Thank you. And I would like to welcome everyone today, whether it is your morning or it is your afternoon, I welcome you to the second in our series on reasonable accommodation. Today we are going to be focusing on best practices in reasonable accommodation and we have the honor and opportunity to be joined today by some very qualified individuals who have been working in this arena. We have got some individuals who are going to be sharing some information from the Job Accommodation Network as well as an employer of a very large municipality in the California area, and I will do more introductions of them later. I just want to remind everyone that this program is brought to you by the Regional Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers, often known as Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Accessible Information Technology Centers, we are part of a network of ten centers, federally funded centers, located across the country that specifically address issues to Americans with Disabilities Act, for employers, for businesses, for people with disabilities, basically anyone who is impacted or has responsibilities to comply or who has rights under the law. If you have questions related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, we are specifically going to be addressing employment issues today, but the center''s address all aspects of the ADA, please contact our offices at 800-949-4232. That is both voice and TTY. As I said earlier, we welcome you to this particular program. Just as a reminder, the program is also real time captioned on the Internet live during the session. If you are not familiar with that technology or have not used it in the past and would like to link to it, if you go to our web site at www.adagreatlakes.org, adagreatlakes, all one word, on the front page you will see a link to the real time captioning and just follow the instructions and that will get you online. The session will then be edited and will be then posted to our web site in our archives along with a digital recording of this program, so individuals will be able to refer back to it in the future. As I said earlier, this was a second of a three-part series. Our session next month will focus on disability law as it applies to reasonable accommodation and what has been happening in that arena, and I will give you some more information on that at the close of the session. And hopefully everyone will be able to join us again for that. We are also offering as part of this session CRC credits, as well as credits from-that are offered or available through SHRM for individual who is are certified in the area of human resources. So I won''t spend any more time on the formalities today and get right to the program. We will have presentation by our speakers. We will then entertain questions. We do apologize because we recognize that often times there are more questions than we have time to answer. But hopefully we will be able to touch upon the main points of interests and concerns for you, the callers. So let me start by introducing our speaker today. As I said, we are privileged to have some representatives from the job accommodation network, first is Beth Loy, PHD, she is a clinical assistant professor at West Virginia University and a Human Factors Consultant with the Job Accommodation Network. As a consultant, she specializes in ergonomics and accommodating individuals with motor impairments and providing information on the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition, Beth is Job Accommodation Network (JAN)''s web master and so she is familiar with the resources and things on the web site and has been involved with that. Her PhD is in Resource Economics with a specialization in Social Policy and she has a Master''s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations and Safety and Environmental Management, which makes her well-qualified and provides some great expertise to this particular topic. Second speaker is Kendra Duckworth, also a Human Factors Consultant for the Job Accommodation Network. This program, Job Accommodation Network is a service of the Office of Disability Policy under the Department of Labor. And it was formally known as the President''s Committee of Employment for people with disabilities. JAN runs a consulting service providing information on the ADA, as well as information on how to accommodate individuals with disabilities. Kendra specializes in providing accommodation information for people with psychiatric, cognitive and neurological impairments, she is a graduate of West Virginia University, with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling. She started her career as a rehab counselor West Virginia Division of Rehab Services and has been working in this field since 1991 and has a lot of experience in regards to this issue, and also is instructing within the university on issues of job accommodation. Our third speaker, we are very fortunate, one of the challenges here and our desires is to bring employers'' real-life experience. Many of us who do this work, such as Kendra and Beth often times may or may not have direct working experience with some of these issues, and we have the opportunity today to be joined by Bart Bartlett who is from the County of Orange, he is the director of the EEO office there, that is in Santa Anna California, for those of you not familiar with our geography out there and use of the County of Orange terminology, Bart has been working with the Job Accommodation Network for a number of years around issues for his employer and he has a wealth of experience in addressing and meeting the needs of people with disabilities in accommodations and employment and brings to us today a perspective of a employer doing it everyday in a very large system. I do not think it makes a big difference in large part when you talk about what is accommodation, and what might be a reasonable accommodation and the process, whether you are a private or a public employer, but he does bring to the table today some unique perspectives. So at this point I''m going to turn it over to our speakers, and allow them some opportunity to provide some of their great information to all of you at the program today. So I will turn it over to you now, and, Beth, I will let you take the lead.
Thank you, Robin. First off, I would like to say good afternoon to everyone, it is afternoon here in beautiful Morgantown, West Virginia. First, I like to thank you Robin for inviting Kendra and me to participate in the teleconference. We are always happy to work with all of your regional centers. The Job Accommodation Network primarily known as JAN for short is now in its 21st year, can you believe that, Kendra.
I have been here almost that long.
Second, I would like to personally thank Bart for supporting Job Accommodation Network and sharing Orange County''s Best Practices. Bart, Kendra and I have worked together probably for about five years now, I would say. And I feel like we have really made some great accomplishments over that time. I have been a consultant at JAN for almost nine years and my partner in crime today, Kendra, has been with JAN well, since before I had a drivers license, I think. I tell you what we are getting old.
We are getting old. You are getting gray.
We are getting a little bit grayer but we are also a little bit more knowledgeable, I think.
I join you in the gray department.
Would you say, Kendra, most of our callers now discuss how to engage in a interactive process.
Think that is a key with most of the conversations we have with people, how to start that interactive process and what the process is. And we are going to talk about it today, and some other things.
We generally get calls from employers, people with disabilities, friends and family members, rehab counselors. So we get a wide range of questions. And we are going to try and share some of that expertise with you today. Kendra is going to give you a little bit of JAN''s background and then we will get started with the meat of our program.
All right. For those of you who may not be aware of the Job Accommodation Network, we are a free consulting service, a service brought to you by the U.S. Department of Labor''s Office of Disability and Employment Policy. We provide free information on how to accommodate somebody with a disability in a workplace. We provide information on the ADA and also information on small business and self-employment options. If you are following along on the slides, we are going down to slide 3, can you see that we are located on the scenic campus of West Virginia University. We are very proud of our university and our basketball team.
And Kendra and I are both West Virginia natives.
We are huge Mountainer fans and we are making Bart one too. One of the best reasons to call JAN is because, one, you will get great information and you will also get personal service there from the Job Accommodation Network. We do not have voice mail. When the phone rings, a real, live person will answer it and you will get real answers to your questions, hopefully immediately. We try to get that information to people as quickly as possible through access with our e-mail and through the Internet. Sometimes the information is almost instant. We try to be courteous. We are very knowledgeable. We are professionals. We have information on a variety of subjects. And we have individuals working here who have a variety of backgrounds. One of the most important things about the information you will receive from the Job Accommodation Network is that your information is kept confidential. So it is not going to be part of-
Any database or mailing list.
