The House Wednesday cleared by voice vote a bill designed to reverse a decade’s worth of Supreme Court decisions that have narrowed the scope of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act.

President Bush is expected to sign the bill, which directs courts to broadly construe the definition of “disability.” Individuals who successfully overcame their disabilities on the job had been judged not “disabled enough” to qualify for the law’s protections under recent court decisions.

“Tens of millions of Americans will enjoy even fuller rights – the rights we intended for them when we passed the first ADA,” said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md. “Over the last 18 years the Court has chipped away at that promise. We said we wanted broad coverage for people with disabilities and for people regarded as disabled.”

The Senate passed the bill last week by voice vote.

The original 1990 law was intended to make it easier for people with disabilities to work and use services available to the non-disabled by requiring businesses to make accommodations for them, like now-common wheelchair ramps outside fast-food restaurants and wider doors and stalls in public restrooms.

The bill also authorizes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the attorney general and the secretary of Transportation to issue new ADA regulations.