Accommodating Employees With Disabilities At The Workplace

Individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination, including intentional exclusion from certain work areas, that denies them the opportunity to compete on an equal basis and to pursue those opportunities that guarantees success in the society. To guarantee success there is expectation regarding the relationship between the employer and employee, giving close attention to the various factors that should be considered to make the person with disability successful. This paper outlines the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the terms and conditions covering employees and employers as stated in Title 1. Title 1, as amended by the ADA amendment 2008, states that no covered entity will discriminate against a qualified individual based on disability (EEOC, 2015).

According to Gary Dessler, “employers with 15 or more workers are prohibited from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities with regard to applications, hiring, discharge, compensation, advancement, training, or other terms, conditions, or privileges of employment. It also says that employers must make ‘reasonable accommodations’ for physical or mental limitations unless doing so imposes an ‘undue hardship’ on the business.” It not only prohibits discrimination in employment but also outlaws most physical barriers in public accommodations, transportation, telecommunications, and government services.

As the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act approaches later this month, it is clear that many of the fears of the business community failed to materialize. In the first five years of the act, there was no wave of business failures tied to compliance; no wave of unqualified applicants whom businesses were forced to hire; no wave of workers suddenly claiming disability due to a bad back; and no wave of lawsuits that inundated businesses with the burden of undue legal costs. (ADA.gov, 1995). In fact, tax subsidies provided in the act helped many businesses afford to make necessary access accommodations as well as to provide other reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, and the positive ramifications have been considerable. Up to 45 percent of the disabled population now hold jobs and are contributing to the economy, (Brault, 2012).

The ADA was approved by the United States Congress in 1990 and is an extension of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law protects individuals from employment discrimination based on disability. “The purpose of this section is to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from job opportunities or adversely affected in any other aspect of employment unless they are not qualified or otherwise unable to perform the job” (Guido, 2014, p.277). Not only the disability can be physical such as a person in a wheelchair, people that might have visible symptoms as fatigue, kidney or heart diseases that limit a person's attitude. In this case the employer must evaluate to offer a reasonable accommodation in the preparation for the employee

Employers are beginning to recognize the importance of accommodating those suffering from a disability. Employers are increasing incentives for employees to remain on the job with health related problems. However, most employees suffering from health related issues have not received much on the job accommodation. This is unfavorable as the ADA mandates employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees. However, with stronger communication between employer and employee, the turn-over-rate will slow down. To shed light on the topic, more disability accommodation information is provided from The Department of Labor's Job Accommodation Network. The Network offers free, expert assistance to employers and individuals on workplace accommodation and disability employment

Every person in the organization with a disability has a different need. Organizations work around the clock in many occasions to comply with the accommodations of each individual in the organization. Educating staff in how to comply with the requirements of ADA can be quite challenging. Organizations are afraid to hire, retain or accommodate workers with disabilities because of lack of awareness of disability and accommodations issues, concern over costs, and legal liability (Kaye et al., 2011). It is therefore the responsibility of the organization to educate management about the law and train on disabilities and accommodations. The guidelines, regulations, and building codes should be implemented to make the facility more welcoming and inviting to workers with disabilities (Stryker, R. (2013).

The emerging trend covered in for this week’s readings involves workers with disabilities. The title of the case is Walgreens Leads the Way in Utilizing Workers with Disabilities (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2012). This case gives the reader the ability to understand the need for Equal Employment Opportunity Laws. Also, the case gives one an opportunity to see how these laws actually help these cases. Even more, it supports the idea of how it is very important to give those individuals with disabilities an opportunity to seek work and maintain and healthy life style. The law that this group affects is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) signed in 1990 (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2012). This law helps and benefits many individuals in America. It also helps organizations to bring positive attention to their corporations, if they choose to employ workers with disabilities. Above all, it is very important that human resource departments across the nation pay very close attention to these laws. Not only will it be against the law to break regulations set by such acts, but it will also be unfair not to give these individuals an opportunity to apply for a job. This project will summarize the case and will focus on two key learnings from it.

Diversity encompasses race, religion, gender, background, education, physical disabilities, and more. In life there are so many diversities that one faces. Unfortunately, the workplace is no exception especially for the employee with a physical disability. An employee with a physical disability in the workplace can be hard, but also for a co-worker and employer to accept .The employee with a physical disability may encounter discrimination, harassment, and

Since it was signed into law in 1990, Americans with Disability Act (ADA) has paved way to Americans with disability and now they can without discrimination, be able to access employment, education, services and facilities in their community. With a clear reference both the employer and employee understand their rights and obligations (Disability.gov, n.d). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) the body charged with enforcement of ADA in regard to employment negotiations and offering alternative options to litigation in the effort to offer solutions to raised issues. Claims that do not fit the disability definition are dismissed (DOL, 2015). There is need for education on both the employer and the employee

Many organizations offer diversity training, but they do not have practices or values in place that support an organizational culture of diversity. Although many companies have training programs on diversity, they ineffectively manage diversity which causes high employee turnover, demotivation and low organizational performance (Nguyen, 2014). Several examples of diversity are race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion, and disability. In order to narrow down my research topic, I am choosing disability as an example of diversity in the workplace. Due to misinformed peers and bad attitudes towards the disabled, employment rates are low among disabled people. There are only a few research studies that focus on disability in the workplace, and those studies are general and have not been well researched (Phillips, Deiches, Morrison, Chan & Bezyak, 2016).

In a study, when recruiters were asked to choose a suitability applicant for employment in a hypothetical administrative assistant position. They ended up giving less employability rating to applicants with a disability compared to the one without disability. This clearly shows stereotyping in few work places. (Bricout, John C., and Kia J. Bentley.).

    A person with a disability, or handicap, can be defined as someone with a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial or long-term adverse affect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (Employment 2). Handicap workers face many challenges in the work place that the average person overlooks. Also, many special arrangements and alterations have been made to the workplace for people with handicaps. Accessibility, transportation, workload, and salary are just some of the many issues that must be considered with the prospect of employing the handicap.

be protected by the A.D.A. this person must have a long standing record of this

Over the years, the workplace has experienced several instances of discrimination. In attempt to stop the discrimination, Title VII was passed. Although Title VII helped employers in terms of race, color, gender, religion and national origin, those who had disabilities continued to face the frustration of disability barriers in the workplace, given disability was not one of the listed protected classes. Employers abstained from hiring the disabled in fear of them not being able to perform at the same level as the other employees or the attitudes of such employees towards the disabled workers. Of course, there was some legal protection against discrimination: The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, but this law only applied to employees

Employees requiring special accommodations should submit a request in writing to the Human Resource Department. An employee who has questions or believes he/she has been discriminated against based on a qualified disability should contact the Human Resource