The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protect employees from discrimination based on disability. Both laws also require an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities who are employees or applicants for employment, unless to do so would cause undue hardship. Reasonable accommodations are to be determined by what is known as the "interactive process."
Not everyone with a medical condition is protected by the law. In order to be protected, a person must have a disability as defined by the law.
A person can show that he or she has a disability in one of three ways:
Generally, an accommodation is any change in the work environment that enables an individual with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities.
Examples of reasonable accommodation include but are not limited to:
When an employee has requested a reasonable accommodation for his or her disability, the employer must engage in an interactive process with the employee to determine what reasonable accommodations are available to assist the employee in being able to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. The interactive process is intended to be a brainstorming session between the employer and employee to identify the precise limitations resulting from the disability and potential reasonable accommodations that could overcome those limitations. An employer cannot simply deny an employee's request for a disability accommodation without them engaging in a dialogue to see if there is something which would allow the employee to continue to work. This would constitute a "failure to engage in the interactive process."
The information contained above is intended for purely informational purposes.
It does not in any way constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such.
Use of such material does not, in any way, constitute an attorney-client relationship; only an express signed agreement can create such a relationship.
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