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October 10, 2024
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), when we celebrate the value and talent that workers with disabilities add to our workplaces. Consistent with this year’s official NDEAM theme – Access to Good Jobs for All – the U.S. Department of Labor launched the “Situations and Solutions Finder.” The tool provides access to more than 700 accommodation ideas for disabled workers and their employers.
An accommodation is a modification to a work environment or to the manner in which a job typically is done that enables a qualified person with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (and its state counterparts) requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations, when requested, to disabled applicants and employees unless providing the accommodation would pose an undue hardship.
The Situations and Solutions Finder draws on information collected from surveys of customers of the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a service of the Office of Disability Employment Policy that offers free, expert, and confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and other disability employment issues. Employers who participated in the surveys represent government agencies and diverse industry sectors from very small businesses to global corporations. The tool allows users to explore accommodation scenarios by searching for examples based on disability, limitation, and occupation.
Employers: It doesn’t take much to invest in workers with disabilities. The Situations and Solutions Finder provides a great roadmap to help identify appropriate accommodations. And a JAN survey found that nearly half of reported accommodations involve no cost and that the median cost for accommodations that require a one-time expense is $300.
This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
