The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 contains a basic non-discrimination section that prohibited entities receiving federal monies from discriminating against persons who received benefits or participated inthe programs of those entities on the basis of disability. In its important part, the provision reads as follows:
No otherwise qualified individual with handicaps in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of his or her handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . . (29 U.S.C. 794(a)).
This sentence was numbered 504 in the 1973 codification of the statute. Under 504, the Department of Education had authority to promulgate regulations defining the requirements of the statute with respect to disabled students in the public schools. The regulations implementing 504 are found at Title 34 C.F.R. Part 104, and they form the basis for most of our understanding of what the law requires with regard to programs for disabled students. Under 504, there is no list of approved disabling conditions. A handicapped person is simply one who (1) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or moremajor life activities, (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment. 34 C.F.R. 104.3(j)(1).