10 Things To Know About Disability Discrimination!

Disability discrimination is treating applicants or employees differently solely because of his or her disability, perceived disability, or association with an individual with a disability. If you have a disability or an impairment that limits a major life activity, you may be covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Many people with disabilities are confused about their rights and responsibilities as employees if they have a disability. Here are 10 things you should know about disability discrimination!

1. Covered Impairment—Your disability may be physical or it may be mental. It doesn’t have to be permanent to be considered a disability. In order to be covered, the disability must prohibit or significantly restrict your ability to perform a major life activity. Courts will weigh the nature and the severity, the expected duration and the temporary or permanent impact of the impairment.
2. Federal Laws—The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment of 2008 makes it illegal for private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies and unions from discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures.
3. Covered Employer—the Americans With Disabilities Act only binds an Employer if he or she has a business with 15 or more employees. This includes private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies, and labor organizations or unions. However, your state or city may have anti-discrimination laws that apply to employers with smaller businesses.
4. Apply For a Job—If you are applying for a job, an employer is not allowed to ask you if you are disabled or ask about the severity of your disability. Employers are only allowed to ask if you are able to perform the duties of the job with or without accommodation.
5. Physical or Medical Exam—An employer cannot require you to take a medical examination before you are offered a job. Following a job offer, employers can insist on passing a required medical examination, only if all entering employees of that job category have to take the same examination, and the exam is job-related.
6. Qualifications—If you have a disability, you must also be qualified to perform the essential functions or duties of a job in order to be protected from job discrimination. You must satisfy the employer’s requirements for the job and must be able to perform the essential functions of the job with or without accommodation.
7. Accommodation—Applicants and employees are entitled to reasonable accommodation. If you think you will need a reasonable accommodation in order to apply for a job, such as a language interpreter, you need to inform the employer that this accommodation will be needed.
8. Cost of Accommodation—Employees cannot be charged or paid a lower salary to cover the cost of their accommodation.
9. Examples of Discrimination—Includes making discriminatory decisions based on a person’s mental or physical disability within any phase of employment such as hiring, firing, training, job assignments, pay, promotions, layoff, benefits, leave, recruitment, etc.
10. Remedies—Employees who have experienced disability discrimination can recover remedies to include back pay, hiring, reasonable accommodation, promotion, front pay, compensatory damages or punitive damages.

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