Workers With Disabilities

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Workers With Disabilities

• INSY 3021
• Auburn University
• Spring 2006

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The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)

• Makes it unlawful to discriminate in employment
  against a qualified individual with a disability
• Designed to prevent discrimination against
  individuals with disabilities in
• State and local government services
• Public accommodations
• Transportation
• Telecommunications
• Private businesses that have 15 or more employees

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What Employment Practices are Covered Under ADA

• ADA makes it unlawful to discriminate in
  employment practices such as
• Recruitment
• Promotion
• Pay
• Training
• Hiring
• Leave
• Firing
• Layoffs
• Job Assignments
• Benefits and
• All other employment related activities

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Who is Protected Under ADA?

• A person with a physical or mental impairment
  that substantially limits a major life activity
• Substantial impairment affecting
• Hearing Seeing
• Speaking Breathing
• Walking Performing Manual Tasks
• Learning Working
• Caring for Oneself

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Who is Protected Under ADA?

• Disabled individual must be qualified to perform
  essential functions of the job with or without
  reasonable accommodation
• Must satisfy job requirements for
• Education
• Employment Experience
• Skills
• Licenses
• Other job-related qualification standards

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Essential Functions

• Basic job duties that an employee must be able to
  perform with or without reasonable accommodation.
  
• Factors that can determine if a function is
  essential
• Whether the reason the positions exists is to
  perform that function
• The number of other employees available to
  perform the function or among whom the
  performance of the function can be distributed
• The degree of expertise or skill required to
  perform the function

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Reasonable Accommodation

• Any change or adjustment to a work environment
  that permits a qualified applicant or employee
  with a disability to
• (1) participate in the job application process
• (2) perform essential functions of the job
• (3) enjoy the benefits and privileges of
  employment

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Reasonable Accommodation

• Examples
• Acquiring or modifying equipment or devices
• Job restructuring
• Part-time or modified work schedules
• Reassignment to a vacant position
• Adjusting/modifying exams, training, materials or
  policies
• Providing readers / interpreters
• Making the workplace readily accessible and
  usable

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Unreasonable Accommodation

• Accommodation that would impose undue hardship on
  the employer.
• Determined by the following
• Overall size of the employers operation with
  respect to the number of employees
• Number and type of facilities
• Size of the companies budget
• Type of operation (composition / structure of
  workforce)
• Nature and cost of needed accommodation

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Role of Safety and Health Professional

• Develop functional job descriptions
• Liaisons with EEO manager, HR department, and
  Medical Department for employee placement
• Conduct JSA based on limitations of disabled
  employee
• Make recommendation for safety modifications to
• Machine tools
• Processes / procedures
• Existing facilities
• Workplace environment

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Protecting Workers with Disabilities

• Emergency Medical Services and First
  Aid-Specialized training or on-site medical
  support may also be beneficial and should be
  based on workers' medical needs
• Ergonomics - ergonomic principles should be
  applied to fit jobs to disabled workers workers
  with cognitive impairments should be particularly
  vigilant. Such workers may not associate the
  onset of an injury with their job and may have
  difficulty communicating that a problem exists.

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Protecting Workers with Disabilities

• Chemical and Physical Agents - Workers with
  developmental disabilities frequently have
  concomitant medical conditions. Some medical
  conditions and medications interact with
  occupational exposures and increase a person's
  susceptibility to adverse health effects.
• Hazard Communication Training training should
  be tailored to the needs and conditions of
  workers with mental impairments. Suggested ways
  to accommodate training needs included spending
  more time in training breaking the description
  of a job into small, clearly defined steps
  instructing in clear, basic language and
  developing pictures or diagrams showing job
  sequences to help teach tasks.

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Protecting Workers with Disabilities

• Warnings / Alarms - When a forklift without a
  warning device is in use, a signal person should
  help the driver warn nearby workers. Emergency
  alarms should be selected that will not cause
  workers to have seizures. In an emergency, staff
  members should be prepared to warn workers who
  are blind, deaf, or both blind and deaf for whom
  visual or audible warnings would be ineffective

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Protecting Workers with Disabilities

• Warning signs - Employers should ensure that
  warning signs are understood by employees with
  developmental disabilities. The following
  guidelines for selecting warning signs were
  developed from discussions with people who have
  had experience communicating with workers with
  moderate and severe mental retardation.
• Select signs with uncomplicated,
  easy-to-understand figure instead of words.
• Use signs conforming to community standards
  whenever possible (e.g. a stop sign may keep
  workers from entering an off-limits area)
• Do not combine words and pictures on the same
  sign. Putting these communication methods
  together may be confusing.
• Show desired behaviors
• Use attention-getting colors over black-on-white
  signs.

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Protecting Workers with Disabilities

• Workplace Violence
• Aggressive and violent behaviors may be
  manifested by people with some systemic disorders
  or with some neurological disorders (e.g., head
  trauma, degenerative dementias, and some forms of
  epilepsy, Tourette Syndrome).
• Toxic levels of some medications and chemicals
  are associated with mental confusion and
  fighting.
• Training should be provided in managing
  aggressive behavior with respect to the
  disability. Workers with disabilities should
  receive violence-prevention training in personal
  safety skills and assertiveness

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