Right, right. We will not sell your name to the magazine companies. When you contact the Job Accommodation Network, you can ask your question to the receptionist and then she will route you to one of our four teams. We have a Sensory Team that deals with questions related to the senses, the ears and vision, other things.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Right.
Respiratory issues.
Diabetes. Also we have the cognitive team, of which I''m a member of, the Cognitive Team deals with issues related to the brain mostly, learning disabilities, brain injuries, psychiatric disabilities, attention deficit disorder. We also deal with issues related to theater activities and just other cognitive related things. Beth is a member of the Motor Team. And the motor team handles those questions related to the a.m., legs and movement of the body, everything from, you know, issues related to quadriplegia to carpal tunnel.
Um-hum. It could be cancer, multiple sclerosis. It could be a variety of - if you have a body part, we take the call.
We have an answer for you. We also provide information on individuals, services that are available to individuals with disabilities who may be interested in starting their own small business. Like we said, we have been doing this for 21 years now, we do have knowledgeable employees, consultants and a very large database of information. What kind of accommodation ideas do we talk about usually at JAN? Moving down to slide 6. We get questions on every issue imaginable. Some of the most common thing would be accommodations for work schedules, accommodating someone who may need to work from home part of the time or all of the time, questions related to job restructuring, what are essential functions of the job and how do you restructure those marginal functions. Because I do work with psychiatric disability primarily, I talk to a lot of people about their management styles and how to change the way you may manage an individual who has a disability. That can be an accommodation. We also get questions about personal needs, such as activities of daily living. Beth probably gets more of those questions than I do.
Personal assistance services.
That is right, personal assistant services. The Job Accommodation Network can also answer questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act. We are on slide 7 now. We provide information on how to determine if somebody has a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. We provide guidance on how to do medical inquiry, if you are an employer and you need medical information or if you are an employee and your employer wants medical information. How much information are you required to give? We provide information on reasonable accommodation and kind of help the employer and employee come to some agreement on what that may be. We provide information on undue hardship. And we can also guide you through the complaint process if an individual needs to file a complaint.
It is certainly not something that we like to see happen. But it is a realistic part of the process. Now moving on to slide 8, this is our formal accommodation process. And Kendra and I today have prepared an overview: Some of the most common legal and practical issues related to facilitating the interactive process. Step one would be an Accommodation Request. A lot of times we get questions related to how a person can write-up a sample accommodation request form. Maybe an employer, could be an employee. Then there is the Information Gathering Step. This could be information from the employee. And if you do this job long enough, you will, we will stand up and preach that the person with the disability is the most knowledgeable person about the accommodation process. Could be information from a medical provider. Third, it would be the Accommodation Option, trying to identify the accommodation option, what is available, it might be a piece of equipment, for someone with carpal tunnel syndrome, or might be work from home for someone who is undergoing chemo therapy. Then we move on to the Accommodation Selection and Implementation, not only what is effective but what is effective and practical. Then we have an often missed step, which is Accommodation Maintenance, what follow-up fits the particular situation. And this can certainly vary, can''t it, Kendra?
Right. Even if you are building a ramp, the ramp has to be maintained during the months and changes of season, the same with any accomodation. That accommodation has to be maintained and, you know, that interactive process is important at this point to find out if the accommodation, first of all, is effective and whether or not it is working. And still working after a period of time.
Now, when Kendra and I were putting together this presentation we were debating best practices and what makes something a best practice? Well, truly whatever is effective and efficient. And I try to think in the most effective and efficient part of my life. And it did not take me long to figure out that there is not much, that is effective and efficient. I finally realized that the way my cat controls me is probably the most efficient. When she wants something, she figures out why she should do something, when she should do it, who she should do it to, how she should go about doing it and what her process should entail, and she certainly manages to get what she wants, whether it is food, whether it is a new toy, whether it is getting brushed or whether it is even a trip outside. Why she is so much smarter than I am is because of the accommodation process that she uses, works. So with that in hand, we move on to slide 9. Why should employers respond to an accommodation request? Well, as many of the listeners today probably know, we have certain legal obligations. Employers with 15 or more employees are required to provide reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities. This is under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Also in many states like California where Bart is from have similar laws that apply to employers with less than 15 employees. For example, under the California amendments, an employer includes any person employing five or more persons. So this is a bit different than the ADA. So failure to respond to an accommodation request can be a violation of both federal and state laws. And we do get that question, don''t we, Kendra?
Yeah, we do that a lot. In addition, evidence that the employer made a good faith effort to comply with the ADA may reduce the amount of damages against the employer if the situation ends up in a legal judgment. Again, this is something, we don''t always like to see happen, but the reality is it does happen sometimes. So evidence that the employer engaged in an interactive process can protect the employer from having to pay certain punitive and compensatory damages. Now from a practical stand point, responding to a accommodation request can lead to a successful accommodation which can provide significant benefits to employers.
Now as Kendra and I mentioned, we are from rural West Virginia, really, I was raised on a farm with a family business. And honestly, you would think that this experience would not give me any information on how to engage in an interactive process. But, again, if there is one thing that my grandparents taught me, it is that everyone benefits from efficiency and productivity. That is what every employer is after. Now, when you get right on down to it, a successful accommodation can save an employer money by retaining qualified employees. How many people out there have spent time recruiting new employees after an experienced staff member leaves? It can save an employer money by saving the cost of training the employees. How long would you think the training period for our job would be, Kendra?
We just hired two new consultants and it will take at least a year before they are fully independent and feeling really good about doing the job.
And we are still learning.
That is right. We learn stuff every day.
Saving workers'' compensation or other costs, and I don''t even need to expand on that. Everyone knows that the cost of insurance is increasing. But the one way to save on workers'' compensation, as Kendra mentioned I''m on the Motor Team, so I take a lot of back injury calls, one way to save money is to get a person back to work and accommodations can do that. Increasing the productivity of employees. Now, you may say what do I mean? Well, accommodations at Job Accommodation Network sometimes include modifying the temperature. Now, we are one big happy family in just about every realm of existence except...
The thermostat.
The thermostat. Now we have a JAN baby coming. The JAN baby will be here the end of July, if not sooner. Now the temperature is an accommodation that the JAN baby needs, so in order for Beth and Kendra to be productive, it is okay if the temperature is a little cooler because we want the JAN baby to be happy, because if the JAN baby is not happy.
Nobody is happy.
Nobody is happy. And of course last but not least, enhancing workplace diversity. There is simply no downside to accommodating people with disabilities and bringing diversity into the workplace. Basically we want to create a corporate culture that reflects our society. Kendra and me in putting this together we felt that that is probably one of the most efficient ways to engage in an interactive process.
That is right.
Bart, anything that you want to comment on so far?
