ADA Requirements and Myths vs. Facts

What the ADA Requires:

• Assisting with reasonable accommodations for job applicants or current employees who self-identify as having a disability
• Modifying or adjusting testing procedures for job applicants
• Maintaining nondiscriminatory hiring, firing, advancement, training and other policies for employees with disabilities and those with a relationship or association with a person with a disability
• Removing architectural barriers
• Providing readers or interpreters for employees or potential employees with communication limitations

What the ADA does not require:

• Lowering performance or conduct standards
• Creating a new job or waiving essential job functions
• Making reasonable accommodation if the employee has not asked for it and if the employer is unaware of the need
• Making unreasonable accommodations that will impose an undue hardship on the company
• Offering preferential treatment to a qualified applicant with a disability over other applicants

Myths vs. Facts

MYTH:  The ADA is rigid and requires businesses to spend lots of money to make their existing facilities accessible.

FACT:  The ADA is based on common sense.  It recognizes that altering existing structures is more costly than making new construction accessible.

MYTH: The ADA forces business and government to spend lots of money hiring unqualified people.

FACT: No unqualified job applicant or employee with a disability can claim employment discrimination under the ADA.  Employees must meet all the requirements of the job and perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. 

MYTH: The government is no help when it comes to paying for accessibility.

FACT: Not so.  Federal tax incentives are available to help meet the cost of ADA compliance.

MYTH: Accommodating workers with disabilities costs too much.

FACT: In most cases, an appropriate reasonable accommodation can be made without difficulty and at little or no cost.  A recent study found that 69% of reasonable accommodations cost nothing, 28% cost less than $1,000, and only 3% cost more than $1,000.