Tag: disabled employees

California at epicenter of rise in disability access cases against small businesses

by Matthew A. Goodin In addition to allowing disabled employees to sue their employers for discriminating or refusing to provide reasonable accommodations, both federal and California law allow disabled persons to sue businesses and places of public accommodation for failing to comply with a myriad of accessibility requirements, such as having wheelchair ramps or the […]

Employee flatulence is no laughing matter

by Mark M. Schorr Q Have you ever dealt with an extreme case of employee flatulence disrupting the workplace and causing coworkers to get sick and vomit? We have a situation right now in which a disabled employee is on a mix of medications that causes extreme flatulence. There have been numerous employee complaints, and […]

Federal contractors facing new regulations: Tips for compliance

Employers doing business with the federal government need to mark March 24 in red on their calendars. That’s when major parts of new regulations affecting how they recruit and hire veterans and people with disabilities take effect.  The Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) requires contractors to take affirmative action to employ veterans covered […]

Resources available for employers trying to recruit people with disabilities

As October nears, employers may be hearing a lot about how people with disabilities can benefit the workplace. Every year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) designates October as a time to raise awareness about the value of employing people with disabilities. This year’s theme–“Because We Are EQUAL to the […]

Facing the future: Growing numbers of workers with disabilities bring challenges, opportunities

by Tammy Binford A new study from business and research organization The Conference Board says that more than 10 percent of the U.S. population currently has some form of disability. Other research from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that disproportionate numbers of people with disabilities are either unemployed or working in jobs that pay low […]

Get interactive, rules federal appellate court

by Brandon Gearhart A recent decision from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee employers) illustrates the importance of the interactive process when making employment decisions about a disabled worker. The court returned a previously dismissed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claim to the lower […]

Employees on the autism spectrum: guidance for employers

by Tammy Binford Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) – a group of developmental disabilities that can cause social, communication, and behavioral challenges – affect one in 88 children and one in 54 boys, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That makes autism the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the United States, […]

Federal government touts increase in employment of people with disabilities

When President Obama signed Executive Order 13548 on July 26, 2010, he specifically set a goal of hiring 100,000 people with disabilities by 2015. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) not only lead federal agencies in the first two quarters of 2012 with 4.2 percent of all new hires being people with disabilities, the agency […]

Technology can make the workplace more accessible to the disabled

by Tammy Binford It’s natural to question what the future will bring to the workplace. How many more resources will the Internet make available? What new apps have the potential to revolutionize the world of work? How will technology enable employees to overcome disabilities? The questions – and answers – seem limitless as technology advances […]