I think that you two have the points real well. I would like to share a couple of things that are important for everybody to know from our perspective out here in California. And that is that getting involved in the interactive process and making accommodation is just the right thing to do. And it gives our employees a sense of being appreciated and a sense of being respected and so in addition to what you have already mentioned, those are some things that we have incorporated here. It is a culture. We were doing the interactive process out here in Orange County even before the state law was amended to include mandatory interactive. And shortly after the ADA came into being. And so we just feel that it is just a good thing to do for the organization. And so those are the two things I want to share with you.
Great. Well, to follow up on that, we are going to move to slide ten. Now, when should employers respond to an accommodation request? Well, of course it should be as soon as possible after the request is received. Now according to the enforcing agency for the ADA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, any unnecessary delays in responding to an accommodation request can result in a violation of the ADA. And so obviously the best practical answer to that is as soon as you can. Now, in addition to ADA compliance, there are practical reasons to respond quickly to an accommodation request. In many cases employees may be requesting accommodations to improve their productivity. And to tie this into what we have already discussed, the key to running a business, whether it is non-profit, whether it is for-profit, whether it is a government agency, is to improve productivity. Or an employee may be requesting an accommodation to address a safety concern. So responding quickly to a accommodation request can allow the employee requesting the accommodation, to continue to work with little or no interruptions in productivity and certainly avoid unnecessary risks, and Kendra you probably get some requests related to productivity in your specialty area.
That is right. Usually it is after an individual has been made aware that there is a performance problem. And sometimes an employer is a little annoyed that this is the time the individual will choose to disclose they have a disability and ask for accommodations. But under the Americans with Disabilities Act, that individual can ask for the accommodations at any time during their employment and so that is common with the type of disabilities I deal with, is to wait until you have to do that. That doesn''t mean that you are sitting down with your boss and talking about and talking about your performance problems, Bart, when did you guys start your interactive process or how do you engage in that?
Well, we engage in the interactive in two circumstances. First, if an employee does come forth and request an accommodation, we in a very timely manner get involved in that interactive process with them. The other situation that would involve us getting involved in the interactive is if the supervisor or the manager observes that there are work issues that have come up, or there appears to be a need for some kind of assistance, then we will take the initiative and get involved and ask the employee if there is anything that the employer can do for that employee to help them better perform their job duties.
That is great. So you ask them about their performance, not really asking them about their disability or limitation?
Well, we link it to performance, because we want our employees to be productive. We want them to be happy. We want them to be motivated. And if there is something that is there that we can do to help them, we want to do that. And the guidance that we put out from this office, which by the way is the central ADA compliance office for the county, is that our managers and supervisors should become involved in the interactive process with any employee who either requests an accommodation or, if there is an observation that there may be something that can be done to make that employee more productive, for the benefit of the people out there who are listening, the County of Orange is the second largest county in California. We employ 17,000 individuals. We have 1,000 job classifications. And we have 22 agency departments providing a variety of services from law enforcement all the way down to healthcare and library systems, to a population of about 3 million people here in Orange County. So we have got quite an interesting diversity and quite a great challenge in the area of disability management. And of course we are needing it as responsibly as possible. And JAN always helps us out because you kind of help us to make sure that we are on the right track, particularly in those very difficult cases, as sometimes occur.
And I think certainly over the last few years accommodation cases have gotten more complex. Well, and I guess a lot of times now we will have situations where maybe somebody has been really active and has a industrial-type injury, but it is not only the industrial injury or maybe the back condition that is the only limitation, it may involve Kendra''s specialty area too, because there could be some depression involved. So sometimes an accommodation can be something simple and sometimes it can be a little bit more complex and so there can be a wide range. Now just to follow up a little bit on what Bart said, moving on to slide 11, as far as best practices, who should respond to a accommodation request? Well, initially the person receiving the accommodation should respond, even if the response is just to explain the company''s accommodation process and to refer that person to the appropriate person. The key is that the employer should designate a person to handle these accommodation requests, and train, train and train. All supervisors, managers, even foremen, crew leaders, HR representatives and others.
Union reps.
Union reps, yes. Others in position that involve supervision, any type of supervision, that person should be trained, at least on the ADA, or at least to know who to refer that person to. Sometimes employers, Kendra and I get, questions related to, sometimes employers choose to make these decisions by committee, say we are making a modification to the building, I mean, who knows the building better than anyone? It would be someone in the ...
The landlord.
The landlord, someone in facilities management. That person knows the work site better than anyone. Is it a leave issue? It might be a supervisor in personnel. Now if it is purchasing something, it might be the finance department. And so, again, this is a situation where we likely need different perspectives.
That is right. It is sometimes takes a group of individuals to come together on a accommodation.
Beth and Kendra, you make a real good point. What we do here is look upon these issues as issues that need to be resolved in a group collaborative process. And as you know, they do become very complicated from time to time. And we want to make sure we are doing right by our employees. And so typically we will involve someone from this office. We initiated the agency department human resources manager as the departmental rep to get involved with a disability and accommodation issue, and then depending upon the particular type of accommodation, the details involved, we could involve our county counsel, which is our legal group, our worker''s comp group, the retirement group, the employee relations people, and then of course our friends at JAN. And so we have found that the more collaboration that you use, the better it is. And we have backing and support for our program from the very top. From our CEO, and that is very important to make sure that the people involved have that backing and have the authority to go ahead and get involved in the process and take care of business. And the other thing that we do to make sure that our people out in the field, our supervisors and managers are educated in this area, is we constantly put out guidance, either via the e-mail or in paper form that describes and discusses their responsibilities, the procedures, any updates in the law so they understand right where they need to be at any particular time.
Great. Great, Bart.
I think that is a perfect example of a best practice. And just to kind of follow up on that, how should an employer respond to an accommodation request? This is moving on to slide 12. Now, accommodation request can come in all forms. It can be informal. It can be formal. But as we tend to say here, it is a backup to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an employee need only to use plain English to make a request. In other words, a employer cannot say she didn''t say ADA. I don''t ...
Didn''t ask for an accommodation.
Exactly. So some organizations have a pretty laid-back process. But again, the key is what works for that organizational culture? Now when Kendra and I prepare for these presentations, I think the one motto we stick by is to try to be ourselves. We don''t rehearse a lot. We just tend to try to go on how we worked with each other for many years. That is our culture. That is our corporate culture, you know, we are friends and we tend to think that comes across well in presentations. So again, as long as it works, you try to stay within that corporate culture. Now other organizations tend to have a more formal approach, which can be good and can be very useful. That formal approach may involve accommodation request forms, of which we have samples, written procedures for processing an accommodation request. And again we have samples related to that as well. And time lines for responding to the request. So the key to us, I think, it is that we have to determine if any effective accommodation exists. Maintain consistency among our employees, and that is for legal reasons and for morale, and inform employees about what to expect once they make a request. And that is just kind of following up on what Bart said, I think.
I talk to a lot of people who not only do not know how to request an accommodation but they do not know what the process is. And although the ADA sets out a limit to the informal process, it is up to each company or agency to develop their own policy and procedure, and once you do that, you have got to let your employees know what that procedure is, otherwise they are going to call me and ask me and I don''t know usually.
