The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a protected qualified individual as one who can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodations. Last month, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals used this plain language to reject an employer’s claim that it was not required to provide accommodations to an employee who could perform those essential functions with no assistance from the employer.
In Tudor v. Whitehall Central School Dist., the plaintiff was a teacher who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to an assault at a prior job. She requested the ability to leave campus for short periods during the school day to help avoid triggering her symptoms. She sued after the school district denied the accommodation, and admitted that she was able to get through the day without the accommodations, although at great cost to her mental health. The district court dismissed her claim on the basis that the ADA only requires accommodations needed for the disabled individual to perform those essential functions.
The Second Circuit reversed this determination, joining eight other federal appellate circuits that have considered this question. The court pointed to the ADA’s definition of a qualified disabled person, noting that it includes those who can perform the essential functions of the job without any accommodation. If such accommodation makes it easier for the disabled employee to perform such functions, it may be required under the ADA unless it is not effective, is unreasonable, or presents an undue hardship to the employer.
The court did not comment on the question of how the fact that the requested accommodation is not needed to perform the job affects the reasonableness of the request. Employers that receive accommodation requests from disabled employees should not reject those requests on the basis that the employee is currently able to perform the job in the absence of such assistance.
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