Workplace Disability Discrimination: Bad for Workers, Illegal for Employers

Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26% of the adult U.S. population lives with some kind of disability. This amounts to 61 million adults. If you are one of them, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and its two subsequent amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment of 2008 and the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2010, protect your right to be free from discrimination when getting and keeping a job you are qualified to perform.

By definition, you have a disability if you have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of your major life activities or major bodily functions. “Life activities” are defined as walking, seeing, bending, and communicating. “Major bodily functions” are defined as your immune, digestive, respiratory, endocrine, circulatory, and reproductive systems, as well as your bowel, bladder, cell growth, and brain functions.

Not only do the above listed federal laws also protect you from harassment while on the job. In addition, these protections apply to you if you are a caregiver for someone who is disabled.

Hiring Practices

When you apply for a job, the interviewer can’t ask if you have a disability or inquire about its nature or severity, including whether you use mobility aids like a wheelchair or cane. They can, however, ask if you’re able to perform the job’s essential duties, with or without accommodations. They may also ask how you would carry out those duties, again with or without any needed accommodations.

Once they offer you the job, but not before, they can require you to undergo and pass a medical examination as a condition of your employment. However, the company must also require the passing of such an examination for all other new hires for the same type of position. The exam must be job-related and necessary for the employer’s business needs.

Whatever information comes to light as a result of this medical exam must be kept confidential by the employer. Nor can your interviewer or anyone else in the human resources department withdraw the job offer based on your disability. That is, unless it precludes you from performing the job’s essential functions, with or without accommodation.

Workplace Disability Discrimination Examples

Unfortunately, workplace discrimination occurs in five distinct ways: direct, indirect, harassment, failure to make reasonable accommodations, and victimization.

Direct Disability Discrimination

An example would be your employer denying you a promotion based on nothing other than your disability or the fact that you care for a disabled person. Your employer may fear you might take too much time off work to care for him, her or yourself.

Another example would be denying you a promotion because they fear your cancer in remission might reassert itself.

Indirect Disability Discrimination

An example of this would be your employer positioning work areas in such a way that clients and other visitors can see only able-bodied employees.

Workplace Harassment

Workplace harassment can take many forms, but if your employer allows your co-workers to comment on or joke about your disability, even though they do not do so to your face, this counts as workplace disability harassment. Another example is if anyone at work bullies you about your need for accommodations, your work performance, etc.

Reasonable Accommodations

Under the ADA and its amendments, companies with 15 or more employees must provide reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities. It’s up to you, though, to request any specific accommodation you need that isn’t already in place. Common examples of reasonable accommodations include:

• Access ramps to at least one, preferably more, doors to the building
• Elevators to upper floors in addition to stairs or escalators
• Wheelchair-accessible restrooms
• A designated disabled parking spot in the company parking facility or lot wide enough to allow for wheelchair access to and from the vehicle
• Large-print or Braille training manuals and computer programs, such as screen readers that make it easier for you to use a computer if you are visually impaired
• Sign language interpreters or closed captioning at meetings and events
• Permission to bring your service animal to work with you, regardless of your employer’s no-pets policy

Victimization

Victimization, like harassment, can take many forms and typically involves your employer penalizing you for speaking up. Common examples include retaliation for filing a workers’ compensation claim or reporting harassment, often through written or verbal warnings, poor performance reviews, or even termination. These actions qualify as adverse employment actions, which are prohibited under the law.

What to Do If You Find Yourself Facing Workplace Disability Discrimination

Your first action after experiencing workplace disability discrimination should be to document it. This includes writing down the following:

• What happened
• The date it happened
• Who discriminated against you
• The names of any coworkers who saw the discriminatory act
• What, if anything, you did about it
• How it impact your work
• How it made you feel

Take your complaint and your notes to the proper person, be that your supervisor, someone in human resources, or someone in the company’s management tier. Be sure to have a copy of your notes in case the person asks for the original.

Contact a Workplace Discrimination Lawyer

If the same thing happens again, or another type of discrimination occurs, and your employer fails to stop it, your next step is to talk with an experienced workplace discrimination attorney. They can evaluate your situation and determine whether or not you have a valid cause of action against your employer for discrimination against your disability.

If so, they will help you file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. You must do this before filing an actual lawsuit against your employer. Once the EEOC concludes its investigation of your claim, it will give you a Notice of Right to Sue in federal or state court. You then have 90 days in which to file your suit.

Work With an Experienced Local Lawyer

Submit a request online today or call us at (866) 345-6784 to get in touch with an experienced workplace disability discrimination lawyer in your area.

About the Author

Aaron is a professional legal writer with a B.S. in English Education from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. He has written, published, and edited thousands of legal articles for RequestLegalHelp, which has connected over 5 million people to legal help in the United States.

With over five years of experience writing thousands of legal articles for law firms across the U.S. and Canada, Aaron specializes in covering federal, state, and city-level legal issues ranging from auto accidents to wrongful terminations. Contact Aaron at [email protected] for article suggestions, collaborations, or inquiries.