And that can be different. Like when Kendra and I work together, working with someone else, that process is different. And as long as it works and the outcome is positive, then I consider that a best practice.
Right, right.
Yeah, here at the County of Orange what we have done is prepare an EEO Policy and Procedure. And we have got that available to everyone on paper, got it on our web site. And we also, of course, distribute it. The first paycheck of every January, along with that paycheck, every employee gets a copy of the EEO Policy and Procedure along with a cover memo from our CEO and our Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. And what this does, it kind of memorializes the County''s commitment to EEO for our employees. And one part of that policy deals with the management and the interactive process. And so everyone is aware of what we offer and what they need to do to ask for an accommodation.
That is great, Bart. That really is.
Following on slide 13 through 15, kind of summing up here, coming to the end of our best practices process, again this is following up on the good information that Bart is passing along, what should employers do when an accommodation request is received? Well, again, first and foremost, and we probably can''t say this enough is that employers should consult with the employee.
Absolutely.
And what are the person''s limitations, the person''s abilities, not disabilities. What are the persons job task? Is the person limited in a major life activity? What can the employee do without an accommodation? What job tasks is the individual having difficulty performing? And I sat and thought when I was preparing for this presentation about an example that I could give here. And I had a tough call the other day where it was a mother who was in her 50''s. She tragically lost her son in a car wreck. During this process she took some leave time to help deal with this. And she was a recovering alcoholic. During this time period she relapsed and she was returning to work. And what her employer wanted to know what accommodations do I have to give this person? Well, Kendra what accommodations do I have to give?
I don''t have any idea.
There wasn''t really enough information to know. The person may not need any type of accommodations. Is the person having problems performing his or her job, is really the main question? So it was a tough call. And it was a situation that, you know, everyone was having difficulty working through, because that was a tight knit organization as well. But the question was, you know, with some situations there may not be any accommodations necessary.
Um-hum, that is right.
Now most employers will request medical information from a medical care provider. But, again, we have to be careful that we only ask for medical information that is relevant. And I think this is true for all disability related areas. We also suggest tapping into outside resources. Ever since 9/11 we have gotten a lot of questions related to emergency evacuation. Now when it comes to preparing an emergency evacuation plan, of course, your workplace needs to be involved. Again, a person with a disability requesting accommodation. But also you can tap into your local resources, local emergency responders, I think, are one of the greatest resources that could you use for something like that. I know that Kendra has done some work related to veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yes. Actually, I just had a call yesterday from a Gulf War veteran. But there are many veterans centers setup in just about every small town I think in America that are there to assist the individual, and that is something we can help you with at the Job Accommodation Network, is to identify and locate those local resources.
I can certainly speak to that. The Job Accommodation Network has been great in helping us identify vendors and organizations that help us with, you know, ideas that we have that we were creative but we are not quite sure where to go and they seem to be able to turn over every rock in every little area and find them for us, so thank you.
Thanks, Bart. Certainly there can be a lot of different accommodation issues that come up, with the aging population now, with veterans returning to work, certainly some different populations than we may have had five years ago. Now, as far as accommodation issues, a few things I would like to highlight. We certainly have to know our job task. We have to know our work environment. We have to know if maybe there is a piece of equipment that either needs to be modified or purchased and certain policies. We get a lot of questions relating to fragrance policies, and that can certainly be a complicated accommodation issue. As far as accommodation options, some of the more popular, I guess I should say, are removing structural barriers, modifying or purchasing equipment, it may be changing or eliminating a policy, it could be a dress code policy or fragrance policy, maybe providing a service, could be restructuring a job or even reassignment to another position. So what is next after we get through that whole process? Well, we have to maintain that accommodation. A few things we want to highlight as far as best practices, well, who does the person contact if there is a problem? Does the person need to have periodic meetings as follow-up. Sometimes you may need a meeting, other times you may not need a meeting, maybe it is once a year, twice a year, maybe it is once a month. And last but not least, some method for transferring information to new supervisors or managers.
That is right. I talk to a lot of people who are did doing fine in their jobs, and may have been accommodated informally and then a new manager or supervisor comes in and that individual is not aware that this person has a disability and starts making changes in policies and other procedures that affect this individual, and may affect their accommodations. And a lot of times I talk to employers about setting out a specific date to sit down and talk about whether or not the accommodation has been effective, to re-evaluate the situation, you know, just putting a computer on somebody''s desk isn''t the only accommodation that you may need to make. That individual may need training or they may need time to learn the program or we may find that the accommodation is not going to work at all for this person. We need to evaluate that. So I encourage people to say, you know, on this date we are all going to come together and talk about whether or not the accommodation is effective. Has your performance improved? If it hasn''t, what do we need to do next?
And Bart, you may have a specific policy or a specific number of days. I''m not sure what your policy is but ...
Well, Beth, we try to respond just as soon as possible. And we again, as I mentioned, get everyone involved that would appear to be a stakeholder in this. And it varies, depending upon the case because we take these things on as a case-by-case basis. As you know, that is the right thing to do. And so basically we don''t have a standard rule other than the fact that we respond as rapidly as we possibly can, looking at every possible option. One thing that you mentioned earlier that I would like to comment on, some of our managers and supervisors will become a little bit anxious. They will say, well, if I make this accommodation, it is basically made, and I can''t undo it. And what we guide them, and tell them, is that an accommodation is not made in concrete. You can make a accommodation and you can explain to the employee that you will revisit that accommodation with them in another meeting in a week, two weeks, a month, two months, whatever you feel is appropriate, whatever is agreed to. And then it may be that their need, varies or changes during that period of time. And you can refine the accommodation, or possibly eliminate it. And so that is one thing that comes up that we share with our managers and our supervisors, to reassure them that, you know, this is something that is fluid and that it changes or can change over time.
I think that is an important point to make, Bart, is that a lot of employers do not realize that an individual''s disability is very fluid. It may get better or worse, but it is certainly going to change, whether it is an arthritic condition or someone who has a bipolar disorder. It is important for employers not to get locked into an accommodation and to be aware that you may have to revisit this situation over and over again.
And the other thing that I would like to share with you is that whether you have a very formalized policy or somewhat more informal, and many of these things can be handled with low-key telephone call, a quick discussion and that is great, because it is not as intimidating to everybody as the more formalized process. But the documentation to share, even if it is just a short paragraph, it is so important. We are very fortunate here that we don''t have a lot of complaints from our state department of fair employment or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), but when they come onside, the first thing they want to see in a disability case, particularly in a reasonable accommodation situation is the documentation. And when we have that, and of course we do, because we ask our people to prepare it, we can show that we have made a good-faith effort to make that accommodation even if we maybe couldn''t quite give the person what they wanted or in very few cases but occasionally we just could not do anything for them.
