Labor & Employment Law Articles

Accommodating Individuals with Disabilities

Under the ADA, employers with fifteen or more employees are required to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities, unless it would cause undue hardship. A reasonable accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way a job is performed that enables a person with a disability to perform a job. The policy guidance issued by the EEOC on this issue is helpful for employers since it supplies numerous concrete examples of what is a reasonable accommodation and when it is required. While the policy guidance does not have the force of law, it certainly reveals the position the EEOC would take in litigation. Some of the interesting points made in the guidance are:

It is not necessary for an individual to specifically ask for an accommodation. Thus, if an employee tells her supervisor that she is having trouble getting to work at her scheduled starting time because of medical treatments she is undergoing, that constitutes a request for a reasonable accommodation that cannot be ignored by her employer. The request need not be made in writing and can be made by someone, such as a doctor or family member, on behalf of the individual with the disability.

An employer is not required to provide the specific reasonable accommodation requested by the employee where there are less expensive accommodations available which are effective. The policy guidance recommends that the employer and the individual with the disability engage in an informal process to clarify what the individual needs. The guidance also identifies available public and private resources that can help employers identify reasonable accommodations once the specific limitations and workplace barriers have been ascertained.

An employer is not required to eliminate a primary job responsibility in order to accommodate a disabled individual. For example, in Jackan v. N.Y.S. Department of Labor, the court held that there was no possible reasonable accommodation for an asbestos safety inspector whose knee and back problems kept him from working in confined spaces or climbing to high places. The court ruled that physical ability to gain access to all areas in which asbestos work is being done was an essential function of the job since, under law, inspections could not be completed without physically inspecting all covered areas. On the other hand, it would be a necessary reasonable accommodation to alter marginal job functions of a job in order to enable the employee to perform the position. For example, if a bookkeeper is unable to walk to the bank to deposit checks, an employer may be required to switch that function with another employee or make the deposits by mail.

Employers must provide reasonable accommodation to enable an employee with a disability to have equal access to information communicated in the workplace to non-disabled employees. For example, if announcements are made over a public address system by the plant manager, it is necessary to convey such messages in written form to a deaf employee. Similarly, an employer must provide reasonable accommodation so that an employee may attend training programs. This obligation applies whether the training is provided in-house or by an outside entity. Thus, if a company sends its employees to a seminar held in a hotel, it must insure that it is accessible to an employee in a wheelchair. If there are employees who are blind, written materials must be provided in braille. For deaf employees, there should be a sign language interpreter.

An employer may be required to give an employee a leave of absence in excess of what is mandated by the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"). The FMLA requires most employers to provide twelve weeks of annual leave to employees with serious health conditions. Under the ADA, you may be required to provide additional leave as an accommodation if it does not create an undue hardship. In addition, an employer may be required to provide an employee with a modified or part-time schedule as a reasonable accommodation