Undue hardship means an action “requiring significant difficulty or expense.” Unfortunately, the law is quite vague at key points in what constitutes “undue hardship.” Courts are still deciding what employers can and cannot do.


Reasonable accommodations may mean changing work hours, restructuring job requirements, acquiring new adaptive equipment or devices, moving facilities, alternative training formats, or making structural changes.


Keep in mind that the purpose of a “reasonable accommodation” under the ADA is to make it possible for an employee to perform the “essential functions” of the job, not eliminate the essential functions. Employees and employers routinely get that backwards. Disabled employees often ask for accommodations that excuse them from essential functions, and employers often agree to them. That’s a mistake. If you excuse one employee from a job’s essential functions, you have opened the door for all your employees to claim the same consideration or right.


What Constitutes a Disability Under the ADA?


The ADA broadly defines a disability, but it does not set forth a specific statutory list of impairments. The act is not intended to cover minor physical or mental impairments, but it is clear that it covers an individual who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, or has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded by others as having such an impairment.


To prove a substantial limitation in the major life activity of working, an employee must show that he or she is restricted significantly in the ability to perform either a class of jobs or a broad range of jobs in various classes compared with the average person with comparable skills, training, and abilities.


As mentioned above, disability is defined by the ADA, but the act does not set forth a specific statutory list of impairments. However, it is clear that an individual is considered disabled under the ADA if he/she has a physical or mental impairment that:


© 2017 by the Association of Christian Schools International


1. substantially limits one or more major life activities; 2. has a record of such an impairment; or 3. is regarded as having such an impairment.


Major life activities include functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, and participating in community activities.


Good Job Descriptions Are Your Protection


Any employer covered by the ADA must address two levels of analysis whenever an individual with a disability applies for a position. The first level of analysis involves the issue of whether the prospective employee can perform the “essential functions” of the job, with or without accommodation. To address this issue, the Christian school must first define the essential functions of the job. It is helpful if the essential functions are listed separately as part of a job description.


Defining the essential functions requires a close analysis of the physical and mental requirements of each job and what functions are required to perform that job. An essential function is one that if removed would fundamentally change the job. A job description might require a teacher to turn out the lights at the end of the day, meet with parents periodically, or turn in lesson plans at a specified time. Essential functions, however, identify the result to be achieved, not solely the manner in which a job is performed.


The EEOC has indicated that if it is analyzing an ADA complaint filed against an employer, it will give deference to the essential functions of a job if the employer has identified those essential functions in writing prior to the complaint being filed. Each school should analyze its existing job descriptions and qualifications to assure that any mental or physical requirements are, in fact, required by business necessity and are clearly articulated in the job description.


For more details on the Americans with Disabilities Act go to our ACSI Legal Resource Web pages atwww.acsi.org/leg-


resources.


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