Um-hum. I just want to take the opportunity to share some of the resources that are available for individuals, well for individuals that are looking for information on accommodation. We are going to slide 17. The EEOC''s internal accommodation procedures and also the enforcement guidance, the EEOC has put out a reasonable accommodation and undue hardship are two really good resources that make it very clear and easy to understand, issues related to reasonable accommodation and undue hardship and those are found on the EEOC''s web site and can you also find those on our web site. We also have two new publications that have been very helpful, one is a medical inquiry in response to an accommodation request. A lot of times employers, and many times doctors don''t know what kind of information to provide when the employer is asking for medical documentation. So this can kind of give you a guide to the kinds of things you might want to be looking at. And we also have a sample reasonable accommodation request form for employers, so those are some things on our web site you can take a look at. If you have other questions about accommodation, and there specifically related to products, going to slide 18 you can use the JAN searchable online accommodation resource which is our computer database that will guide you through a series of questions and at the end you will find a list of manufacturers and distributors for a product that would be suggested as far as a accommodation for the individual that has limitations. We would also like to mention our sister organization, the Employer Assistance Recruiting Network. They can assist employers who are looking for quality employees. One of our favorite resources also going to slide 20 is the Computer Electronic Accommodation Program, available through the office, through the Department of Defense?
That is for federal employees.
Right. If you are a federal employer or a federal employee, the CEAP program not only will help you figure out what accommodation you need, but they will actually purchase it, set it up and make sure it works for you.
That is for those agencies that are partners with CEAP.
Right. If you go to the web site, from is a list of those agencies, so check that out. You can always come to the Job Accommodation Network and you can call us at 800-526-7234 or 800-ADA-work, and all of our lines are voice and TTY accessible. Also we have our web site at www.jan.wvu.edu.
And you can also e-mail us. So please call, write, and come visit us, Bart.
You will get me back there sooner or later, I''m going to roll into the office unexpectedly and you will say who is this guy?
We will be in San Francisco actually September the 26th through 27th for our annual JAN conference, so if anyone is interested in visiting with us in San Francisco, go to our web site and find out information and register for our conference.
And with that, Robin, we will go ahead and see if we have any questions out there.
Great, thank you. We will ask the Operator to give instructions now on how to ask questions.
If would you like to ask a question, press star-one on your touch-tone telephone. Once again, to ask a question, press star and then the number one.
Okay. We will take the first question.
I appreciate what you said about working the reasonable accommodation process with a group of people, however, when you do that, how do you address the confidentiality issue for the employee and their disability?
Well, I think, this is Beth. I think as far as from where we sit, and Bart can expand on this, essential personnel can be involved. Like I said, if it is a facility management issue, then the facility manager is going to be an essential part of that process. And, Bart, do you have anything that ...
How do you maintain the confidentiality, Bart, in that situation.
The people that are involved in these interactive processes, of course, are committed to making sure our employees are accommodated if at all possible. And so we are very careful with what we do with that information, and usually it is information that is discussed and the meetings are very, very private. And I agree with Beth that, you know, in order to help someone, you need to not only know as much as you can about what they are asking for, but you also need to have every perspective possible covered, and we want to make sure that we don''t miss something and that is why we involve one, two, three or four people, depending on the nature of the request. Of course we handle these requests on a case-by-case basis. And we keep one file that, you know, documents and memorializes what we have discussed, and what we are going to do and of course that file is not made part of the employee''s personnel file.
This is Robin. I also would then just interject that I think it is often not always necessary for everyone to know what the medical issues are, when you are dealing with an accommodation, you may just need to deal with the accommodation and how it works and only a very small group of people if any, only one actually, actually have to have the actual disability itself or the underlying medical conditions.
Certainly as far as best practices go, you don''t have to focus on the disability, it is like making a modification to a building. You are focusing on what is the best modification that we can make to this building and who do we need involved in the meeting to do that. And you train your employees to have ethics.
Yes. That is a real good point. Typically our medical examiner is the only one who has the medical information. We, our agency department will receive a notice in which the restrictions are listed. And then we work from that, and so the people in the group, the work groups, if you want to call it that, are looking at the restrictions and working to try to see what we can do to accommodate those.
Great. Thank you. Our next question please.
Okay. We have a question here. And the question is, what is considered unreasonable as far as a reasonable accommodation is concerned?
That is a good question, reasonable accommodation and undue hardship has to be determined on a case-by-case basis. It is usually determined by the employer, so it is difficult to say in general what that would be because what might be reasonable for one employer, may not be reasonable for another. In the EEOC''s guidance on reasonable accommodation and undue hardship it does list some things related to what makes something an undue hardship. It is not just an issue of cost. Sometimes it can be, you know, how it is going to affect the job or other people''s ability to do the job. But I would refer you to that enforcement guidance for more specific enforcement information.
We do get that question, what is considered unreasonable. One example would be removing an essential part of the job.
I can give you a couple of examples from out here in Santa Anna, we had a request from an individual for an interpreter, and we provided an interpreter. This individual said it had to be a certified interpreter, so we reviewed the guidance, the EEOC guidance and found that if we could provide an interpreter that was basically effective and efficient and essentially was providing the same services as any other interpreter, we were fine. In this particular case because it was a one time situation and we felt that this interpreter was appropriate, we made the decision to provide an interpreter and at that was a decision we made in that situation. Another example, it is kind of an interesting one, we work in a building here on the corner of Broadway and Civic Center Drive and there was a little building we used to occupy across the street, at one time the EEO office was upstairs in that building and it was a building that did not have an elevator. It was a build that go was so old, and so rickety, we felt the only reason that the building stood was because the termites were holding hands. It was terrible. The person came in, wanted some guidance and wanted to meet with us, and basically was upset because we did not have an elevator. Well, they subsequently tore the building down. So what we did is we accommodated them by coming down to the first floor to speak with them. And work with them as opposed to putting an elevator in an old building that was just about ready to fall down. Those are the types of examples which might help you to get an idea of what reasonable versus unreasonable is.
Bart, I agree. I think that the key is that the accommodation has to be effective. It may not be the exact thing that the individual requests, as long as it is effective.
And it definitely is case by case. I don''t know how else to answer that question, other than it is a case-by-case situation as far as what is reasonable, just like leave time in some situations, a certain amount of leave might be a reasonable accommodation and in other situations it might be unreasonable and in other situations it might be a undo hardship.
We have another question here. We have a two parter to that.
Go ahead.
I notice that you have four different teams, one is Sensory, Cognitive, Motor and Small Business. I''m surprised that did you not include a hearing loss group, because it is one of the largest groups.
Hearing loss is under sensory, like Kendra said, it is one of the five senses.
So it is covered through a more broad category, instead of having separate for deaf or hearing or blind or vision impaired, right?
