$5$ Accessibility and Accommodation

Appraise the ethical obligations regarding accessibility and accommodations in the workplace

According to the ADA, what would be considered a reasonable accommodation in a retail work environment?

a$.)$

Removing a job function

b$.)$

Providing eyeglasses

c$.)$

Allowing remote work

d$.)$

Altering the physical workspace

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Accessibility and Accommodation

Sophia

Sophia

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WHAT'S COVERED

In this lesson, you will learn about the ethical obligations to people with disabilities. Specifically, this lesson will cover:

$1.$ Protections for People with Disabilities

$2.$ Standard Accommodation

$3.$ Hidden Disabilities

$4.$ Ethical Considerations

Terms to Know

$1.$ Protections for People with Disabilities

BEFORE YOU START

Remember the differences between equality and equity that were identified in the tutorial at the beginning of this challenge. This particularly applies to accommodations for people with disabilities.

In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act $($ADA$),$ passed in $1990,$ stipulates that a person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that reduces participation in $$a major life activity,$$ such as work. An employer may not discriminate in offering employment to an individual who is diagnosed as having such a disability, provided they can do the job. Furthermore, if employment is offered, the employer is obliged to make reasonable accommodations to enable them to carry out normal job tasks. Making reasonable accommodations may include altering the physical workplace so it is readily accessible, restructuring a job, providing or modifying equipment or devices, or offering part$-$time or modified work schedules. Other accommodations could include providing readers, interpreters, or other necessary forms of assistance, such as allowing an assistive animal. The ADA also prohibits discriminating against individuals with disabilities in providing access to government services, public accommodations, transportation, telecommunications, and other essential services.

Access and accommodation for employees with physical or mental disabilities are good for business because they expand the potential pool of good workers. It is also ethical to have compassion for those who want to work and be contributing members of society. This principle holds for customers as well as employees. Recognizing the need for protection in this area, the federal government has enacted several laws to provide it$.$ The Disability Rights Division of the U$.$S$.$ Department of Justice lists ten different federal laws protecting people with disabilities, including not only the ADA but also laws such as the Rehabilitation Act, the Air Carrier Access Act, and the Architectural Barriers Act.

LEARN MORE

The EEOC is the primary federal agency responsible for enforcing the ADA $($as well as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of $1964,$ mentioned earlier in the chapter$).$ It hears complaints, tries to settle cases through administrative action, and, if cases cannot be settled, works with the Department of Justice to file lawsuits against violators. You can find out more about the law and its enforcement at eeoc.gov.

A key part of complying with the law is understanding and applying the concept of reasonableness: $$An employer is required to provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified applicant or employee with a disability unless the employer can show that the accommodation would be an undue hardship$$that is$,$ that it would require significant difficulty or expense.$$

The law does not require an employee to refer to the ADA or to $$disability$$ or $$reasonable accommodation$$ when requesting some type of assistance. Managers need to be able to recognize the variety of ways in which a request for an accommodation is communicated. For example, an employee might not specifically say, $$I need a reasonable accommodation for my disability,$$ but rather, $$I$$m having a hard time getting to work on time because of the medical treatments I$$m undergoing.$$ This example demonstrates a challenge employers may face under the ADA in properly identifying requests for accommodation.

IN CONTEXT

Managers are usually sticklers about attendance, but Verizon learned an expensive lesson about its mandatory attendance policies in a $2011$ class action lawsuit by employees and the EEOC. The suit asserted that Verizon denied reasonable accommodations to several hundred employees, disciplining or firing them for missing too many days of work and refusing to make exceptions for those whose absences were caused by their disabilities. According to the EEOC, Verizon violated the ADA because its no$-$fault attendance policy was an inflexible and $$unreasonable$$ one$-$size$-$fits$-$all rule.

The EEOC required Verizon to pay $$20$ million to settle the suit, the largest single disability discrimination settlement in the agency$$