Reasonable Accommodation In The Workplace Under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA)

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Reasonable Accommodation in the Work Place Under ADA

There may be as many as one thousand different disabilities that affect

over forty-three million Americans. Of all the laws and regulations governing

the treatment of those Americans the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the

most recent major law. It was passed in 1990 and although it is spelled out in

a technical ADA manual that is several hundred pages in length. Two of ADA's

two major sections, Titles II and III concern the operation of state and local

government and places of public accommodation. They require new public and

commercial facilities to be accessible to people with disabilities.

Modifications to existing facilities need to be made only if the cost is

"readily achievable" and does not cause an undue financial or administrative

burden. This essay will concentrate on Title I, the employment aspects of the

law. This section forbids employment discrimination against people with

disabilities who are able to perform the essential functions of the job with or

without reasonable accommodation.

This definition poses three main questions: Who is considered disabled?

What is an essential function of a job? What is considered Reasonable

Accommodation?

To be protected under the ADA an individual must have a physical or

mental impairment that substantially affects one or more major life activities.

The impairment may not be due to environmental, cultural, or economic

disadvantages. For example a person who cannot read because they have dyslexia

is considered disabled but a person who cannot read because they dropped out of

school is not. In addition persons who are perceived to be disabled are

protected by ADA. For example, if a person were to suffer a heart attack, when

he tries to return to work the boss might be scared the workload will be too

much and refuse to let him come back. The employer would be in violation of the

ADA because he perceives the employee as disabled and is discriminating based on

that perception. Two classes that are explicitly excluded from protection under

ADA are those individuals whose current use of alcohol or illegal drug is

affecting their job performance. However those who are recovering from their

former use of either alcohol or drugs are covered.

&nbs...

... middle of paper ...

...pped, must want the

changes and take some initiative to make it happen.

Works Cited

Bowers, Brent. "ADA Compliance comes cheap, a survey finds." Wall Street Journal

16 Sep. 1994 p(b)2 col 5.

Coelho, Tony. "A sad story, but not typical." The Washington Post 19 Feb. 1995

p(c)6.

Gomez-Mejia, Luis R., David B. Balkin, Robert L. Cardy. Managing Human Resources.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.

Mullins, James A, Jr. "Use a Collaborative approach to reasonable

accommodation". HR Focus Feb. 1994 p16.

Renolds, Larry. "ADA Complaints are not what experts predicted." HR Focus Nov.

1993 p6.

Smolowe, Jill. "Noble Aims, Mixed Results" Time 31 July 1995.

"Some quick tips to make workspaces more flexible" HR Focus July 1992 p12-14.

Stamps, David "Just how scary is the ADA?" Training June 1995 p93.

"Who are the Disabled?: At work: A controversial law falls down on the job".

News Week 7 Nov. 1994.

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