Duty to Accommodate

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates employers to make reasonable accommodations for disabled employees’ job acquisition and retention. By mandating businesses to offer reasonable adjustments, the ADA has had a positive impact on the employment of people with disabilities. As a result, the rules have raised the consciousness of U.S. companies while lowering discrimination against the disabled.

However, the language of the ADA is not explicit regarding the “accommodations” that business must make for disabled applicants and employees during the hiring and employment processes. There are diverse interpretations on what accommodations are appropriate or unreasonable, and many accommodation issues may end up before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or in court.

What is the definition of Reasonable Accommodation?
The Americans with Disabilities Act forbids companies from engaging in a variety of discriminatory practices based on an employee’s handicap. Employers shouldn’t:

Limit, separate, or classify occupations in a discriminatory manner
contract or agree with others to engage in discrimination.
Employ discriminatory administration norms, criteria, or procedures
Exclude or deny qualified individuals from employment or benefits based on their disability

In addition, an employer must “reasonably accommodate the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified individual with a handicap” The Americans with Disabilities Act provides an exception to the requirement that an employer make a reasonable accommodation if doing so would impose “undue hardship” on the firm’s operations.

The ADA aims to strike a balance between the accommodations an employee needs in order to fulfill the requirements of a particular job and the investments and adjustments a business must make in order to provide those accommodations.