Hello, and welcome to this edition of Ask about the ADA, the podcast where we answer your questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it applies to your everyday life and to the community at large. On this week's episode, we are going to look at two questions from vocational rehabilitation counselors about individuals with whom they are working to support their employment goals. With that said, let's jump right into the questions.
Here's our first question from the vocational rehabilitation counselor. I referred a customer for training, and I was informed by the training provider that they were not going to accept my customer because he had dyslexia. They said that they didn't have the dedicated staff available to assist him with all the reading materials necessary to be successful in completing the training and the exams. Have they violated the ADA?
The first thing to look at is the training agency, and indeed the training agency is responsible for providing effective communication for the customer. And this means that they may need to provide auxiliary aid and services to ensure that communication. Now, certainly one possible solution for effective communication could have been to provide what is known as a qualified reader, an individual who is able to read the material with appropriate background knowledge and understanding to make sure that the information is communicated correctly.
However, that being said, it isn't the only solution, and the training organization does have an obligation to investigate other possibilities. For example, from what we know so far in this question, the training organization could have looked at prerecording the materials for the individual as an alternative to providing a qualified reader. They may have provided an electronic accessible format for the materials combined with some assistive technology such as use of a free screen reader program such as Microsoft's Narrator on Windows or perhaps a downloaded screen reader like NonVisual Desktop access or NVDA.
Now, it's not certain whether or not these solutions would have been effective, but they are alternatives, and from what we understand, these were not even considered. And that's where the problem lies. The training organization is responsible for investigating solutions with the customer with a disability.
Now let's go to our second question. The vocational counselor is working with another customer, and this individual is applying for a job. The potential employer is refusing to hire the candidate with a disability, because they use a job coach. They believe that a job coach would be an insurance risk on the job, and therefore, they cannot hire the person. The question to us is does this go against the ADA?
Well, here you need to look at what a job coach is and what a reasonable accommodation is. First of all, a job coach, for those of you who may not be familiar, is someone who assists a person to learn the basics of a job and the processes that go along with performing a job. So certainly, we know that a job coach can be a potential type of reasonable accommodation.
That being said, it should not be and cannot be dismissed out of hand as a possible alternative form of accommodation, and neither can an employer or a hiring agency have a general no job coach policy. In essence, such a policy would be denying an entire class a reasonable accommodation without any individualized assessment of a situation. And when we think about reasonable accommodation, it's important to remember that every case of reasonable accommodation is unique, and each situation has to be addressed on an individual basis with the person with a disability, the job, and the employer.
In this instance, the potential employer may have violated the ADA in terms of the job coach, we know that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that's the federal agency that enforces Title I of the ADA which covers the employment provisions of the law, recognizes job coaches as potential forms of accommodation. We see this in their guidance materials, including the enforcement guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act and psychiatric disabilities. And we see this, too, in the enforcement activity of the EEOC.
For example, the 2019 settlement agreement that they reached with Party City where a New Hampshire branch of Party City refused to hire an individual with a disability because she required a job coach as a type of reasonable accommodation. So therefore, we know that a job candidate, if they're best for the position and they're qualified for the job, must be given an opportunity to have a reasonable accommodation if it's appropriate. And the employer has to engage in the reasonable accommodation process and perhaps offer the accommodation as long as it doesn't impose an undue hardship on the company.
So that's it for today's episode about accommodations and employment and the ADA. If you have questions about employment or other issues that might be related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, please feel free to reach out to us at the Northeast ADA Center. You can contact us at 1-800-949-4232. You can email us at northeastada@cornell.edu. And of course, feel free to visit our website northeastada.org and look for us on social media on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Thank you for listening, and thank you to Grace Fairchild the producer of our show and who does our major editing. Thank you as well to Peter Quinn of the Yang Tan Institute for doing the polishing and final editing for today's episode. And thank you to the Northeast ADA's technical assistance team for sharing these questions with us today. I'm glad you decided to listen, and let's continue the conversation together.
