United States: An Accommodation Request? But We Were Just Talking!
Mondaq News Alerts
In a conversation about his tardy attendance, an employee tells his manager he is having difficulty arriving to work because his sleep apnea interferes with his rest and prevents him from waking up on time. He adds that he is being evaluated for drugs that could potentially help him. Is this a request for an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? In general, the answer is probably yes, and the employer could face a potential disability discrimination claim if the request is ignored.
Title I of the ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Failure to provide an accommodation is a form of disability discrimination. The employee's request for an accommodation triggers an "interactive process" to determine what accommodation might be reasonable. To trigger the interactive process, the employee does not even have to specifically mention the ADA or state that he is requesting a "reasonable accommodation." Thus, if such a statement made to a manager could be considered a request for an ADA accommodation, how can an employer possibly monitor these types of employee requests and comply with the ADA?
Realistically, there are two ways an employer can minimize ADA missteps in this scenario. First, the employer should review and make sure that its ADA policy includes a definitive procedure for how an employee should request an ADA accommodation. An increasing number of courts are holding that even though an accommodation request may be informal, it does not necessarily excuse an employee's failure to use the correct procedure, provided the procedure is clear and disseminated in advance. So once an employer has established a fixed set of procedures to request accommodations, an employee's failure to follow this procedure could preclude a claim for failure to accommodate.
In one recent case, for example, an employer required employees to make all accommodation requests though its Leave of Absence Administrator, a position it created specifically to deal with employee leave requests. The court held that the employee's failure to use that specific procedure precluded her failure-to-accommodate claim. Thus, having a clear procedure that tells employees how, and to whom, they should direct their accommodation requests is essential to mitigating risk for failure to accommodate claims.
Second, even if an employer has a policy limiting the methods for accommodation requests, it also should inform managers and supervisors that when an employee who is trying to justify performance issues makes comments about his or her medical condition, such comments are potentially an accommodation request. The employer should direct supervisors and managers to immediately refer any such circumstance to human resources, in order to handle the interactive process.
Handling ADA accommodation requests is tricky. But having a good ADA policy, making sure employees acknowledge receipt of the policy, and properly instructing managers how to deal with requests are essential tools to help prevent unforeseen disability discrimination claims.
Why Your Website Has to Be Just as ADA Compliant as Your Office Building
CMS Critic (blog)
Picture this: you’re online, wanting to order groceries from Amazon Fresh for convenience. You select a delivery time on the app with ease, scheduling the groceries to arrive at your door moments after you get home from work.
The experience is simple, streamlined and efficient.
But that exact experience was frustrating for one blind Seattle user. For a period of time, the Amazon Fresh app had a bug for users with vision loss. They couldn’t select a deliver time if they were using a screen reader — technology on which nearly all visually-impaired users rely.
Amazon — prioritizing the customer experience — remedied the issue for its visually-impaired users.
Making sure anyone can access your website shouldn’t just be a priority of a Fortune 500 company. Having an accessible website is also so low-cost that no business has an excuse as to why it’s not a priority.
But what is ADA compliance? Is it really enforced for websites? And what are the steps to make sure a website is on the road to being ADA compliant?
We sat down with Solodev’s Director of Web Development and ADA liaison Scott Madara to get answers.
Try These Surprisingly Simple Ways To Help Shoppers With Disabilities This Season
Forbes
What do customers with disabilities want more than anything? To be treated like people first, people who also happen to have a disability. As we begin the holiday dash, these suggestions on everything from etiquette to online fixes for businesses—developed for and by people with disabilities—are worth sharing widely. Many of the suggestions. below, are not costly or complicated to implement and include both what is required by law as well as how to go beyond the basics.
The American Association of People With Disabilities is a comprehensive resource for people who want to get a broad understanding of how to advocate for people with all types of disabilities. Their resource pages include everything from policies for making technology and transportation accessible to information about ongoing efforts to provide better transportation options to people with disabilities. You can find information on all of those topics, here.
- The Partnership On Accessibility (PEAT) can help you make the case to an employer—or employees—as to accessible tech matters now more than ever. Watch a sample video here. Not sure what Section 508 is or need a clear definition of a term associated with accessibility, find a comprehensive glossary, here. The National Disability Authority (a global resource) offers clear examples of how to make any website—including videos, maps, PDF documents, and audio—accessible.
- Work Without Limits has a short, printable introduction to person-first language and offering assistance. It covers all types of disabilities and makes the important point that “No two people with a disability are the same.” Check it out, here.
- Ask Earn, which supports businesses in their efforts to recruit, hire, retain and advance qualified individuals with disabilities, offers advice to increase employees’ comfort, confidence and competence when assisting people with disabilities. You can find their resources, here.