of animus or fear, to hire an individual who has a condition such as epilepsy that the employer knows is controlled, it may be difficult to determine whether the employer is viewing the individual in her uncorrected state or "regards" her as substantially limited.
501
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