Reasonable Accommodations and the ADA: An Update on the Case Law


Wednesday, March 15, 2023
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Eastern Time Zone

Description

Providing reasonable accommodations so that employees with disabilities can perform the essential functions of the job is one of the cornerstones of the ADA. However, the process for obtaining and providing reasonable accommodations can often be confusing for employees and employers. This session will review the latest reasonable accommodation court decisions so that all stakeholders can better understand their rights and responsibilities..

Human generated captioning as well as sign language interpreter will be available for this session.

Continuing Education Recognition Available

Certificate Credit hours
ACTCP 1.5
Certificate of Attendance 1.5

Speakers:

Paul W. Mollica , Senior Attorney, Civil Rights Team , Equip For Equality

Barry Taylor, VP for Civil Rights and Systemic Litigation, Equip for Equality

Questions for presenters:

1 Can an employer, state of Calif. Ignore CDC covid guidelines if a person was treated for prostrate cancer, as heart condition and dibeties and deny him from teleworking?
2 Is the following statement by a governmental sub-agency acceptable, "XYZ makes every effort to respond at each step of the accommodation request within 45 days". What are the "steps" and how long does the 45 day response time protract the process?
3 I have a qualified ADA health disability and have been approved to work remotely since the pandemic started. I have a doctors note supporting my request to continue working remotely for the safety of my health. My employer is stating they will no longer allow ADA employees to work remotely. Can they deny my application? If so, on what grounds? If not, please advise.
4 Can an employee request any person entering their work area to wear a mask, even if not mandated in the building? If not, why?
5 Can you briefly discuss the interactive process? If you as an employee requested an R.A. for an employee wide training 10 days prior to the training and sent the request to the director and assistant director of HR, is there any recourse that HR failed to respond until AFTER the 1st training session finished, citing confusion because the email was also sent to her boss. And then she never addressed the request for accommodation at all.
6 There is a high promotion of the interactive process between employer/employee (Title I), can you provide guidance on how the interactive process is promoted for Title II & III when attempting to understand a customer’s request for an appt/meeting (customer may be vague, makes specific demands regarding effective communication accommodations). To determine appropriateness, can supporting documentation be requested when unclear?
7 Why is it so hard to file a claim when someone has laid you off from work through the covid-19 I never got unemployment , got evicted, and now I can't find any documents to support my evidence I've gotten locked out of my gmails and my phone got stolen so how am I supposed to file a claim from 2019 when I lost my job when quarantine and I got evicted from my apartment for some reason I didn't qualify for unemployment because the offices were closed I couldn't get any help at all and homeless for quite some time after that
8 May an employer after an employee performance evaluation, recommend the retirement of a Building Maintanance employee who is 71 years old and have health issues, can not perform its duties as required?
9 If a lead childcare provider is able to fulfill the duties of the job when in attendance, but frequently misses work due to disability (seizure disorder,) can the employer require a change in position (no loss of job or downgrade in pay) so that childcare staffing ratios are not potentially out of compliance due to last minute absences by the employee?
10 All employees are required to enter a main security manned door (with x ray machines, wands and walk through metal detector) An employee was offered an accommodation by being allowed to park closer to the main door which is even closer than the Handicap Spots. The employee wants to enter a non security manned door at the rear of the building as an ADA Accommodation presumably because it is closer to their office. Entering this door presents a security problem. Can safety be compromised for an accommodation?

Session Questions

This session is accepting questions from registered users. After you have registered to participate in this session you can submit your questions on your Account Manager page. Please note: the number of questions will be limited and submissions will be closed well before the session starts to provide time to prepare answers.