What rights do I have under the Americans With Disability Act (ADA) to

What rights do I have under the Americans With Disability Act (ADA) to
protect me from discrimination at work?
Basically, the ADA means that you can't be discriminated against for having ADD/ADHD. Keep in mind the following few things.
1. There are pros and cons to telling your boss about your condition before you are hired. You need to consider all of these pros and cons, and consider them carefully.

2. Some of the pros of telling your boss about your ADD/ADHD before he hires you are: Your boss might be impressed about your openness with him. He might be impressed that you were bold and upfront about your ADD/ADHD. He might take it a sign that you're to be trusted in other areas. That is, telling your boss about your ADD/ADHD before hand might help you to immediately establish a good, nice, trusting relationship with him. In fact, sometimes bosses are mandated by their companies to hire a certain amount of people with one disorder or another. If that's the case with your boss, he might hire you in order to keep in compliance with his company - your ADD/ADHD could be an advantage from the get-go. Again, you want to think about this very, very carefully. You see, you'll probably have to tell your boss about your ADD/ADHD sometime. And then he may feel as though you weren't up front with him to start with. He may resent you, and may keep you from moving up in the company because of it. And your co-workers may begin to resent you if you aren't really open about your ADD/ADHD to begin with.
3. Some of the cons of telling your boss about your ADD/ADHD before he hires you are: He may assume the absolutely worst thing possible about you. He may assume that you're too lazy, slow, or crazy to perform properly for the company. The ADA can't protect you before you're hired. All your boss has to say is: I hired someone who was better qualified. That's one of the major cons of telling your boss about your ADD/ADHD before he hires.
4. Here's some advice for if you decide to tell your boss about your ADD/ADHD before he hires you. Be calm. Be confident. Be bold, be brave, be generous when it comes to describing your abilities. Tell your boss how you control your ADD/ADHD, and how your ADD/ADHD actually helps you in some ways, such as being creative, energetic, and manically focused on one thing. After all, like we said before, you're going to have to come out with it someday. Might as well be bold from the start, from the first. Might as well come across and straightforward and honest.
5. Now, the ADA can protect you once you've been hired. Once you've been hired, your boss can't fire you for having ADD/ADHD, otherwise you could sue him. You've got rights, after all, under the law. The ADA would ensure that you weren't fired from work or discriminated against at work because of your ADD/ADHD. If you were treated differently, badly, if you were kept from advancing not because of the quality of your work but because your company was biased against ADD/ADHDers, THEN you'd have something to say. THEN you'd have a reason to go to the law. The ADA says: "People with ADD/ADHD have a right to be treated decently at work, and have a right to advance and make progress just like everybody else does.

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