ADA question need quick respons

njjel

An employee has a partial loss of vision in one eye. The employee is an attorney. The employee has requested to work in an office closer to her home. Is this covered by ADA?

NaeNae55

Vision is a life function and therefore covered under ADA. The real question here is whether or not the request by the employee is a reasonable accomodation. Review the facts, the costs both financially and with other employees, and how this might impact your clients. (Will this employee be able to perform their duties adequately with this accomondation? Will it cost more to accomodate, and is the cost reasonable? Will this have a negative impact on your policies with clients, etc?) Once you have all the information, then you can decide if her request is reasonable or not.

One more thing. Since this employee is an attorney, I would not consider doing anything without talking to a labor attorney to make sure you are dotting your I's and crossing your T's correctly. In other words, CYA.

Good luck!

Nae

Cheryl S SPHR

I'm not sure what the purpose of this accommodation request would be or how it relates to "partial loss of vision in one eye. " I hope the employee provided you much more information in the request and that it was in writing.

For information on accommodations, try the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) at [url]http://www.jan.wvu.edu/[/url]

Good luck!

Cheryl

njjel

After reading up more on this, I believe whether or not it is ADA depends on how substantial an impairment she has in the one eye. Nothing's ever easy!

NaeNae55

Exactly why they call it the 'interactive process.' You have to talk to her to get specific information about her needs to get the job done. (You want to make sure you are looking at needs and not just wants.) Then you have to decide if the needs are 'reasonable' for your organization. Definitely a case by case thing.

Good luck!

Nae