Employer Tips

Commissioner Paul Steven Miller has the following suggestions for employers who wish to include workers with disabilities:

1. Examine all job descriptions to ensure that they reflect only essential functions, thus making the process for reasonable accommodation easier, if needed.
2. Train staff on interviewing applicants with disabilities.
3. Establish and maintain procedures for handling reasonable accommodation requests. Designating an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator with management access and decision-making authority is important.
4. Pay attention to the circumstances of required medical examinations and make sure that employee medical information is kept confidential and separate from personnel files.
5. Ensure that all employer-sponsored events, including trainings, retreats and social gatherings, are accessible to people with disabilities. Programs must always be held in accessible locations and publications must be available in accessible formats.
6. Review policies and procedures for promotions, transfers, layoffs and compensation to ensure that they are as inclusive as possible.
7. Make sure that any benefits packages are not discriminatory.
8. Conduct an internal architectural barriers audit, looking for whether there are physical barriers in your workplaces that may limit employees with disabilities.
9. Remember that the ADA covers owners, operators and lessees – so it is important to review contracts and leases.
10. Recognize that you need not become an expert in every possible disability and accommodation. Reach out and build relationships with disability organizations. Use them as resources both for identifying potential employees and gathering information about disability issues.

This page was last modified on January 21, 2004.

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