The ADA: What is it, and how does it protect disabled workers?

On Behalf of | Aug 8, 2015 | Workplace Discrimination

In a blog post from earlier this summer, we related some of the singular considerations attached to workplace discrimination against workers with disabilities. We noted in our June 24 post entry that it can be “very easy for an employer to either actively discriminate against [disabled workers] by refusing to hire or promote them for specific jobs or deny them opportunities in more subtle ways.”

As noted in an online overview discussing workers with disabilities and their rights at the workplace, strong legal protections are accorded disabled individuals during the hiring process and after they take a job position.

Thus, and while a bad-faith or otherwise unscrupulous employer might seek to unfairly — and illegally — discriminate against a disabled worker, that worker can purposefully respond in a powerful way by enlisting the aid of a proven employment law attorney who can invoke those protections.

What precisely are they? The federal Americans with Disabilities Act enumerates disabled workers’ rights in the workplace, but what is the overriding standard that governs it?

As noted in the above-cited source, the ADA posits what is essentially a balancing act between an employee’s right to secure reasonable workplace accommodations to help him or her do the job and an employer’s reciprocal right to not undergo undue hardship in accommodating a disabled worker.

That balancing act can spell somewhat of a slippery slope when it comes to adjudging a disability-based workplace complaint, with it being noted that the standards applying to reasonable accommodation and undue hardship “have proven difficult for courts to identify and apply uniformly.”

That ambiguity and uncertainty in a given case can render it vital for a worker who believes that workplace discrimination is forestalling equal opportunity and advancement to enlist the assistance of an experienced employment law lawyer.

The ADA and relevant state laws addressing workplace discrimination provide potent protections against employers’ discriminatory behavior. A seasoned attorney can bring them to bear on behalf of any individual who is experiencing unfair treatment at the workplace.

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