ADA Accommodations for Employees

Reasonable accommodations are changes made to a job or the workplace to enable an employee or job applicant to successfully perform the position’s basic duties and/or protect his or her health. A reasonable accommodation does not change the essential functions of the job. Whether a particular accommodation request is reasonable depends upon the situation and the type of job. The accommodation cannot be extremely costly or disruptive to the operations of APS.

(i) A person who has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person’s major life activities;(ii) A person who has a record of such an impairment; or(iii) A person who is regarded as having such an impairment.Major Life activities include, but are not limited to, functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working.

Those job duties that are so fundamental to the position that one cannot do the job without performing the duties. A function can be essential if, among other things: the position exists specifically for the performance of that function; there are a limited number of other individuals who could perform the function; or the function is specialized and the individual is hired based on his or her ability to perform the function. The determination of the essential functions of a position must be done on a case-by-case basis so that the determination reflects not simply the components of a generic position description, but the job as it is actually performed.

Undue hardship means that a specific accommodation would require significant difficulty or expense. Undue hardship is always determined on a case-by-case basis, considering factors that include the nature and cost of the accommodation requested and the impact of the accommodation on the operations of APS.

Reassignment is a “last resort” form of reasonable accommodation that, absent undue hardship, is provided to employees who, because of a disability, can no longer perform the essential functions of their jobs, with or without reasonable accommodation. In addition, an employer is not required to create a new job or to “bump” another employee from a job in order to provide a reasonable accommodation; nor is an employer required to promote an individual with a disability to make such an accommodation. If reassignment is the accommodation, the employee will be given a “reasonable amount of time” in which to seek alternate employment with the District. Reassignments are made only to funded vacant positions and only to employees who are qualified for the new position.