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November 29, 2005
How Have You Gained an Equal Footing for Advancement ?
This week we’re looking at "EEOC Explains Employment Rights of Persons Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired" from another perspective: accommodations which give you an equal footing with others for advancement.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) document is a broad statement of the "access and inclusion" rights people with visual impairments possess under the ADA when it comes to employment.
The EEOC issued the document to help "eliminate unfounded fears and stereotypes which lead to employment discrimination against so many people who are blind or visually impaired."
I think we can give employers an even clearer picture
of what we believe "inclusion" should look like in
today's workplaces.
Here are some of the key points the EEOC document makes about accommodating individuals with visual impairments under the ADA:
"An accommodation is any modification or adjustment to a job or work environment that will permit a qualified individual with a disability to apply for a job, to perform a job's essential functions (i.e., fundamental duties), or to enjoy equal ‘benefits and privileges’ of employment.
"Under the ADA, employers must provide reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of persons with disabilities.
"Generally, an individual with a disability must request a reasonable accommodation before an employer will have an obligation to provide one.
"Once an accommodation has been requested, an employer should engage in an interactive process to determine whether an individual has a disability that requires an accommodation and, if so, must make a reasonable effort to determine the appropriate accommodation…
"Reasonable accommodations related to the ‘benefits and privileges’ of employment include accommodations that are necessary to provide individuals with disabilities access to facilities or portions of facilities to which all employees are granted access (e.g., employee break rooms and cafeterias), access to information communicated in the workplace, and the opportunity to participate in employer-sponsored training and social events…
"An employer does not have to provide a reasonable accommodation if doing so would be an undue hardship. Undue hardship means that providing the reasonable accommodation would result in significant difficulty or expense.
"In determining whether the provision of a particular accommodation would result in undue hardship, an employer should consider not only the cost of the accommodation in relationship to its own resources but also other resources that may be available in the form of tax incentives or funding from third parties…
"An employer does not have to remove an essential job function (i.e., a fundamental job duty), lower production standards, excuse violations of conduct rules that are job-related and consistent with business necessity, or provide employees with personal use items, such as eyeglasses or other devices that are used both on and off the job…
"The employer may choose among different reasonable accommodations as long as the chosen accommodation is effective. Therefore, as part of the interactive process, the employer may offer more than one suggestion for a reasonable accommodation…
"An employer must accommodate a vision impairment that results from another disability even if the vision impairment is not itself substantially limiting…"
Based on this framework, please consider this question:
What kind of accommodations have you requested and received that helped you gain an equal footing with other employees in terms of taking advantage of training and other opportunities for advancement?
Add your comments to this posting
Posted by Jim at November 29, 2005 03:57 PM
Comments
I LOST MY VISION IN THE COURSE OF MY EMPLOYMENT.MY BOSS LET ME USE MAGNIFICATION PROGRAMS,SPECIFIC COLOR ART WORK, LARGE PRINT ON SIGNS. ETC. HE ACCEPTED MY IMPAIRMENT AS IT PROGRESSED.
I WAS LUCKY IN THAT RESPECT.HE WAS CONDITIONED TO WHAT I COULD PRODUCE EVEN IF I COULD NOT SEE.
HE RESPECTED ME FOR THAT.
THE KEY ISSUE I FEEL IS FINDING A NEW JOB. ONCE YOUR IN, FOR THE MOST PART,YOU CAN WORK OUT ANY ACCOMODATION ISSUES.
Posted by: PAUL B at November 30, 2005 10:14 PM