Washington, DC – To help employers and employees understand their rights and responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability nondiscrimination laws and regulations, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy-sponsored Job Accommodation Network (JAN) developed the Workplace Accommodation Toolkit.
Reasonable accommodations are key to the ADA’s employment provisions, which protect qualified individuals from discrimination based on disability. A reasonable accommodation is considered any modification or adjustment to a job or work environment that enables a qualified person with a disability to apply for or perform a job.
The Workplace Accommodation Toolkit centralizes resources and guidance related to reasonable accommodations, including sample policies, templates and checklists, as well as training videos and access to thousands of specific accommodation ideas. It can benefit any company seeking to establish or update its accommodation policies and procedures. It can also help companies retain valued talent, given that current employees may develop a need for an accommodation in order to stay at work or return to work following illness or injury.
Furthermore, providing reasonable accommodations can help covered employers meet their goals under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires federal contractors with contracts greater than a certain amount to take proactive steps to recruit and retain qualified people with disabilities. However, none of the strategies in the Workplace Accommodation Toolkit create any new legal requirements or change current ones.
To access the Workplace Accommodation Toolkit, visit AskJAN.org/toolkit.
