ADA & Accommodations

What Employers are Covered?

The employment provisions of the ADA apply to businesses that have 15 or more employees on the payroll. This includes full and part-time employees. If you have several sites that are all owned, operated, and managed by your business, then you must count all the employees at these sites. But, if you have different sites that are not owned, operated, or managed by the same business, then you have to count all the employees only if your business is an "integrated enterprise."

Who is protected by the ADA?

The ADA protects a person with a disability who is qualified for the job.

The ADA does not provide a list of disabilities. The ADA has a legal test to decide if a person has a condition that is severe enough to be an ADA disability.

The ADA defines a current disability as:

• a medical condition or disorder (called an impairment)
• that substantially limits a person
• in doing basic activities (called major life activities).

The ADA also protects a person who has a record of a disability or is regarded as having a disability.

Examples of impairments include hearing loss, limited eyesight, loss of a limb, or an illness from a pathogen transmissible through food, as listed in the FDA Food Code.

In order for an impairment to be serious enough to be an ADA disability, the impairment must substantially limit a major life activity.

Examples of major life activities include walking, seeing, hearing, breathing, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, sitting, standing, lifting, learning, and thinking.

MRA Resources:

• Disability Accommodation Policy
• What Supervisors Need to Know About Accommodating Disabilities

Websites:

• ADA Fact Sheet
• The ADA – Your Responsibilities as an Employer
• ADA Primer for Small Businesses

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the "ADA") requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities who are employees or applicants for employment, unless to do so would cause undue hardship. "In general, 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." There are three categories of "reasonable accommodations":

"(i) modifications or adjustments to a job application process that enable a qualified applicant with a disability to be considered for the position such qualified applicant desires; or

(ii) modifications or adjustments to the work environment, or to the manner or circumstances under which the position held or desired is customarily performed, that enable a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of that position; or

(iii) modifications or adjustments that enable a covered entity's employee with a disability to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment as are enjoyed by its other similarly situated employees without disabilities."

MRA Resources:

• Reasonable Accommodation Employee Request
• Handling an Employee Request for Reasonable Accommodation
• Accommodation Medical Inquiry Form
• Accommodation Approval or Denial Notice
• Accommodation Monitoring Form

Websites:

• Enforcement Guidance: Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (EEOC)
• Disability Resource Guide (DOL)
• Employer’s Practical Guide to Reasonable Accommodations (JAN)
• JAN (Job Accommodation Network) Homepage
• EEOC Employer Provided Leave Overview
• Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN)

When employees are injured or disabled or become ill on the job, they may be entitled to medical and/or disability-related leave under two federal laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). In addition, state Workers' Compensation laws have leave provisions that may apply. Depending on the situation, one or more of these laws can apply to the same employee. In addition, the anti-discrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civils Rights Act of 1964 as amended by Pregnancy Discrimination Act may apply as well.

MRA Resource:

• Coordination of ADA and FMLA

Website:

• Employment Laws: Medical and Disability-Related Leave

• Illinois
• Iowa
• Minnesota
• Wisconsin