ADA

Help staff with hearing impairments succeed

08/16/2023

The ADA requires employers to reasonably accommodate disabled applicants and employees so they can perform the essential functions of their jobs. What’s reasonable depends on the size of the employer, its assets and resources, and whether the requested accommodation is unduly expensive or disruptive.

Proposed rules explain how to comply with PWFA

08/14/2023

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect June 27, requires employers with 15 or more employees to make reasonable accommodations when workers need them because of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, such as fertility treatments or postpartum depression.

Add COVID brain fog to the growing list of disabilities requiring reasonable accommodation

08/11/2023

According to a new study published in The Lancet, individuals who contracted COVID-19 and experienced continuing or recurring symptoms like brain fog often experience lasting cognitive damage. For employers and the supervisors who manage employees with long-COVID brain fog, it means offering reasonable accommodations when requested.

ADA: Consider hybrid work as possible reasonable accommodation

08/07/2023

Under the ADA, disabled workers may be entitled to modified work schedules if it will allow them to perform the essential functions of their jobs. However, most courts recognize that in-person work can be an essential job function. But then there’s hybrid work in which employees sometimes report to their employers’ premises and sometimes work from home. Can hybrid work be a reasonable accommodation for a disabled worker?

Is working a 16-hour shift an essential function? Maybe

08/04/2023

The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations so disabled employees can perform the essential functions of their jobs. Generally, employers get to determine which functions are essential and which are not. Courts tend to defer to an employer’s assessment of what’s essential and what is not when determining whether a reasonable accommodation is possible. However, it’s not a slam-dunk that they will.

EEOC releases guidance on accommodating employees with visual disabilities

07/31/2023

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 18.4% of all U.S. adults are blind or have “some” or “a lot” of difficulty seeing, even when wearing corrective lenses.

How to accommodate employees who suffer from migraines

06/21/2023

Headaches are one of the most commonly experienced medical conditions. In fact, more than 80% of adults will experience tension headaches from time to time. They’re easily treatable with over-the-counter medications. But about 12% of Americans suffer from a far more debilitating and hard-to-treat condition: migraine headaches. Here’s your guide to accommodating workers who suffer from migraines.

EEOC issues one last update to COVID-related anti-discrimination guidance

05/22/2023

In response to the official end of the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11, the EEOC has updated its guidance on COVID-related discrimination protections.

Follow this process for accommodating disabled employees’ service animals at work

05/17/2023

Many people with disabilities use service animals to navigate daily life. It should come as no surprise, then, that they often request permission to bring service animals to work as a reasonable accommodation. How far must an employer go to honor that request? Here’s your guide to accommodating service animals at work.

‘Other duties’ may be essential under ADA

05/15/2023

Can “other duties as assigned” be considered essential tasks when it comes to setting ADA accommodations? That’s an important question, because the ADA only protects employees capable of performing the essential functions of their jobs.

ADA