The Americans With Disabilities Act was designed with the purpose of providing protection of civil rights to those who suffer from disabilities. The Act provides equal opportunity for disabled individuals in a few key areas, including "public accommodations, employment, transportation, State and local government services, and telecommunications."
According to the Act, a reasonable accommodation "is any change in the work environment or in the way a job is performed that enables a person with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities." Thus, the act requires an employer to make changes that would allow a disabled employee to enjoy the same employment opportunities and employee benefits and privileges as that of other, non-disabled employees.
"Reasonable accommodations" falls into three categories:
- Changes to an employer's application process;
- Changes to the way in which a job is ordinarily performed; and
- Changes that allow a disabled employee to have the same access to benefits and privileges as other employees.
Changes to the application process may include such things as providing access to a potential employee, or reading a job application to a blind person.
Making changes to the way in which a job is ordinarily performed can include such things as modifying the schedule of the employee, restructuring his job, obtaining or modifying equipment necessary for the disabled employee to perform the job, or moving him to a vacant position for which he is qualified to perform with his disability.
Changes to allow the employee access to benefits and privileges include such things as physical access to parts of the building the employee is allowed to use, such as a lounge or a gym.
An employee must request reasonable accommodations, as an employer is only legally required to accommodate "known" disabilities and is not required to provide accommodations on his own for a disabled worker unless and until a request has been made.
The law, however, only requires that employers provide these accommodations if it would not create an "undue hardship" to the employer. Undue hardships include steps that would require "significant difficulty or expense" on the part of the employer. This creates some wiggle room for employers who want to spare the expense of providing an employee with reasonable accommodations, possibly leaving some employees and potential employees without the same access to jobs or the ability to perform in certain positions that non-disabled individuals enjoy.
