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Your Employment Rights as an Individual with a Disability*
Faye Lam - Rockville, MD
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What is it?
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which took effect
July 26, 1992, prohibits private employers and state and local governments
with 25 or more employees (15 or more after July 26, 1994), employment
agencies, and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals
with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement,
compensation, fringe benefits, job training, and other terms, conditions,
and privileges of employment.
An individual with a disability is a person who:
- Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially
limits one or more major life activities;
- Has a record of such an impairment; or
- Is regarded as having such an impairment.
A qualified employee or applicant with a disability
is an individual who satisfies skill, experience, education, and other
job-related requirements of the position held or desired, and who, with
or without reasonable accommodations, can perform the essential functions
of that position.
Reasonable accommodations may include, but not
limited to:
- Making existing facilities used by employees readily
accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities;
- Job restructuring, modification of work schedules,
reassignment to a vacant position; or
- Acquiring or modifying equipment or devices, adjusting
or modifying examinations, training materials, or policies, and providing
qualified readers or interpreters.
An employer is required to make a reasonable accommodation
in order to provide an equal employment opportunity to a qualified applicant
or employee with a disability, unless this would impose an "undue hardship"
on the operation of the employer's business. Undue hardship is defined as
an action requiring significant difficulty or expense when considered in
light of factors such as a business' size, financial resources and the nature
and structure of its operation.
An employer is not required to lower quality or production standards to
make an accommodation. Nor is an employer generally obligated to provide
personal use items such as eyeglasses or hearing aids.
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