Sure, our hearing specialist has been here for ten years, and she is a member of the sensory team.
Okay. Why don''t we move on, next question please.
Thank you.
Thank you, our next question is.
Would it be advisable for employers to require that accommodation requests be given in writing? As part of the evidence of the engagement in the interactive process if there were ever a damage award pending?
As far as from where Job Accommodation Network sits, I think Kendra and I always suggest that people put things in writing. It leaves a paper trail.
Helps to clarify issues.
Maintains stability in the organization if anything comes up. And again I think it is just good to have that paper trail, no matter what you are doing. Whether this is on the job, off the job, we always advocate, you know, put your request in writing, put your response in writing.
Yes. I would agree with you, Beth and Kendra, that writing is certainly preferred, people come in during the process of molding and shaping an accommodation, they may not know exactly what they really need until you get into the process and you come out of the process with something that everyone agrees to. And certainly you could have them initial that this is what we talked about. And this is what we agreed to. And this is comfortable for me. And so it is, again, on a case-by-case basis, although if you can get the written documentation I think it sure is important, especially if there is a question later on.
And I sometimes suggest to keep more than one calendar and have a calendar, if you have a reasonable accommodation in process calendar, especially for someone like you, Bart, who deals with this on a day-to-day basis.
Yes. That is very true. Because people will call or the management supervisors will call and look for guidance because there is a need to modify that, or change it or possibly eliminate it or sometimes someone will have a particular need that we have accommodated and then they become in need of something new, and so we want to move to that and try to help them there.
I think those are all excellent points.
Great. Thank you. And we will move on to the next question, please.
Good afternoon, hello, Robin. I have a situation I wanted to share with you, all of you, and there is a situation like the restaurant, for example, they have a big orientation, employee orientation and everyone comes in and does the paperwork and so forth. And I had two deaf individuals who went to that orientation and notified the manager or the supervisor that there were gap in the requests, say, in interpreter, you know? The thing didn''t work out. And then one of them came to me to jump in and help them out. And I don''t know how that can work out when you have orientation like that and when you have a qualified individual ask for accommodation, how that would work. Do they have to do a one-on-one after the orientation? Or should the manager or the supervisor be prepared ahead of time when they do that all day, two days in one week orientation for their new restaurant or new stores? How can the manager or supervisor provide accommodation in that situation?
Well, if a manager or supervisor called us and said we are having an employee orientation, it lasts two days and we have two new employees who are deaf, how do we accommodate them? We would provide them with information on resources that are available for interpreting services or real time captioning, or, you know, other ways that those employees could be accommodated so that they could attend that orientation. And I think the key here is that as an individual with a disability, I have to let this employer know that this is going to be an issue and give them time to make those accommodations. In that situation, it may have been possible for those two individuals to get part of that orientation on a, you know, one-on-one basis instead of using the group orientation if they weren''t able to get the accommodations in place. Again, it will depend on what accommodations those two individuals are going though need. I do not think that you can just say automatically, if you have somewhere with a hearing impairment that you have to get an interpreter, because that may not be the case.
Yes, I agree with you. I think that sometimes this comes up in our testing process here at the county. We will have a request for some type of accommodation for an applicant and they will make the request the day they arrive for the particular seminar, and so it is up to the person with the disability, with a need for accommodation, to make it known to the employer ahead of time. And then you do have to take it on a case-by-case basis. I know it kind of sounds like it depends but in a way it really does and by doing a case-by-case analysis, you don''t get into a bind where someone files a complaint and says we will see this company, you know, applied the same type of approach to everybody and they didn''t really give me my correct analysis, and time. And so I agree with what they said.
And I think, just to follow up on that, this is good management. I mean, you should have time lines and you should provide your employees with an orientation packet prior to those employees arriving, do you need any accommodations? If you need accommodations, contact this person. By this date. And it is a real clear statement. The employee hopefully gets what he or she needs and the employer is able to budget and secure an interpreting service. And I think that I don''t know if there is a follow-up to that question, Robin, or?
No. That is great. I think we will move on. I think that you have-
I have another question. I''m the Disability Program Navigator, and my question is say a person has a disability and they went through all the right channels, and made the requests for the reasonable accommodation and say they requested a piece of equipment, such as Dragon Dictate and that piece of piece of equipment was purchased for them and they were able to moderately perform the job but then they decided that that piece of equipment that they purchased isn''t exactly the right thing that they would like to have, are they allowed to request another piece of equipment?
Sure.
And is the particular employer still obligated to buy that for them?
Very well could be. I mean, the accommodation process, like Bart said, it is a fluid process. It is an ongoing process. You may purchase a piece of equipment, and that equipment may work for six months and you may need to purchase another piece of equipment. So the answer to that is, again, sure, an employer should consider purchasing that piece of equipment. Does an employer have to purchase it? Maybe. Again, it is the same thing as making out a reasonable accommodation request initially. You can certainly come back and ask for additional accommodations as you go along. It is like Kendra and Bart have both said, I mean, some conditions are progressive and certainly impairment or limitations could change.
Jobs change. And the key to the accommodation is to allow that individual to meet that performance standard so if that particular piece of equipment or accommodation is not effective, then that is where the interactive process comes in. I need to be able to say that this is not working. We need to think of something else and consider something else.
Hi, I have a question. We have an employee on worker''s comp. And he was on worker''s comp and FMLA, and now we are even thinking ADA all at the same time. He has exhausted his FMLA leave. And so what we are wondering is kind of goes back to the reasonable accommodation and we are thinking leave without pay is a good reasonable accommodation and it might be on a, you know, case-by-case basis.
Sure.
But if we call you, would you be able to give us some more definite answer as to what would be unreasonable for us to give him leave without pay?
Well, let me put it to this way: We can try. Sometimes there isn''t a 100% answer. Often neither Kendra nor I will say yes or no or this you have to do. We can certainly discuss other options, maybe other accommodation, maybe other pieces of equipment or maybe even if there is a reassignment available. Certainly we can brainstorm and discuss those possible accommodations.
And I think a lot of employers are quick to say, well, here is your FMLA, and here is all of the leave time that you need when there may be an accommodation that would enable that person to come back to work.
And there may not be. There could be, there may not be. One of the things we try to be is that springboard, so to speak, to try to make that effective accommodation.
I think that is really a critical issue there, I think that people, employer''s need to understand that there are resources out there. They are not on their own and hung up on their own to do that. And JAN is one of those resources and so is Regional ADA and Information Technology (IT) Centers as well, and so I think that you have to look at who are the resources in your area and not be afraid to, you know, place some things off of people. I think that it does help to discuss the situations.
