Defining Disability: Employment
More than 1 billion people around the world live with disabling conditions. As a result, chronic health conditions and disabilities are becoming more common in the workplace.
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) helps protect you from discrimination in the workplace. It is illegal for private employers, state and local governments, and labor organizations to discriminate against people with disabilities. Furthermore, discrimination is forbidden in all aspects of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, promotions, job assignments, training, and any other condition of employment.
“Disability” in Employment
The federal definition of disability states that a person with a disability is someone who has physical or mental impairment, or history of such impairment, that substantially limits one or more major life activities, including hearing, seeing, speaking, walking, breathing, performing manual tasks, caring for oneself, learning, or working.
Additionally, you must be qualified and able to perform the essential duties of the job. This means you must:
- Meet the employer’s job requirements, like education, employment experience, skills or licenses; AND
- Perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Your right to employment is only protected as long as you can perform your job. You can request reasonable accommodation to help you perform your job.
Reasonable Accommodation
A reasonable accommodation is any change or adjustment to the work environment that enables a qualified individual with a disability to keep working. Employers ultimately decide what is a “reasonable” accommodation. Examples of reasonable accommodation include providing or modifying equipment, modified work schedules, adjusting workspace, readers and interpreters, and job restructuring.
If you need to talk to your employer about reasonable accommodation, a good place to start for information, ideas, and samples is the Job Accommodation Network. For more details about Huntington’s Disease and employment, please watch: What to Tell My Employer
Once you are unable to perform your job with accommodation, you lose your job protection. An employer has no responsibility to an employee that cannot perform their job.
At this point, it will be time to apply for disability through your employer, Social Security disability, or both.
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