What You Need to Know About the Americans with Disabilities Act

PURPOSE

Title I of the ADA, as amended, prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for them to do their jobs.

COVERED EMPLOYERS 

The ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations. Federal-sector employees are protected under Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act.

INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY

An individual with a disability is a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.

ASSOCIATION PROVISION

The association provision of the ADA prohibits employment discrimination against a person because of his or her relationship or association with a person with a known disability.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

Reasonable accommodations are adjustments or modifications to schedules, workstations, devices or other aspects of work that enable people with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job.

ACCOMMODATING JOB APPLICANTS

Employers must provide job applicants with reasonable accommodations during the hiring process when requested.

UNDUE HARDSHIP

An employer does not have to provide an accommodation if it is unreasonable and imposes an undue hardship on the operation of the business.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Essential job functions are those job duties that an employee must be able to perform with or without reasonable accommodation.

INTERACTIVE PROCESS

The ADA requires employers to engage employees with disabilities in an "interactive process" to determine appropriate accommodations when requested.

MEDICAL INQUIRIES

Employers may not ask job applicants about the existence, nature or severity of a disability. Medical inquiries and examinations of employees (after an offer of employment) must be job-related and consistent with the employer's business needs.

RECORDKEEPING

Employers must keep confidential any medical information they learn about an applicant or employee, including requests for accommodation. Medical records must be maintained for at least one year and kept separate from an employee's general personnel file.

POSTING REQUIREMENT

Employers must post the “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” poster in a conspicuous location where it can be seen by both employees and applicants.

COMMON ISSUES

DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE

Employees and applicants currently engaging in the illegal use of drugs are not covered by the ADA. However, alcoholism may be a covered disability warranting reasonable accommodation.

QUALIFIED INDIVIDUALS

A qualified employee or applicant with a disability is an individual who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the job in question.

LEAVE AS A REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

A leave of absence may be a reasonable accommodation for an individual with a disability when it enables the employee to return to work following the period of leave. Coordination with other types of leaves may be necessary.

TELEWORK AS A REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

Allowing an individual to work from home or from another location different from the employer's workplace may be a form of reasonable accommodation.

PERFORMANCE ISSUES

Employers may hold an employee with a disability to the same performance and conduct standards that are applied to all employees. Employers are not required to rescind discipline when an employee discloses a disability after the disciplinary action/decision has been made.

REGARDING AN INDIVIDUAL AS HAVING A DISABILITY

Individuals are protected from discrimination under the ADA when an employer makes assumptions and treats an individual as having a disability, regardless of whether the person actually has a disability.

SAFETY CONCERNS

In general, an employer may not take action based on general safety concerns unless there is a direct threat to the workplace.

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