Americans with Disabilities Act

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• UI100 First-Year Seminar
• Information taken from jobweb.com

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is
  something you should all be aware of in the
  workplace.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• What is the ADA?

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• ADA is a federal law that was passed in 1990 by
  President Bush.
• ADA makes it illegal to discriminate against
  disabled individuals in employment, public
  accommodations, public services and
  telecommunications.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• The ADA prohibits employers from discriminating
  against qualified individuals with disabilities
  in
• job application procedures
• hiring
• promotions
• dismissals
• compensation
• job training

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• What is a disability?

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• A disability is a physical or mental impairment
  that substantially limits an individuals major
  life activities.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• ADA not only covers discernible disabilities such
  as impaired sight or hearing, or muscular or
  neurological disorders, but less obvious
  impairments such as cancer, emotional
  disturbances, or learning disabilities.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• The law also protects individuals who have the
  AIDS virus and it offers the same protection to
  recovered alcoholics and recovered drug addicts.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• The ADA does NOT cover occasional or chronic
  alcoholics or illegal drug users.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• ADA does NOT cover temporary conditions such as a
  broken leg or sprained wrist.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• The law states that an employer cannot
  discriminate against a qualified individual with
  a disability.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• A person is a qualified individual if he/she can
• perform the essential functions of the job with
  or without a reasonable accommodation AND
• Meet your employers objective requirements for
  the job, such as field of study, technical
  skills, and GPA.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• It is NOT the employers responsibility to make
  you qualified for the job nor is it the
  employers responsibility to change the job
  requirements to fit your individual
  qualifications.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• The ADA is not a guarantee of a job.
• It levels the playing field so that youre judged
  on your job-related abilities.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• The guiding principle behind the ADA is that the
  focus should be on the job seekers abilities,
  not his or her disabilities.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• An employer must make reasonable accommodations
  in the recruitment process or to the job itself
  for a qualified individual with a disability.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• Reasonable Accommodations
• Accommodations that do not impose undue hardship
  on the employer.
• An accommodation that causes the employer
  significant expense or difficulty is considered
  an undue hardship under the ADA.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• What is considered a significant expense for one
  company may not be for another.
• For example Providing 12,000 adaptive equipment
  for computer use might be reasonable for a large
  corporation but unreasonable for a small
  business.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• Employers can ask you about your ability to
  perform job-related functions, but they cant ask
  you if you need accommodation to do a particular
  job or what type of accommodation you might need
  to do the work.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• The whole issue of when you should discuss
  accommodations to the job is tricky, and
  ultimately the decision is yours to decide.