American Girl Place latest target for lawsuit over ADA bathroom accessibility rules
Cook County Record
American Girl’s Chicago retail store has become the latest Chicago business hit with a lawsuit brought by a so-called “tester,” who has also similarly targeted dozens of other public storefronts, this time alleging the retailer’s popular Michigan Avenue doll store isn’t properly designed or equipped to handle people with disabilities, as required by federal law.
On June 22, plaintiff Howard Cohan filed suit in Chicago federal court against American Girl Retail Inc., alleging the Chicago American Girl Place store’s restrooms fall short of the accessibility requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Mondaq News Alerts
Compliance with the EEOC’s position that employers must consider granting job protected leave to employees who have exhausted FMLA (or who are not eligible for FMLA) on a case-by-case basis under the ADA may have an additional unintended consequence. Where an employee who has exhausted FMLA has not been terminated and is receiving disability benefits paid for, at least in part, by the employer, such hours are considered “hours of service” under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) and can trigger obligations to continue group health benefits.
The EEOC has been taking the position for many years that employers who have hard and fast “leave cutoffs” violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). The EEOC has aggressively sought to enforce this position even though the ADA was not considered a “leave law” when it was passed in 1990 (effective in 1992), prior to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (effective in August 1993). The EEOC believes employers must consider requests for additional job protected leave on a case-by-case basis for employees with ADA disabilities. This position was recently solidified by the issuance of a document from EEOC on May 9, 2016 called: “Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act.”
ADA Litigation: Website Accessibility Claims On The Rise
Mondaq News Alerts
In today's technology-driven society, retailers are increasingly using the Internet to provide information, goods, and services to the public. While having a website is almost a mandatory aspect of operating a retail business, it's important to ensure that the website does not also market the business to potential lawsuits. Websites have become the new hotbed of litigation brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and retailers who are increasingly relying on their Web presence need to take note.
Airbnb and Discrimination: Why It's All So Confusing
Fortune
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) is not likely to apply to renting out space in a private home or apartment. The ADA is likely to apply to large apartment buildings. The law has an exemption for owner-occupied lodgings with five rooms or fewer.
EEOC Provides Sample ADA Wellness Program Notice
Lexology
The EEOC recently released a sample notice, along with a series of questions and answers, to assist employers that offer wellness programs in satisfying the notice requirement set forth in the final regulations regarding the compliance of employer-sponsored wellness programs with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). Use of the sample notice is not mandatory, but employers that offer a wellness program are required to provide a notice to employees which informs them, in an understandable manner, of (i) the information that will be collected by the employer in connection with the wellness program, (ii) how such information will be used, (iii) who will receive it, and (iv) how it will be kept confidential. The effective date for compliance with the new ADA notice requirements is the first day of the plan year beginning on or after January 1, 2017.
Disabled people are frustrated at being denied the chance to work
The Guardian
Around the world there are huge employment gaps between disabled and non-disabled people. How can this be addressed? What actually works?
The employment gap for disabled people around the world
Mexico city in a wheelchair: ‘There’s no second chance on these streets’
Don't Flunk the Reasonable Accommodation Duty
SHRM
Whether it is the technology used in recruitment, the wording of pre-screening questions or a job’s essential functions, or—once applicants become employees—leave policies, employers often are getting the reasonable accommodation duty wrong, according to Lynn Clements, director of regulatory affairs with Berkshire Associates Inc. in Columbia, Md.
Clements spoke during a concurrent session June 21 at the Society for Human Resource Management 2016 Annual Conference & Exposition.
Illinois woman sues Fox Theatre over lack of captioned performances
STLtoday.com
An Illinois woman filed a federal civil lawsuit against the Fabulous Fox Theatre Wednesday claiming that the theater refused to provide captioning at an upcoming performance for patrons with hearing impairment.
Maria C. "Tina" Childress' lawsuit also seeks class-action status.
Childress, from Champaign, is an avid theater-goer and member of the Association of Late Deafened Adults, which advocates for “greater access through captioning to public places,” the suit says.
Childress became totally deaf at 29 due to an illness, the suit says. Although her cochlear implants allow her to “function normally under ideal circumstances,” she can't fully understand stage dialog or lyrics masked by music, the suit says.
The suit says that some theaters provide captioning for the audience, using the final script synced to the performance and displayed on a small screen or a hand-held device.
When Childress asked the Fox to provide captions for next summer's show “Rent,” Fox refused, and instead offered to schedule a sign language interpreted performance or provide “volume-enhancing assistive-listening devices,” neither of which would work for Childress, the suit says.
The suit says Fox has also not responded to a letter from a Childress lawyer telling them that they were required to provide captioning under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A Fox representative did not return calls seeking comment.
The suit says that the Association of Late Deafened Adults has successfully fought for captioning equipment in California movie theaters.
"Weed" In The Workplace: An Employer's Guide To Pennsylvania's New Medical Marijuana Law
Mondaq News Alerts
The objective of the law is to make marijuana available for people with a serious medical condition. This includes people with cancer, HIV, ALS, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies, Huntington's disease, Crohn's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, intractable seizures, glaucoma, sickle cell anemia and autism. Medical marijuana also will be available to people who are terminally ill. Since persons utilizing medical marijuana will almost always qualify as being disabled under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and some local ordinances, there may be instances when an employer will need to make reasonable accommodations associated with the disability – and the use of medical marijuana – so long as it does not rise to the level of an undue hardship. It would be prudent for an employer to engage in the interactive process with an employee who is using medical marijuana.
Judge's order in transgender case may impact Stafford case
Fredericksburg.com
A federal judge’s order Thursday in a transgender case in Gloucester County may force Stafford County schools to revisit a similar issue in their school system.
U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar ruled that the Gloucester School Board must allow Gavin Grimm to use the bathroom that matches his gender identity while the case is being litigated in court.
The order comes after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that the School Board discriminated against Grimm by forbidding him from using the boys restroom. The board plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision.