EEOC: Hearing-impaired worker denied accommodation for training videos
Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sued Powerlink Facilities Management Services, a Michigan-based management and maintenance services company, for allegedly failing to accommodate an employee with a hearing impairment and firing her because of her disability.
- The company uses training videos during its orientation that do not offer closed captioning for the hearing-impaired. Instead of providing this employee with a timely and reasonable accommodation, says the EEOC, Powerlink did not allow her to receive orientation or start work for several months.
- "Powerlink should have considered the various ways to accommodate this employee," said Nedra Campbell, trial attorney for the EEOC. "Instead, the company lost a valuable employee and gained a federal lawsuit."
Dive Insight:
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities who are employees or job applicants, unless doing so would cause undue hardship.
In general, says the EEOC, an accommodation is "any change in the work environment or in the way things are customarily done that enables an individual with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities."
Reasonable accommodations can include modifications or adjustments to the job application process, to the work environment or the way a job is performed or to factors that generally enable an employee with a disability to enjoy benefits and privileges of employment comparable to those of his or her colleagues.
Hearing-impaired individuals face bias in the workplace, according to a recent survey. Even though 100% of hearing Americans surveyed said they would "absolutely and/or likely" recommend a deaf individual for a job, with more than two-thirds of respondents saying they believe deaf individuals offer perspectives that are beneficial in the workplace, 30% said a deaf person could "absolutely" perform their own job better, or equally well.
The National Organization on Disability has issued guidelines to help HR professionals and employers effectively interact with employees of all abilities. According to experts, people should tap the shoulder of someone with a hearing impairment to get his or her attention. After that, look the person in the eye, speak clearly, and keep hands away from the mouth while talking. Additionally, the person speaking should still look at the person he or she is talking to, even if the hearing-impaired individual is accompanied by an interpreter.
Group asks SCOTUS to overturn 'profoundly wrong' ADA ruling against Domino's
An American free enterprise advocacy group has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision made earlier this year in the case of a blind man suing a nationwide pizza delivery chain over an alleged violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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Meanwhile, businesses argue that the U.S. has yet to set out clear rules for what constitutes accessibility online, leaving many of them vulnerable to a mounting tide of lawsuits. On Tuesday, the Retail Litigation Center and the National Retail Federation asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take a case involving Domino’s Pizza and a blind customer, who sued the chain on the basis that its online ordering tools weren’t compatible with standard screen reading software.
Can Healthcare Providers Require Employee Vaccinations?
The Recent Spread of Infection
The United States has reported over 900 cases of measles in 2019, the most since the measles were declared eliminated over two decades ago. In the wake of the measles outbreak, New York City has declared a public health emergency after more than 280 people were sickened, largely affecting an Orthodox Jewish Community in Brooklyn. The number of confirmed cases has since climbed to well over 700. The emergency declaration requires anyone who has not yet been immunized to get the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, unless the individual qualifies for a medical exemption. City officials, such as Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, blame “anti-vaxxers” for spreading misinformation about vaccine safety and “fake science.”
This proliferation of misinformation, coupled with easy access to vaccine exemptions in several states, has made avoiding vaccinations in settings where they are normally required much easier. Seventeen states allow philosophical exemptions to mandatory vaccines for public school students; New Jersey requires no outside verification when parents oppose vaccinating their children.1 In response to the outbreak, New York lawmakers are trying to pass a bill that would eliminate the religious exemption from vaccines and maintain medical exemption as the only way to avoid receiving a vaccine.
UNR may file ADA suit over football stadium renovation
Lawyers for UNR are asking the state's board of regents to authorize a lawsuit against architects they blame for a botched renovation project that left the school's football stadium in violation of the Americans with Disability Act.
The university says in a formal request scheduled to be considered by the board on Friday that it will cost $3.8 million to redesign and repair a series of deficiencies, including wheel chair landing decks where disabled fans' views are obstructed.
The Reno Gazette Journal first reported on its web site this week the university wants to sue for breach of contract.
UNR lawyers say they asked WorthGroup Architects to pay for the costs of fixing the mistakes last month but they refused.