SAFETY SOLUTIONS: Safety on the Job and Complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act
Do you or someone you know have a disability? The
purpose this article is to bring your attention as an
employer to the requirements under the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA). I recently was asked to
work as a safety expert in a case where a potential employee
was not hired because she was deaf.
When I took on this case, I stated to the potential client
that I was in favor of hiring and/or placing people with disabilities
on the job and felt that with reasonable accommodation,
most people with disabilities could be placed
for employment. I also explained to my new client that
there are also times when this could not be achieved and
I would never place a worker or company at risk.
In researching and preparing my case report, I had the
opportunity to visit the United States Equal Employment
Commissions website (www.EEOC.GOV) and reviewed the
laws of the United States and especially researched the section
referring to the hiring and placing of employees under
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Fact: Some 43,000,000 Americans have one or more
physical or mental disabilities and this number is increasing
as the population as a whole is growing older. Historically,
society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals with
disabilities and despite some improvements, such forms of
discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue
to be a serious and pervasive social problem.
The Americans With Disabilities Act
In general, with regard to employment, the act provides
that employers may not discriminate in any aspect of
employment, including recruitment, hiring, discipline, wages,
benefits, etc., against any qualified individual with a disabil-ity
who can perform the essential functions of a position with
or without reasonable accommodation and without undue
hardship placed upon the employer. Some definitions:
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines
a person with a disability as someone who has a physical or
mental impairment that substantially limits one or more
major life activities, such as seeing, hearing, performing
tasks, learning, etc., or who has a record of or is regarded
as having such a disability but who is otherwise qualified
and can perform the essential functions of a position with
or without an accommodation.
Who is Considered an Employer?
In general, the term “employer” means a company with
15 or more employees.
Qualified Individual With A Disability
A qualified individual with a disability is a person who
meets legitimate skill, experience, education or other
requirements of a position and who can perform the essential
functions of the position with or without reasonable
accommodation. For example, an otherwise qualified candi-date
who is wheelchair-bound is seeking a computer input
position. The computer work, which is 90% of the day’s
work, would be considered the “essential function” for which
the candidate is qualified with perhaps an accommodation
of a higher desk to accommodate their wheelchair.
The Act requires that employers make reasonable accommodations
for current and potential employees. Some of
the most common accommodations include shifting work
schedules to allow for special transportation needs, raising
work stations on blocks to accommodate chairs or having
interview questions written out to accommodate a deaf
applicant. The government does not require that accommodations
be the most expensive solutions to the problem.
Raising a computer workstation on blocks to fit a wheel-chair
is considered an accommodation just as buying an
expensive hydraulic lifting workstation would be. Adding a
secure plywood ramp is as acceptable as digging up concrete
stairs and repouring them.
An important part of the Act for employers is the term
undue hardship. In general, the term “undue hardship”
means an action requiring significant difficulty or expense.
In the example above of the computer input worker, additional
occasional work, such as filing, could be reasonably
assigned to other workers without an undue hardship. If however,
the computer work was 40% of the job and filing in high
and low places inaccessible to a wheelchair-bound person
were the majority of the work, accommodating this person
might cause an undue hardship in reassigning workloads or
restructuring the filing system to accommodate the person.
Taken into consideration when reviewing the reasonableness
of an accommodation and/or undue hardship are the
nature and cost of the accommodation, the financial
resources of the company overall and the effectiveness of
What do the Americans with Disabilities Act and Safety
have in common? Everything: the Occupational Safety &
Health Act (OSHA) still gives the best guidance when deciding
if your place of employment is safe for all employees.
Remember the OSHA laws state this: “Each employer shall
furnish to each employee, employment, and a place of
employment that is free from recognized dangers that are
causing or likely to cause serious physical harm.” The OSHA
laws require you as an employer to conduct an analysis of
your work areas to discover any work environments that are
unsafe and then have a plan in place to make them safe.
For more detailed information and technical assistance
on the ADA, go to www.ada.gov or call 800-514-0301.
One last thing before I go, I would like each employer to
visit the following site www.passporttosafety.com. Canada
has started a program to have the youths of that country
understand safety before going out to the workforce. Take a
look and then let me know if you will help me establish the
program here in the United States and in other countries.
For more information, click on the author biography at the top of this page.