Seven Commonly Asked Questions About Employment and the ADA

Timothy L. Jones

Many employers have given serious thought to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and focused effort on it during the time between its enactment in 1990 and the effective dates of its employment provisions (July 26, 1992, for those with 25 or more employees, two years later for those with 15 or more). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and business associations have received numerous ADA questions, many of which have come up again and again, according to Timothy Jones, a senior associate with the management consulting firm Robert G. Kramer & Associates, Landover, MD. Mr. Jones addresses some of those most frequently asked by employers in the following article, adapted from The EMA Journal, Summer 1992, with permission from the Employment Management Association, Raleigh, NC.

The central principle of the ADA is the removal of barriers that would prevent people with disabilities from fully participating in employment and other aspects of everyday life. Organizations working toward full and effective ADA implementation are guided by one paramount objective: to remove barriers of all kinds - physical, procedural, and attitudinal. Several questions have arisen as employers pursue that end.

1. Does ADA require us to have job descriptions?

No, the ADA does not require job descriptions. However, a job description is one kind of evidence that an employer has identified the "essential functions" of a position and will not deny the job to a person with a disability who can do those functions with or without a reasonable accommodation. The primary value of the job description is to help managers focus on what the job actually requires of the employee and to avoid considering unrelated factors associated with a candidate's disability.

Having good job descriptions should not be seen as the ultimate response to the ADA, but rather as one piece of an effective total process. Simply keeping job descriptions current with changing demands and fluctuating activities could become overwhelming, draining valuable staff time and energy. A manageable, rational system of reviewing job descriptions when advertising for new hires and then during performance reviews could help to integrate this activity into the total human resource system.

More importantly, the key to success with the ADA is not job descriptions but an attitude about making reasonable accommodation. Good faith attempts to make reasonable accommodation involve discussion between the manager and the person with a disability about more than simply what the job description contains; the discussion addresses every aspect of the employment experience, from work duties to the company's social activities. When a current employee becomes disabled, the reasonable accommodation process may or may not include reviewing the job description, but it certainly covers much more than that. Accommodations ought to be made around tasks that the employee actually performs, rather than what the job description says.

2. What is an "essential function"?

Determining essential functions under the ADA involves looking at several factors:

• Are employees in this position actually required to perform this function? Employers may need to purge outdated job descriptions of tasks and responsibilities that no longer apply.
• Does the position exist to perform the function? This is fairly clear. For example, if the position is junior accountant, accounting functions are clearly essential.
• How many people are available to do the function? Smaller firms presumably have greater latitude in defining essential functions, whether or not the job description identifies the function, simply because they have fewer employees to cover tasks one employee cannot do. Even larger employers have limits in their flexibility to reassign tasks, particularly during times of peak workload or workforce reduction.
• How much expertise is required to do the function? High-skill and specialized tasks are more likely to be "essential" than low-skill, general tasks.
• How much time is spent performing this function? EEOC has not defined this precisely but uses the language "most of the time or a majority of the time" to explain what would be considered evidence that the task was essential to a given job.

The employer's judgement on what is essential is important to the decision but is not the sole or even primary factor, according to EEOC. But EEOC also says that this does not mean employers will be "second-guessed on production standards, setting the quality or quantity of work that must be performed by a person holding a job, or be required to set lower standards for a job." In other words, businesses are permitted to make informed judgements in keeping with the nondiscrimination requirements of the ADA.

3. Do our job descriptions have to reflect essential functions?

Many employers are redesigning job descriptions and looking at new formats that divide essential from nonessential functions. The ADA does not require employers to do that. The value of this approach relates to the overall purpose of the job description noted earlier: to focus on what the job actually requires. The President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities has compiled some sample job descriptions that may be helpful in applying the logic of ADA to a redesign.

4. What can we ask in a job interview?

The measure of a successful pre-employment interview in any context is whether the employer can make a clear determination of the candidate's abilities to perform the job. The ADA does not change that goal. In short, the interview should focus on the ability of the person, not the disability.

Most ADA-related problems in job interviews result not from intentional acts but from ignorance of the law or a lack of awareness about people with disabilities. Managers are advised to consider training anyone who routinely does interviews and briefing those who do so occasionally regarding basic etiquette for interviewing people with disabilities.

• Do not ask candidates how they became disabled or what effect their disabilities will have on their work. However, it is permissible to ask whether an individual anticipates any difficulties doing the job, and to allow the candidate to discuss any problems that relate to a disability.
• If the person mentions a disability, the interviewer may then discuss it in the context of reasonable accommodation. This discussion should be framed by statements of the organization's policy of nondiscrimination and its commitment to making reasonable accommodations.
• Use proper language when discussing disability. As with other groups, proper language communicates respect. Use "people with disabilities" and avoid terms like "handicapped" or "crippled." "Wheelchair user" is preferred over "wheelchair-bound."
• Do not stare at a manifestation of a person's disability or call undue attention to it. Normal courtesies should be offered graciously, and accommodations, such as removing a chair for a wheelchair user or escorting a blind person through an office, should be done discreetly, without fanfare.
• Use common sense. Do not speak louder to a blind person (they are blind, not deaf), and when a sign language interpreter is involved, speak in a normal voice and look at the candidate, not the interpreter.

