Take
10 Minutes To...
Review your employment application
for questions that may force someone to disclose a
disability.
This summer Disability Network received a complaint
from a woman who was a applying for a nurses aide job in Southwest
Michigan. The employer was a large company with an on-line
application. This woman reported that the application asked:
Do you need an accommodation to do this job? Yes
or No
She had to choose "yes" or "no" in order to proceed
to the next question and complete the application. This
question is illegal because it inquires about disability status. By
honestly answering "yes", a potential employee has been forced to
disclose that they have a disability.
We contacted the Human Resources staff with this finding, who spoke
to a company attorney. The company quickly changed the question
to:
Can you perform the
essential functions of the position with or without an
accommodation?
This question asks if the applicant can do
the job, regardless of whether or not they would need an
accommodation. Although the difference between the questions may
seem subtle at first, one question probes for protected
(disability) information while the second question asks about
performance capabilities.
Fortunately for the business, the individual who alerted us was not
interested in filing a complaint. She was satisfied that the
company took immediate action to comply with the
law.
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Increase Your
Knowledge! Free Web-Based Training
Available!
Accommodating
People with Cognitive Disabilities in the Workplace, a
Self-Paced Class:
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Disability &
Diversity
Business to
Business
October is National Disability Employment Awareness
Month!
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Keeping
Up with the ADA
Reading up on
mediation and court decisions involving the Americans with
Disabilities Act is a great way to check up on your own policies,
practices, and assumptions!
Take
this "quiz." Read the questions below and
think about how you would answer. Then, follow the links to find
out what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and courts had
to say.
Does requiring a worker to be 100%
healed or have no restrictions when returning to work
violate the ADA?
You have just hired a person to clean
rooms at your hotel. Cleaning staff are required to use pagers.
Your new employee tells you she will need a vibrating
pager instead of the typical audible version because she has a
hearing loss. Do you retain her as an employee or let her go? Find
out at:
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