I can share something with you here that might help. What we do is go ahead and on a case-by-case basis, look at the restrictions, look at what the individual is requesting as far as accommodation. We put all of our heads together and come up with what we think is a wonderful plan, we consult with the employee, we have got it all in this package and then, then we call JAN and we say, hey, listen, here is what we have got. Give us your opinion. And what it does, it solidifies what the situation is. It allows for the JAN consultants to kind of respond to what we have got. They will do one of three things, either say, hey, what a great idea, fine, do it. Or they will say, wow, have you thought about this or they will say, no, no, no go. And so it is kind of a way of getting all of your internal resources together and then coming to JAN and asking them to, you know, tell you what they think.
Okay. That is what I was kind of thinking. But I also have a question about the benefits. Because his doctor will not let him come back to work, for several months. And so if he cannot afford to pay his premiums, am I allowed to-or is the employer allowed to terminate his benefits?
Well, as far as the Americans with Disabilities Act, as soon as the FMLA runs and whatever your policy is, you can follow that policy. Now there may be other laws in your state that extend benefits and what I typically suggest ask, and I think Kendra you do this as well, is that you contact your state department of insurance, just to be sure about how long you have to hold those benefits for that employee.
Yes. The other thing that I would like to share, is I know your pain when you are involved in an ADA, FMLA workers comp, even possible retirement issue, because they are all kind of grappling with each other, and every law is a little bit different and you try to make sure if I''m in sync with one and then two, three and four. What we do here at the County is, we try to compartmentalize our approach to these things, particularly in the area of the ADA versus worker''s comp. As you know, worker''s comp kind of focuses on what the people can''t do. And when we bring people in for the interactive, in conjunction with the ADA, we focus on what they can do. What can you do? What are you able to do? Then we look at how we can accommodate that person, given what they have told us they can do. Even if they are off, and even if they do not come back, and even if they have all of these other things going, at least we know that we have met our obligation under the ADA, to meet with them in the interactive process and focus on what they can do. And then if we can offer them something, we will do it.
And I think that is a good example. When it comes to benefits, it does get complicated, simply because, you know, ADA may not make any requirements for certain benefits but FMLA may, state worker''s comp may and State insurance may have a different state law. And so it certainly can get complicated.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Move on to the next question.
Yeah, hi. I had a question. There was a mention about a reasonable accommodation once made is not set in stone and that it can be reviewed over time. And I was wondering, the example that was given was that the disability is fluid and of course changes over time, either getting better or worse. But can you also come up with a-can the employer suggest a different accommodation that meets the needs of the employee but then perhaps places, is more efficient for them?
Sure.
Okay. So it is not just the disability that would allow a revisiting of the accommodation but it would be any new information that would allow a good outcome for the employee?
Sure. And one example that I use is that employers are fluid too. I mean, jobs change. Since I started at JAN and Kendra started at JAN, our jobs have changed. We could come in tomorrow and our boss could say hey look, we don''t need you to do this job task anymore and we need to change things around and you need to do this one. How are we going to deal with this specific job task? So, sure, you know, part of the reason you are an employer is because you are running a business. And, again, part of business is making those effective accommodations but employers can change things. And, Bart, you have probably had a situation like this, I would guess.
Well, yes, I have. As a matter of fact, thank you for bringing this up. Because I think it is really critical that employers realize that they don''t have to just sit in the meeting and listen to what the employee is asking for. It is healthy and it is a best business practice and it is very positive for the employer to do their research and say, well, here, we can offer you this or that. And, you know, this interactive process is the essence of what we are talking about here today. And it means that everyone gets involved. And you may have some employees sometimes who come in and sit there and they expect you to fix it for them. And you have to elicit information from them so that they are an active participant in the process. We have a situation right now in one of our agencies where we have an employee who is suffering from depression. And we have been working with this employee for over a year. And the manifestation of the difficulties are in the fact that the employee is just not able to be at work as often as we need her to be at work. And so what we have done in this fluid type of approach that we have talked about is first of all, she took leave, then she came back and indicated that, gosh, the 40-hour weeks were just tough. So cut her to 30 hours a week. Then she started missing time even at the three-quarters schedule. And gave her another leave. And then finally reduced the amount of work and the difficulty of the work that she is responsible for performing in order to try to accommodate her, help her and relieve the difficulty and the pain that she was experiencing in trying to, you know, be at work. Well, now we are in a point or at a point now where it may be that, you know, we are not able to accommodate her any further but we have gone through many, many steps to try to help her. And so this is an example of a fluid, interactive process.
I think that pretty much sums that question up. That was an excellent answer, Bart.
Thank you. We will move on to the next question please.
Should an employee request that the accommodation be written, perhaps placed in their personnel file, so that he/she is protected with documentation in case there is a change in supervisor?
Well, as far as the Americans with Disabilities Act there are medical files and anything related to reasonable accommodation requests should be separate from the personnel files. You should have people in your organization who have access to personnel files but should not have access to that medical information. And, Bart, I think that you eluded to your policy earlier.
Yes, that is right. And of course here in California everything is about ten times more complicated than anywhere else in the country. And the one thing that is very clear is that both at the federal and the state level, but particularly under state law, that you just don''t put any sort of medical information into an employee file, and of course we don''t. And so one comment, one thing that I could suggest, would be that if there is a change in supervisor, it might be the present supervisor share with the employee that, you know, they are aware of this change coming up and they want to make sure that there is a smooth transition in terms of any accommodations that are being made and get the employees'' agreement that they will both go and talk to the supervisor or at least let the employee know that we will make sure that you are protected and what we have been doing for you here today is going to be carried out in unit B after the move.
And I think that would be the most efficient way to do it. Certainly the employee with the disability or with the accommodation may sometimes have to be his or her own best advocate. The employee also needs to step up and say, you know, I know that you are a new supervisor, and have that discussion, initiate that discussion. But I think good management puts that responsibility back on the supervisor. Pass that information along through the employee.
Great. Thank you. A tough question we get asked it a lot too. Next question, please.
Hi. We work with clients who seek to obtain or maintain employment. Do you all suggest we share this information we learned today with our clients who are potential employees who may have a disability or limitation or with a clients'' potential or current employer, or both, and then why?
You mean the information related to best practices?
Correct.
Sure. I think it is a great educational tool. I think it can facilitate conversation. I know it even did so in our office. So I would suggest, yes. Clients who have questions about their rights and managers who have questions about their responsibilities, I would say yes, you know, feel free to share the information.
Yes. One thing that I can suggest to you, we are very fortunate here. We have some great in-house resources, and the Technical Assistance Manual for the Americans with Disabilities Act is probably our most worn volume on the shelf here, as a matter of fact I have to order a new one, this thing is falling apart at the seams, but the EEOC provides this, I think you can call them or visit their Web site, check it out. They are not expensive. And this thing is just a very valuable resource. There are other resources. But judging from use, I would say that this one is probably the one that we use the most.
And I think that as far as some of the questions that we get or the comments that we get, you know, a lot of companies have internets now, and they are requesting to put information from the Web site and the EEOC best practices on their internet, and I think it is a good way to share with employees about what is available.