Many organizations for people with disabilities have guidelines available for etiquette associated with persons having specific disabilities.

5. How will ADA affect workers' compensation?

In the application and selection processes, the interviewer may not ask a candidate about his or her workers' compensation history before making a conditional offer of employment. After a conditional offer has been made, the employer may ask about workers' compensation claims history only if all candidates are asked as part of a medical examination or inquiry. The only circumstance where this information can be used in a hiring decision is when the individual poses a "significant risk of substantial harm" to self or others on the job. In other words, a person cannot be denied a position simply because the employer thinks he or she may raise workers' compensation costs in the future.

Employers would do well to take some steps to keep workers' compensation and work-related injury claims in line while still complying with the ADA, including:

• Continuing to screen out applicants with a history of fraudulent workers' compensation claims. This is still permissible under the ADA.
• Developing a system for determining when an employee poses a direct threat to the health and safety of self or others. Be sure that the assessment of risk is based on objective medical evidence and not fears, suspicions, or myths, and that the process allows for reasonable accommodations attempting to reduce the threat to an acceptable level.
• Including all relevant departments inside and outside the organization in a coordinated effort to manage workers' compensation and work-related injury within ADA guidelines. Safety and health officials, state workers' compensation agencies, and others may help personnel management staff on such efforts.

6. How will the ADA affect health insurance?

The ADA guarantees equal benefits and privileges of employment, including health insurance, to people with disabilities. However, insurance carriers may still use actuarial data to determine cost of coverage and may continue to include pre-existing conditions clauses in their plans, as long as they are not engaging in "subterfuge" to evade the ADA. Benefits caps for specific conditions appear to be prohibited by ADA, but since the ADA does permit limitations on the number of treatments, this issue remains in the gray area.

As a side note, many organizations for people with disabilities consider health insurance to be the "unfinished business of the ADA" and are studying ways to improve access to health care. With the current national crisis in health care costs, this objective will be the focus of extensive debate and discussion. Some have begun trying to address issues of both access and cost through constructive alternatives to existing health care models.

7. How does the ADA affect the affirmative action requirements of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act for federal contractors?

It does not affect those requirements at all. Companies that have federal contracts must continue to gather information on disability as part of their affirmative action programs and may make pre-employment inquiries about disability under Section 503 regulatory guidelines. In this respect, Section 503 supersedes the ADA. The ADA does, however, expand some nondiscrimination requirements for federal contractors and so should not be ignored.

Disability-related discrimination complaints against federal contractors will be handled under an interagency agreement between the Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and the EEOC.

What to Expect in the ADA's First Year

Some attorneys and others have been spreading fear among employers by predicting an explosion of litigation under the ADA. While no one can predict the future, the evidence suggests that at least the first year of ADA implementation will not be characterized in that way. The ADA's public accommodations provisions have been in effect for several months now, and the record has been largely one of disability groups engaging in an "educate and negotiate" strategy. Yes, there have been lawsuits, and some could ultimately become very expensive and damaging to company public relations, but these have not generally been aimed at firms making good faith efforts at compliance. In short, the better the effort, the less there is to fear.

As a cautionary note, check references of organizations that offer to help with ADA implementation. The Council of Better Business Bureaus' Foundation and other groups have identified companies with no history in disability issues, and apparently little or no knowledge about the ADA, that are providing misleading or simply wrong information about what the law requires. Some clues to look for, according to one national association: if they misspell "accommodation" or "accessibility," or if there is evidence that they just replaced the word "asbestos" with "disability" on their marketing materials, avoid them. Also, if they charge outrageously high rates and justify them by comparing them with the cost of litigation or civil penalties, caveat emptor.

It is also worth noting that the federal government has been remarkably aggressive on ADA implementation. Technical assistance manuals and other materials have been developed by the agencies, including EEOC, and technical assistance centers have been set up nationwide to answer ADA-related questions. Organizations such as the Job Accommodation Network have increased staff and facilities to handle requests for information and assistance. Other resources are in the works to help employers learn more about the ADA and what is involved with implementation.

ADA resources referred to in the article:

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Office of Communications
1801 L Street, N.W., 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20507

800/669-EEOC [voice] or 800/800-3302 [TDD]

• Local EEOC offices are in Fresno, Oakland, San Jose, and San Diego, and district offices at 901 Market St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94103 [phone 415/744-6500] and 3660 Wilshire Blvd., 5th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010 [phone 213/251-7278].
• Contact EEOC for ADA manual and resource directory (single copies free to employers) - A Technical Assistance Manual on the Employment Provisions (Title I) of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Other booklets and fact sheets are also available.

Job Accommodation Network
P.O. Box 6123
809 Allen Hall
Morgantown, WV 26506-6123

800/526-7234 [accommodation information]
800/232-9675 [ADA information]
800/342-5526 [ADA information, computer modem]

President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities
1331 F Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20004

202/376-6200 [voice] or 202/376-6205 [TDD]

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