ADA stands for the Americans With Disabilities Act. The main purpose of the act is to require employers to accommodate their employees with disabilities reasonably. For this, the employers need to follow a six-step process known as the “interactive process”. The process helps in reasonably accommodating the employees with disabilities with ease.
The six steps of the interactive process are:
- Analyzing the job and determining its essential functions.
- Identifying job-related limitations and restrictions.
- Identifying possible accommodations for disabled employees.
- Assessing the feasibility of providing accommodations.
- Implementing the most appropriate accommodation.
- Determining the effectiveness of the accommodation by regularly monitoring and following up with those involved in the process.
A process shall be effective only when the result of each step is properly documented.
The interactive process is mandatory for all the employers and is triggered when the employee or his or her representative give notice to the management regarding the person’s disabilities and the desire for an accommodation. There are a few guidelines that an employer must go through for better implementation of the process.
- Explore all the options of accommodation in good faith- the main purpose of searching the accommodation is to allow the disabled employee to perform his or her job effectively. Therefore, employers must explore all the options in good faith, which shall be beneficial for employees as well as employers.
- Direct communication with the disabled employees- an employer must communicate directly with the employee regarding the essential information and no one should delay or obstruct the communication process. Information can include the medical condition of the employee.
- Demonstrate cooperative and good behavior- cooperative and good behavior includes making the process easy for employees or providing help in the documenting process. Employees to show good faith can take out some time to deal with such issues and train the relevant supervisors to be cooperative towards such special needs employees. Lastly, they can respond promptly to the request of the employees for providing suitable accommodation. All these good behavior shall build in faith in the employees.
- Employers must identify the barriers to job performance and consult the same with the disabled employee. Both the parties can work on the issue together and discover the precise limitations and types of accommodations that would be the most effective.
Therefore, the whole process is built and revolves around the employees to provide them maximum support and comfort. Employers must take no accommodation decision without consulting the employees. If an employer does not act in good faith and fails to provide the disabled employee proper accommodation then he shall be ready to face the consequences and the employees can recover damages from such employers. And if the employer engages in the interactive process in good faith then he shall be considered immune from the whole damages. But understanding or reading the intentions of the employer can be a tricky affair.
The ADA act protects disabled employees from any damages and ensures to provide a better job or accommodation for effective results and performance.
