Does the ADA Require Employers to Offer Reasonable Accommodation to Disabled Employees Who Don Request Them?
By: Margaret Coughlin LePage An employer may be held liable for failing to make a reasonable accommodation to a disabled employee, even when the employee never asks for and does not think he needs one. That is the holding of a recent opinion of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Brady v. Wal-Mart. The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) explicitly requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with “known” disabilities. Because an employee’s disability and any need for accommodation are often not known to the employer until the employee requests an accommodation, courts have held that generally it is the responsibility of the individual with a disability to inform the employer that an accommodation is needed. Brady holds that the general rule is inapplicable when employee’s disability is “obvious.” We therefore hold that an employer has a duty to accommodate an employee’s disability if the disability is obvious—which is to say, if the employer knew or r
Related Questions
- Does the ADA require employers to modify attendance policies as a reasonable accommodation, absent undue hardship?
- Who is responsible for requesting for an ADA reasonable accommodation for a permanently disabled employee?
- Do employers have to grant indefinite leave as a reasonable accommodation to employees with disabilities?
