RIGHTS FACTS

This edition of “Rights Facts” focuses on the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 which prohibits private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment. This Act covers employers with 25 or more employees.

A qualified employee or applicant with a disability is an individual who, with or without
reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the job in question. Reasonable accommodation may include, but is not limited to:

•Making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable by
persons with disabilities .
•Job restructuring, modifying work schedules, reassignment to a vacant position;
•Acquiring or modifying equipment or devices, adjusting modifying examinations,
training materials, or policies, and providing qualified readers or interpreters.

An employer is required to make an accommodation to the known disability of a qualified
applicant or employee if it would not impose an "undue hardship" on the operation of the employer's business.

Employers may not ask job applicants about the existence, nature or severity of a disability .
Applicants may be asked about their ability to perform specific job functions. A job offer may be
conditioned on the results of a medical examination, but only if the examination is required for all entering employees in similar jobs. Medical examinations of employees must be job related and consistent with the employer's business needs.

If you believe you have been discriminated against on the basis of disability, you should contact a lawyer immediately. You are entitled to a remedy that will place you in the position you would have been in if the discrimination had never occurred. You may also be entitled to damages to compensate you for future pecuniary losses, mental anguish and inconvenience. Charges of employment discrimination on the basis of disability, based on actions occurring on or after July 26, 1992, may be filed at any field office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission located in 50 cities throughout the United States.

Prepared by the Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights Training Component.
For More Information Call: Jaribu Hill, 662-334-1122
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