SPEAKER: Hello, and welcome to this edition of Ask About the ADA. On this episode, we are going to look at employment-related issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Here, we try to answer your frequently asked questions about the law and tried to help you understand it better, so that you can apply it in your day to day work and in the community.
So let's look at our first question today. And it comes from the employer side of it. Does the Americans with Disabilities Act make it so that I have to hire a person with a disability who may not be qualified for the job? Well, the answer to this is no. The law clearly does not. Applicants who have disabilities must also meet all their requirements for a given position and meet what the job calls for.
So let's say you had someone who applied for a position at a hospital as a doctor. But that person had a disability, but let's say they never finished medical school, and they didn't get their license. The person could not say that well, you don't want to hire me because of my disability. That would obviously be absurd. But it would be an example that a person who is an applicant for a job must be able to meet the essential requirements of a job, and be able to do the essential job functions.
In other words, not only must they have the skills that are required and the background in education, but they also have to be able to do the essential parts of the job, the tasks that are involved. Keep in mind though, as we often discuss, that reasonable accommodations might come into play. So a person with a disability may need a tool, a change, an adaptation, in order to do the essential job functions. But that doesn't mean that they can't do it. It means that they may need to do it in a different way.
So for example, let's say you have someone applying to be a manager. And they have a visual disability, or they have a reading disability. So they can't use a computer screen in a traditional way. That person might require what's called a screen reader, in order to access the text that appears on a screen. That would be a reasonable accommodation.
You also could have a lab tech, let's say, who has diabetes. That person may require short, periodic breaks in order to either to take insulin or to check their levels. That person would be using a reasonable accommodation. They're able to do the essential parts of their job, but they need adaptation around their work because of their disability.
One more example of a reasonable accommodation-- let's say someone is a teacher. And traditionally teachers move about in class and are expected to be standing or talking and moving. Let's say a teacher has a condition that is neurological, where they can't stand for long periods. And so they require that they may need to sit from time to time. Allowing the teacher to do that on behalf of a school, would be another form of a potential reasonable accommodation.
Keeping these examples in mind, an employer does not have to hire someone because they have a disability. The ADA is about equal opportunity. And people must be qualified for a job whether or not they have a disability.
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Our second question for today builds on the first. And let's look at it. If I have multiple applicants for my open position and one person has a disability, am I required under the ADA, to offer the position to the person who has the disability first? Well, the answer is no. Again, the ADA does not create preferential treatment for someone with a disability. It's about non-discrimination and equal opportunity.
An employer is free to hire the best person based on who is the most qualified for a given job or position. The law ensures that employers do not base their decisions on a person's disability, but rather that the employer looks at each candidate individually, equally, and based on their talents, skills, and other requirements that they bring to a job, as well as what's needed in a given job or position.
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So these questions get to the heart of the ADA being about equal opportunity and equal access. Here, we're talking about employment, but certainly the law does the same, or requires the same in other areas of life in society. If you have questions about employment and the ADA, or other parts of our community, please feel free to reach out to us here in the Northeast ADA center. We are here to answer your questions. You can reach us by telephone at 1-800-949-4232. You can email us at NorthEastADA@cornell.edu. And you can visit us on the web at www.northeastada.org. And of course, you're welcome to follow us on social media-- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. We're on all the social platforms. So please, feel free to follow us and engage us there too.
Thank you again to those who helped prepare today's show. Thank you to Kris Sweed, our technical assistance and outreach specialist at the Northeast ADA, for writing today's material. Thank you to Grace Fairchild, our student worker, who is our producer and our editor. Thank you to Peter Quinn of the YTI media team for also editing today's episode. And thank you all for listening. Let's continue the conversation.
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