Question

Explain in detail of the following concepts as related to the Americans with Disabilities Act: "reasonable accommodation" and "undue hardship". Use examples to support your answer.

Answer 1

Reasonable accommodation:

Reasonable accommodation means if we want to change something regarding a job or work environment in order to let the people with some disability work in a better way, then we can do so. The law gives us rights ( in certain and some specific circumstances only) to discriminate some employees and differentiate them from others, but that must be in bonafide to society. Here, we are talking about people with some disabilities, who can't be treated like other normal and healthy employees. The reason for discrimination must be justifiable.

For example, suppose we are going through the selection procedure, under which applicants are supposed to go through a written test. Here, the organization has the right to accommodate for those applicants who are visually impaired, and they can not go through written examination. This is a reasonable accommodation.

Undue hardship:

It is a situation where the employer or any other person who has the duty to accommodate gets exempted from his duty because this is not viable for the organization to perform the accommodation.

For example, if the employer is required to allocate wheelchair facilities for disabled employees in the organization, but he is unable to do so, because of large cost, or any other reason, then it will be his undue hardship if he is able to present the strong reason regarding that, and he is able to prove that this accommodation will make the organization suffer.

Undue hardship can include large costs or difficulty to perform the accommodation due to any other reason, or if the employer is able to prove that this will cause disruption in the activities or functions that are performed in the business organization.