Reasonable Accommodation Essay

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is one of the most significant laws in American History. Before the ADA was passed, employers were able to deny employment to a disabled worker, simply because he or she was disabled. With no other reason other than the person's physical disability, they were turned away or released from a job. The ADA gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. The act guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, State and local government services, and telecommunications. The ADA not only opened the door for

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) protects individuals with disabilities from discrimination based upon their disability (Bennett-Alexander, 2001). The protection extends to discrimination in a broad range of activities, including public services, public accommodations and employment. The ADA's ban against disability discrimination applies to both private and public employers in the United States.

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

Sears, Roebuck & Co. – “The Commission brought this landmark disability discrimination lawsuit alleging that Sears maintained an inflexible workers’ compensation leave exhaustion policy and terminated employees instead of providing them with reasonable accommodations for their disabilities, in violation of the ADA. The case resulted in the largest monetary recovery in a settlement of a single ADA lawsuit in EEOC history” (EEOC, 2009, para. 2). So, employers were not interactively providing reasonable accommodations, which violated the ADA as stated. Actually, employers do not have to provide reasonable accommodation unless the employee asks, according to the EEOC in

The American with Disabilities Act of 1990 is meant for businesses that discriminate against qualified applicants from employment opportunity because of a disability (United States Department of Labor, 2013). Disabilities include walking, talking, hearing, seeing, and learning. The object of the law is to protect persons with disabilities by providing equal

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).

Unlike people who had experienced discrimination against the civil rights act of 1964, the ones who had experienced it on the basis of disability didn’t have any legal recourse to redress it. Therefore, with a very strong influence from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination on the foundation of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which set people with disabilities as a legitimate minority, the ADA became the "equal opportunity" law that has set an example for the rest of the world. This act finally defined what non-discrimination was in the context of disability. The 1990 ADA added the specifications of a new conduct that should be undertaken, for instance, architectural and communication barriers should be removed by providing reasonable accommodation to disabled workers, and finally, it also imposed accessibility requirements for public spaces.

ADA has provided guidelines that need to be followed by firms and corporations to avoid discrimination against disabled recruits and employees. It necessitates employers to treat their disabled employees fairly without prejudice. It extensively applies to private owners, labor societies, state and local administrations, employment organizations, and labor executive agencies. To defend an ADA complaint, an individual must have a disability or a history of disability and more importantly the individual must prove an incidence that involved the denial of equal treatment resulting from the disability. ADA uses accessibility guidelines to show a violation imposed on disabled persons in case of barriers that that prevent these

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.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) took effect in 1990 under the auspices of president George Herbert Walker Bush. This act serves as an extension of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in a sense, in that it ensures that those with disabilities could not be discriminated against in much the same way that people could not be discriminated against on the grounds of sex, race, religion, and other factors denoted in the former act. A key component of this act is the fact that disabilities included those related to both physical as well as mental impairment. Although certain conditions could certainly set a precedent for what constitutes as a disability, disabilities still must be proven on an individual basis. This act became amended during the presidency of George Walker Bush to give supplemental protection to workers who are disabled.

In 1986, the National Council on Disability recommended the enactment of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) (ADA National Network, n.d.).The first version of the bill was drafted and introduced in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate in 1988 (ADA National Network, n.d.). President H.W. Bush signed the finalized version of the bill on July 26, 1990. ADA protects over 50 million people living with at least one disability in the United States (Thompson 2015, p.2296). Amy Thompson (2015) emphasizes that the purpose of ADA is to ensure Americans living with a disability are afforded the same opportunities and be a full participant in public life like everyone else (p. 2296). This essay will briefly describe the substance and the government agency that implements and enforces the ADA. In addition, this essay will also identify an important judicial decision that has affected the administration of the law ADA.