FAQ

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, which can include any of these three categories: (1) the employee has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; (2) the employee has a history or record of such an impairment; or (3) the employee is perceived by others as having such an impairment.

As an employer you are required to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with a disability. A reasonable accommodation may include making buildings, offices and other facilities used by employees readily accessible, restructuring the employee’s job, allowing employees to modify their work schedules, reassigning employees to vacated positions, and providing modified equipment or devices.

An employee who requests a reasonable accommodation must still be able to perform his or her essential job duties.

Although the ADA provides individuals with a disabilities protections, employers are not always able to and therefore shall not be required to provide the requested reasonable accommodation if it would cause an undue hardship.

An undue hardship occurs if you would experience a financial difficulty, or the requested accommodation is unduly extensive, substantial, disruptive or would alter the nature or operations of the business. The issue of whether an undue hardship exists, is determined on a case-by-case basis.

You should evaluate the request under four factors: (1) the overall size of the company including the number of employees, number or facilities and the budget; (2) the type of operations and the structure of the workforce; (3) the cost of the accommodation; and (4) the extent to which the accommodation would involve waiver of an essential requirement of a job as opposed to a tangential or non-business necessity requirement.

Employers may offer an alternative reasonable accommodation based on a disabled employee’s request. This is known as the interactive process which as an employer, you are required to engage in.

The interactive process includes having a conversation with an employee to discuss their disability and how you can help accommodate the employee.

Yes. You can request medical documentation when an employee requests an accommodation due to a disability. However, employees only have to provide sufficient information if you request medical documentation. This means that if an employee’s physician states what the employee’s disability is and that he or she needs an accommodation, you cannot request further information.