7th Cir. Denies Attempt to Circumvent “Qualified Person” Requirement for ADA Discrimination Claims
The National Law Review
Employees who claim their employer’s policies discriminate in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) must show that they are an otherwise “qualified individual” for the position in question. A creative plaintiff’s attorney attempted to circumvent this basic requirement by challenging an employer’s policies under an ADA retaliation claim, which has no “qualified individual” requirement. The argument was presented before the Seventh Circuit in January, 2018. Employers can be reassured by the circuit’s conclusion — when it comes to enforcing its own job requirements and policies, a plaintiff cannot avoid the “qualified individual” element by simply claiming a different type of cause of action.
In Rodrigo v. Carle Foundation Hospital, 879 F.3d 236 (7th Cir. 2018) the plaintiff, Yasas Rodrigo, was a second-year medical resident for the defendant, Carle Foundation Hospital (Carle Hospital). To advance to the third year of his residency, Rodrigo was required to pass the “Step 3” portion of the United Sates Medical Licensing Examination. Rodrigo, 879 F.3d at 239. Although the State of Illinois allowed test-takers five attempts to pass the exam before imposing restrictions on test takers, Carle Hospital was more stringent — if a resident failed Step 3 three times, they were no longer permitted to participate in Carle Hospital’s residency program. Id.
MTA and NYCTA sued over disabled access at Bronx subway station
WABC-TV
A U.S. Attorney filed a lawsuit against the MTA and the New York City Transit Authority on Tuesday after they say the agencies failed to make a subway station in the Bronx accessible to people who are disabled.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman says the MTA violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not properly accommodating people with disabilities at the Middletown Road subway station on the 6 line.
The station recently underwent a more than $27 million renovation, but the complaint says none of that money went towards an elevator.
As a result, individuals with mobility impairments, including those who use wheelchairs, are unable to access the station, the lawsuit said.
"The subway system is a vital part of New York City's transportation system, and when a subway station undergoes a complete renovation, MTA and NYCTA must comply with its obligations to make such stations accessible to the maximum extent feasible," Berman said.
The Federal Transit Administration has since concluded that it won't fund the renovation of this subway station due to the failure to fully comply with the ADA.
US sues New York City subway operator over disabled access
Business Insider
The U.S. government on Tuesday sued the agencies that run New York City's subway, claiming they failed to make a Bronx station accessible to disabled people despite an expensive renovation.
By intervening in a 2016 lawsuit brought by disability rights advocates against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), the U.S. Department of Justice added firepower to a case that could help spur broader changes to the aging subway.
The agencies were accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by spending more than $27 million in 2013 and 2014 to renovate the Middletown Road station on the No. 6 line in the Pelham Bay neighborhood, without installing an elevator so disabled people could use it.
How to Address Website Accessibility Issues Now
Law.com
After years of inaction by the Department of Justice, courts have begun to address the issue of website accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act. As one court recently noted: “Web accessibility is about ensuring that all people are able to use the web regardless of any physical or mental disabilities.” It would behoove all businesses that have customer-facing websites to take steps to ensure they are equally accessible to everyone on the internet. In Gil v. Winn Dixie, a federal court in Florida found that supermarket giant Winn Dixie violated the ADA because its website was inaccessible to a sight-impaired plaintiff. The court ordered Winn Dixie to make corrections and to pay plaintiff’s attorney fees for taking the matter to trial. Below, I discuss how companies might avoid Winn Dixie’s fate.
Accessibility Standards
First, website owners should check whether their website and other customer-facing applications meet accessible standards. A simple web search can provide a myriad of online tools for checking accessibility. According to Tony Pizzi, president of TechSpring, an international software development and technology consulting firm that advises law firms and other businesses on technology compliance and security issues, “online web accessibility evaluation tools can be helpful in identifying accessibility issues. These tools provide automated checks and can be utilized throughout all phases of design and development. However, manual review and human judgement are still required, as very often evaluation tools produce false positives and misleading results.”
Determining what standard to adopt is a question that stymied Winn Dixie. With the Department of Justice recently abandoning a proposed ruling, there is no federal organization or rule that mandates requirements for accessibility. A good place to start for guidance is with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a group of member organizations whose mission is to develop standards for the World Wide Web. W3C has developed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as part of a series of web accessibility guidelines published by their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The current version, WCAG 2.0, was published in December 2008 and became an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard in October 2012 (ISO/IEC 40500:2012).
Telecommuting becomes a more reasonable ADA accommodation every year
HR Dive
HR Dive's senior editor, Kate Tornone, discusses the shifting relationship between remote work and the ADA in this installment of "Other Duties as Assigned."
United States: Employees Are ALSO Required To Engage In The Interactive Process Under The ADA
Mondaq News Alerts
The "interactive process" required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as amended by the ADA Amendments Act, is a two-way street between an employee and his or her employer. Consistent with this mutual obligation, a federal court in Ohio recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former employee who refused to consider alternative pain management for his degenerative disc disease and arthritis in his neck and back.
In Sloan v. Repacorp, Inc., No. 3:16-cv-00161 (S.D. Ohio Feb. 27, 2018), the plaintiff worked as a production manager for Repacorp, which manufactures and prints labels using heavy machinery. While Sloan's job required him to spend only a small portion of his time working on heavy machinery, he always worked around this equipment and his working environment was extremely dangerous. As a safety precaution, Repacorp maintained a policy requiring employees to notify management if they were taking nonprescription or prescription medication.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the ADA
The National Law Review
Descriptions of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) appear in literature going back to Homer (The Iliad, 9th Century B.C.), Shakespeare (Henry IV, 1597) and Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities, 1859). Each wrote of traumatic experiences to the characters and the symptoms that followed those events.
Over the years PTSD has been described as shell shock, War neuroses (WW I), battle fatigue, Combat Stress Reaction or CSR (WW II). In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) produced the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-I) which included “gross stress reaction.” The diagnosis was proposed for individuals who were psychologically normal in general terms, but had symptoms from traumatic events such as disaster or combat. The diagnosis assumed that the reactions to the trauma would resolve relatively quickly, 6 months, and if present after that time, another diagnosis was to be made. In 1968, despite growing evidence that that exposure to trauma was associated with a constellation of psychiatric problems, the diagnosis was eliminated in the DSM-II. It included a section on “adjustment reaction to adult life” which was limited to three examples of trauma, unwanted pregnancy with suicidal thoughts, fears linked to military combat, and a particular syndrome associated with prisoners who faced a death sentence. This diagnosis was clearly insufficient.
Wolters Kluwer Introduces ADA-Compliant Digital Issues for its Resources for Educators Publications
Markets Insider
Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. today announced that Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) -compliant electronic versions of its parent involvement publications are now available as part of its Resources for Educators offerings.
For Aspiring Doctors With Disabilities, Many Medical Schools Come Up Short
Jefferson Public Radio
Being a medical student or resident is hard enough, but what if you have a disability that adds to the challenge?
One medical resident with a physical disability was about a year and a half into training when the medical institution finally installed an automatic door he needed. Another student faced frustrations when arranging accommodations for taking tests, with it seeming like the medical school was "making up rules along the way." When another resident with a disability first sought support, the disability representative was allegedly unfamiliar with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Airports getting friendlier for blind travelers
USA TODAY
A growing number of U.S. airports are embracing an augmented reality service that uses Google Glass-style technology or a just-released smartphone app to offer greater mobility and independence to blind passengers and those with low vision.
And, for now, the airports offering the service are doing so for free.