What is a disability in the employment context under the ADA?
The ADA is a civil rights law intended to provide equal access to education, employment, transportation, and telecommunications to individuals with disabilities. In the employment context under the ADA, a disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activites. To be a qualified employee under the ADA, you must be an individual who, with or without a reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position.
What is an accommodation?
A reasonable accommodation is any change or adjustment in the workplace or the way job duties are customarily performed that provides an equal employment opportunity to an indiviudal with a disability.
A modification or adjustment to a job is reasonable if it is effective in meeting the needs of the individual and does not pose an undue hardship on the employer, fundamentally change the essential functions of the job, or lower performance standards. The employer does not have to provide the accommodation the employee wants, as long as it provides an effective reasonable accommodation that meets the needs of the employee.
For example, a reasonable accommodation may include:
• Buying or modifying equipment or devices
• Modifying work schedules
• Changing the physical layout of an office
• Training materials
The accommodation process requires a case-by-case, fact-intensive analysis into the employee's lived experience with their disability and a review of the essential functions of the employee's job.
Requesting accommodations
The application to request accommodations has two steps:
1) Submit the online request form; and
2) Return this ADA questionnaire form to us after completed by your medical provider.
You can upload your medical documents at the bottom of your request form or submit them later by logging into your employee portal.
The Interactive Process
Once you submit an accommodation request online, you will receive a confirmation email, and our office will review your request, including asking for additional information if necessary.
After reviewing the request, the office will conduct a 1:1 intake with the employee to learn more about the employee's disability, the work environment, the essential job functions, and the employee's requested job accommodations.
Next, the office will meet with the employee's supervisor to discuss the employee's requested job accommodations to determine whether the requests will impose an undue hardship. The office will not discuss the employee's disability with the supervisor but will explain the barriers the employee faces in accessing their employment.
Then, the office will relay the proposed accommodations to the employee and determine whether they will be effective in providing access to the employee. This is called the interactive process, and collaboration from the employee and the supervisor is essential.
Once the accommodation is implemented, the office will periodically check-in with the employee and the supervisor to ensure the accommodation is continually effective in providing access to the employee and does not impose undue hardship on the department. Accommodations can change, given the flexible nature of disabilities (e.g., flare-ups, stressors, new medication or treatments) and the evolving nature of job duties and expectations. If at any point the employee feels the accommodations are ineffective, the employee should contact the office to discuss modifying the accommodations.
For additional questions or concerns, please email ADAaccess@tulane.edu or call (504) 247-1774.
Confidentiality
Medical and disability-related information is kept confidential and seperate from the employee's file, and is only accessible by the Office for Campus Accessibility.
There is no requirement for employees to inform coworkers about a disability or the need for an accommodation. While coworkers may be aware that an employee is receiving an accommodation because it may be obvious, coworkers are not entitled to know why.
Supervisors are encouraged to limit the information they acquire about an employee's disability, and often do not need to know the specifics of an employee's medical condition to determine whether a requested accommodation will impose undue hardship.