And we also have packets of information that are specifically designed for individuals with disabilities or employees with disabilities to provide information about their rights, issues related to disclosure and how to ask for an accommodation, and that information is available from us either by calling us or going to the web site and we would be happy to send that to a counselor and can you give that to your clients or have your clients call us and we will send it to your clients directly if they call us.
Robin, I know that the regional center certainly distributes a lot of information as well.
Definitely. I think we have found some employers have expressed concerns about information that I think that, you know, they should not be concerned about their employees being informed. I think that the process is more powerful for everyone if we all know our rights and responsibilities side-by-side and definitely there is no lack of information, it is just the idea of individuals getting access to that information and so using your resources and referring people as employers to those resources, I think, it goes a long way to speaking about your commitment to the process of making sure that your employees are informed as about their rights as you are about your responsibilities. Okay. We will take our next question please.
Hi. My question is for Bart and it has everything to do with process and, Bart, in Orange County, do you keep accommodation information that is medical accommodation information related to a workers comp injury separate from employee medical?
Yes, yes, we do.
Do you use a similar model or a similar form when requesting medal information? Relating to a work comp claim as you would for an ADA accommodation request?
You know, we do use separate forms. Here at the County, if you can picture our structure, the EEO office is housed in the Corporate Resources, our Workers Compensation Office is housed in the CEO, the Executive Office. They are separate offices. However due to, for disability management and trying to get people to work as quickly as possible. The information that they keep, the CEO, the information that we keep here is separate and not necessarily shared but certainly if we have an individual who has filed both an ADA claim or is requesting an accommodation under the ADA who is also a person, a workers'' compensation case, there may be some interchange of... [ Inaudible ]
I''m sorry, I did not hear the end of that, Bart.
I think we have lost Bart or his connection.
Bart is here.
Okay. So if I heard him correctly, and I think that I''m hearing him say that the medical information is separate. In the state of Minnesota, we would keep work comp/medical information separate from an employee medical file.
Sure.
When it crosses over, I was just curious about his process. So I think he answered it enough for me. Thank you.
Great. Thank you. We will take another question, please. We are getting a lot of interference. I''m not quite sure what is going on here. Are we able to take and hear another question, please? Go ahead. Hello? I do not think we are able to hear that. Can we take another question please.
The question that I have is have you found some effective methods or systems for transferring information to new supervisors in organizations which have multiple workplaces which still allow for some confidentiality and, you know, may be dealing with information that was developed over a period of time, and so extended time between the new supervisors and when the initial accommodation was made?
Well, I think Bart addressed this a little bit earlier, related to the current supervisor, kind of taking control of that and saying we are going to undergo a supervisory change or maybe even that supervisor''s supervisor could become involved.
Right. I''m looking more for systems in that sometimes supervisors may leave.
Sure.
Or something might happen where they would not have that ability to transition.
Yeah. And this is a complicated issue. I don''t know if I have a great answer for it.
Well, I think it is important for the individual with a disable, probably, to take the lead of that situation. And to let the supervisor know here is what I need, and here is what has worked for me in the past. And hopefully if you have done good. If you have been really good with your documentation, you can show how those things have been agreed upon.
And what other supervisor was involved in the accommodation process? I mean, we certainly you know, as we brought up previously in this call, more than one person can be a good thing. Who else was involved in the initial accommodation process. That person could discuss it with the employee with a disability and say, you know, we know we have undergone a change in supervisor, how can we help you.
Because the supervisor might not change the... [ Inaudible ]
The first supervisor might not agree to the accommodation?
Yes, that happens. Then you have to start the accommodation process again, maybe not from scratch. But the way it can be more work for everyone.
What we have found too is that sometimes accommodation gets into the system so the employee may not really want to reveal that fact. And it is you know, kind of reopening a wound and so we are trying to make the process proactive, yet I guess confidential but yet seamless in a sense that, you know, from supervisor to supervisor we can maintain that without ...
You know, the ADA is very clear that it is the individuals responsibility to let the supervisor or the employer know what that person needs. That new supervisor is not going to be required to provide accommodations if they are not aware that that person has a disability or that there is an accommodation in place.
Again, it is like anything else in life, you have to be your own best advocate.
I think it is important to keep that communication open. Among the supervisors, the employee, the new supervisor, whoever else is a stakeholder in it. Because we found here that when we share with our employees, and when they feel as though they are involved and they are informed, and they are not finding out after the fact, they usually feel pretty comfortable with that. It is when, you know, someone transfers to a new supervisor and the supervisor comes up and says your old boss told me that you need this, this, this and this and the employee, even though they are responsible for bringing it forth, as this gentleman pointed out, many times they are a little hesitant to do so, then they get defensive and it puts everything on a bad start with a new supervisor, and so that communication among the parties is really important.
And my concern too, I guess, is isn''t there some responsibility on the part of the employer, even if that new supervisor does not agree with it, the fact that maybe some constructive knowledge because we have already committed to that process through a previous supervisor?
Well, I think if you can show that the accommodation has been effective and been reasonable up to a point, that it should be continued, I don''t know why someone would come in and change that, although I do know that, you know, sometimes that happens. People come in and just make all kinds of changes.
And, you know, again it is going to be more work. Sometimes. But sometimes the benefits, you know, outweigh the costs of starting that go process again. You know, it is not always pleasant to restart it but honestly Kendra and I both have been involved in situations where they work out in the end but it does takes a little more work for both parties to start that process again.
And I think there is a onus on the employer to make sure that the new employees and supervisors/managers coming in are educated, are informed and knowledgeable as they need to be about reasonable accommodation, that also can be where the problem comes in, is when a new person comes in and they have an attitude about reasonable accommodation or have an attitude about a particular type of disability as well, that needs to be always needs to be reminded that the employers, supervisors and managers are an agent of them and so it is their best interests as owner or operator of an organization that they have made sure that all employees are informed and that they are acting on behalf of that employer and set the tone for that particular issue. Thank you very much. Unfortunately, we are at the end of our time period today. Of course, I''m sure we could go on and on and on, as there is a lot of good information available from Kendra, Beth and Bart and we will continue to pick their brains and pull out more information but unfortunately time has ticked away in the last 90 minutes and so we are going to have to close the session today. Our session next week is May the 17th, I''m sorry, next month. It is what are the courts saying about reasonable accommodation? And the speaker is David Fram from the Law Institute, I invite you to join in that session. If you have questions relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act, questions about the topic of reasonable accommodation, you have been given some great resources today through our speakers. I would also remind you to also consider contacting your Regional Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center, also known as the ADA and Information Technology Centers at 800-949-4232, both voice and TTY. And if you are interested in reviewing this transcript, it will be posted on our web site in approximately five business days at www.adagreatlakes.org, again thank you very much for joining us today, have a good rest of your day.