What protections are afforded on the basis of "association?"

In addition to protecting qualified applicants and employees with disabilities from employment discrimination, one provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)--the "association" provision--protects applicants and employees from discrimination based on their known relationship or association with an individual with a disability, whether or not the applicant or employee has a disability. The purpose of the association provision is to prevent employers from taking adverse actions based on unfounded stereotypes and assumptions about individuals who associate with people who have disabilities.

• Terminating an employee who volunteers at a homeless shelter with a high population of people living with HIV/AIDS because the employer believes its image will be tarnished if its employees associate with the "kind of person" who contracts HIV/AIDS.
• Rejecting a part-time employee's application for full-time work because both the employee's mother and sister had breast cancer, which the employer fears the employee will also acquire and which will prevent her from reliably working the hours required of a full-time position.
• Refusing to hire an individual who has a child with a disability based on an assumption that the applicant will be away from work excessively or be otherwise unreliable.
• Refusing to hire an applicant based on the increased health insurance costs that will be caused by his wife's disability.
• Telling an employee who has a child with Downs Syndrome that the child is not welcome at an annual holiday party for employees' children.
• Denying an employee's request for unpaid leave to assist her mother with a disability while granting another employee's request for unpaid leave to attend a father-son camp with his son.