Health-related (disability) accommodations for faculty, staff and post-doctoral scholars and fellows
For Faculty, Staff and Post-Doctoral Scholars and Fellows
The Office of Equity supports faculty, staff and post-doctoral scholars and fellows (collectively, "employees") whose health condition (disability) might interfere with the employee's ability to perform essential job functions. The Office of Equity does this by following these steps:
- The employee contacts the Office of Equity to request an accommodation. The accommodation request form is here.
- The employee completes the HIPAA Release Form that will allow the Office of Equity to contact your healthcare provider, if needed.
- The employee provide a copy of the employee's job description.
- The employee provides medical documentation (such as a note from the employee's healthcare provider) identifying the employee's health condition and symptoms that interfere with the employee's performance of key job duties and supporting the employee's need for the requested accommodation.
- The Office of Equity investigates whether the accommodation. requested is reasonable and assesses alternative accommodations. The investigation involves reviewing the employee's job description and speaking to the employee's supervisor(s) about the employee's job duties. This is called the "interactive process."
- After completing the interaction process, the Office of Equity issues an accommodation which is an adjustment to the way that the employee accomplishes important job duties (e.g. the employee performs the job by using a computer with voice-to-text rather than reading informtion on the computer screen and typing). The Office of Equity may issue the accommodation the employee requested, or an alternative accommodation that will also enable the employee to perform essential job functions.
Defining "accommodation"
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects any “qualified individual with a disability.” The Office of Equity issues health-related (disability) accommodations to employees pursuant to the ADA and university policy. To be “qualified,” an employee must be able to perform the “essential functions” of the job, either with or without reasonable accommodations. The "essential functions" are the critical parts of what the employee in the job actually does.
A reasonable accommodation is a job modification that will enable the employee to perform the essential functions of the job, even though they have a health condition. For example, an employee with a health condition that causes the employee to feel ill in the mornings, may request to start work at 10:00 AM instead of 8:30 AM, and work until 6:30 PM. This prevents the employee's health condition from interferring with the employee's satisfactory performance of the job (arriving at work at 8:30 AM). Alternatively, an employee with a mental health condition requests to work remotely one day each week to attend a virtual therapy appointment with a counselor. The Office of Equity reviews the request and issues an accommodation in which the employee is given access to a private, sound proof office on campus to use during the employee's weekly therapy appointment, and then the employee works an additional 45 minutes at the end of the day.
Accommodations are denied if they will not enable the employee to perform the essential job functions. For example, an employee requests an accommodation for "brain fog" that arises from long COVID. The emplohyee proposes that the most difficult aspects of the employee's job will be reassigned to other employees, and the employee's doctor writes a note agreeing that this accommodation will benefit the emmployee. The Office of Equity will deny this accommodation because arranging for another employee to complete important responsibilities for the employee with a health condition is not reasonable (the accommodation will not enable the employee to perform all essential job functions - having key tasks performed by others is NOT the same as the employee performing those key tasks).
The Office of Equity's interactive process
The "interactive process" is the name for the steps by which the Office of Equity learns about the employee’s health condition, its severity, duration, and how it impacts the employee’s ability to perform the job's essential duties. The first step after receiving an employee's request for an accommodation is usually for the Office of Equity to meet with the employee and discusses the need for an accommodation.
Then the Office of Equity reviews medical documentation provided by the employee. Without information from an employee's healthcare provider stating the employee's health condition and the accommodation needed by the employee, the Office of Equity is not able to further assess an employee's request for an accommodation. Depending on clarity of the healthcare provider's note, the Office of Equity may need to ask questions of the health care provider. The Office of Equity accommodation request form contains a release of information request form to permit the Office of Equiy to obtain information about the employee's need for an accommodation from the employee's healthcare provider.
The Office of Equity also meets with the supervisor to learn about the employee's essential functions, and possible alternative accommodations that might be more effective or less disruptive to the work environment.
Issuing the Accommodation
After completing the interactive process, the Office of Equity sends a letter to the employee and supervisor, and anyone else at CWRU who has a business reason to receive the letter, describing the accommodation and when it expires.
Examples of accommodations
- Parking lot adjustments (closer parking to an employee's office or work area)
- Responsive transportation (transportation from one area of the campus to another; or from the employee's parking lot to the employee's office)
- Changes to physical space layout
- Restructure certain job duties
- Assistive Technology (i.e., software)
- Ergonomic furniture (standing desk, special keyboard)
- Modifying work schedule (flexible start time)
- Leave or extended leave after other leave is exhausted
- Remote work
- Private office
- Work space near a bathroom; work space where the lights can be turned off; work space away from noise or kitchen)
- Written instructions from supervisor, instead of verbal or following verbal instuctions
- Many other possible accommodations
Confidentiality
The Office of Equity will never share an employee's diagnosis with the employee's supervisor. In most cases, however, the Office of Equity will share an employee's symptoms. This is because the symptoms (how the employee experiences the health condition) (e.g. "severe pain in cold weather," "allergic reaction to seafood in which the employee can't breathe") are the beginning of the discussion about what kind of accommodation is needed (e.g. "work remotely on days when the low temperature is forcasted to be 15 degrees or lower" or "no sea food can be cooked in the department").
Accommodations based on the health conditions of an employee's family members
Unfortunately, the Office of Equity is authorized to issue accommodations only because of the employee's health condition.
For Students
Students can request accommodations through the Office of Disability Resources. Students who belive that the Office of Disability Resources did not issue accommodations to which a student is entitled may contact the Office of Equity to appeal. Students who believe that their accommodations issued to the student by the Office of Disability Resources, are not being properly or effectively implemented in class, may contact the Office of Equity for support and assistance. The Office of Equity will begin with a problem solving approach and may also conduct an investigation of possible disability-based discrimination.
The Section 504 Coordinator is:
Rachel E. Lutner
Senior Associate Vice President for Equity
Adelbert Hall 110
10900 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44106
216.368.3066
rachel.lutner@case.edu