This is a guest post by Toni Ahl, President at EEO Advantage. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of OutSolve or its employees. 

This is a guest post by Toni Ahl, President at EEO Advantage. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of OutSolve or its employees. 

This is a guest post by Toni Ahl, President at EEO Advantage. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of OutSolve or its employees. 

There was recently an article in the newspaper in Louisville about couples who decided to postpone having children due to the pandemic.

This is a guest post by Toni Ahl, President at EEO Advantage. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of OutSolve or its employees. 

This is a guest post by Toni Ahl, President at EEO Advantage. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of OutSolve or its employees. 

The Federal government is supposed to be a model employer. This means that Federal employees may be subject to regulations or afforded certain protections prior to members of the general public. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is an example of such protection.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I wanted to alert employers to this fact since domestic violence may have a direct impact on your workplaces. This is a good time to make employees aware of benefits the employer provides which may be of assistance to victims.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. You have probably seen invitations to attend webinars this month about disability employment awareness. I plan to attend several different events. I have found that each webinar approaches the subject matter differently and provides various insights into disability and employment.

As we know, the purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is to assist those with disabilities to be hired and remain in the workforce. It is the affirmative duty of employers to provide reasonable accommodations to the known disabilities of its employees and/or applicants for employment. This duty also applies to those employees who have a record of such a disability.

A disability is defined by the ADA as being a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. This includes the systems of the body that might be substantially limited as well as one or more organs of a bodily system. Many disabilities are unseen and employers are not expected to try to guess if an employee is disabled and needs an accommodation. It is a good idea when a supervisor sees an employee struggling with the essential functions of their job to ask if there is anything that can be done to assist them to perform their jobs.

Those employees with a record of a disability are entitled to reasonable accommodations too. Many times employees who have had physical or mental impairments that met the definition of a disability and who have recovered from such condition(s), may still need to be accommodated due their past disabilities. The accommodations could be to attend medical appointments or meetings of some type, eg. 12-step meetings.

Although employees who are regarded as being disabled or those who have associations with someone with a disability are covered by the ADA, they are not entitled to a reasonable accommodation. I do want to point out, however, that they may be entitled to benefits under the FMLA.

Working with employees who are entitled to reasonable accommodation to determine what that accommodation should be is to be done through an interactive process with the employer. Options should be discussed and the parties should reach a conclusion that will provide the employee with an effective accommodation. The accommodation does not have to be the accommodation the employee requested. Let’s remember that the purpose of the ADA was to end discrimination due to disabilities and to assist applicants and employees with finding reasonable accommodations so that they can be gainfully employed. Perhaps focusing on someone’s abilities rather than their disabilities would be the best way to alleviate disability discrimination.

In the National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we should celebrate the strides that have been made and strive to do even better in the future. The Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), is offering a free poster to help celebrate this month. The poster may be ordered or is available for download and printing at www.DOL.gov/agencies/ODEP. I encourage you to display the poster.

If you have any questions about the interactive process or the ADA, feel free to reach out to me at eeoadvantage@gmail.com or (502) 553-7648.

Should you embrace the bark, meow or oink?

Spring is finally here. It’s a time of renewal and new beginnings. The trees are budding and the flowers are blooming. Seeing all of the new life is exhilarating. In addition, people are getting vaccinated against Covid and we may be able to see one another again soon.