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Results: 1 - 20 of 50
| Q | What disability groups are at particular risk for flu? |
|---|---|
| A | If you have one of the disabilities listed below, you may be at increased risk of becoming infected or having unrecognized illness. You should discuss your risk of illness with your healthcare provider. More >> |
| Q | Are there equal opportunity resources available that explains policies about working with disabled people and accommodation? |
| A | Employers are encouraged to consult the following EEOC publications for further information about the Americans with Disabilities Act. More >> |
| Q | How does a physical disability affect how someone may respond to the flu? |
| A | People with certain types of disability have a higher risk of getting flu-related complications, such as pneumonia. More >> |
| Q | During a flu outbreak, must an employer continue to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with known disabilities that are unrelated to the pandemic, barring undue hardship? |
| A | Yes, an employer’s ADA responsibilities to individuals with disabilities continue during an influenza pandemic. More >> |
| Q | How does a cognitive or mental disability affect someone’s ability to keep from getting the flu? |
| A | Some mental disabilities can lead to challenges in processing information and making decisions. More >> |
| Q | When an employee with disabilities returns from travel during a pandemic, must an employer wait until the employee develops influenza symptoms to ask questions about exposure to pandemic influenza during the trip? |
| A | No, these would not be disability-related inquiries. More >> |
| Q | Do home and community-based service providers in day and residential programs for people with disabilities have priority for receiving the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccines? |
| A | Providers of home and community-based health-related services (personal care attendants, direct support staff, paraprofessionals, itinerant therapists and others providing ADL support) who have close and consistent contact with people with disabilities and those providing healthcare support services in day and residential programs for people with disabilities should be considered in the same priority as ‘health care personnel’. More >> |
| Q | During an influenza pandemic, do employers have to provide new accommodations for a person with a disability (e.g., special work hours) due to lack of public transportation or other similar circumstances? What are the organization’s obligations if it can no longer provide an accommodation (e.g., the sign language interpreter is home sick and no others are available)? |
| A | If a particular accommodation cannot be provided (e.g., no sign language interpreters are available), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) would require you to provide an available alternative accommodation if it does not pose an undue hardship. (See the U.S. More >> |
| Q | Are there ADA-compliant ways for employers to identify which employees are more likely to be unavailable for work in the event of a flu outbreak? |
| A | Yes, employers may make inquiries that are not disability-related. More >> |
| Q | During a flu pandemic, may an ADA-covered employer take its employees’ temperatures to determine whether they have a fever? |
| A | Generally, measuring an employee’s body temperature is a medical examination. More >> |
| Q | During a flu outbreak, may an ADA-covered employer ask employees who do not have flu symptoms to disclose whether they have a medical condition that the CDC says could make them especially vulnerable to flu complications? |
| A | No, if pandemic influenza is like seasonal influenza or the 2009 H1N1 virus, making disability-related inquiries or requiring medical examinations of employees without symptoms is prohibited by the ADA. More >> |
| Q | During a pandemic, may an employer require its employees to adopt infection control practices? |
| A | Yes, requiring infection control practices, such as regular hand washing (see our handwashing video), coughing and sneezing etiquette, and tissue usage and disposal, does not implicate the Ameicans with Disabilities Act (ADA). More >> |
| Q | During a pandemic, may an employer ask an employee why he or she has been absent from work if the employer suspects it is for a medical reason? |
| A | Yes, asking why an individual did not report to work is not a disability-related inquiry. More >> |
| Q | May an employer rescind a job offer made to an applicant based on the results of a post-offer medical examination, if it reveals that the applicant has a medical condition that puts him/her at increased risk of complications from the flu? |
| A | No, unless the applicant would pose a direct threat within the meaning of the ADA. More >> |
| Q | May an employer encourage or require employees to telework (i.e., work from an alternative location such as home) as an infection control strategy? |
| A | Yes. More >> |
| Q | May an employer require its employees to wear personal protective equipment (e.g., face masks, gloves, or gowns) designed to reduce the transmission of a pandemic virus? |
| A | Yes, an employer may require employees to wear personal protective equipment. More >> |
| Q | During a flu outbreak, may an employer track whether or not employees and their family members or associates have contracted pandemic influenza? If so, and as part of that tracking, may the employer require them to disclose whether they have, or have been exposed to, pandemic influenza? |
| A | Yes, during a pandemic, the Americans with Disabilities Act1 (ADA) permits employers to require employees to disclose whether they have or have been exposed to pandemic influenza. Employers also may ask about employee’s family members and associates.
Employers should be aware, however, that treating an employee adversely because of a family member’s or associate’s disability is prohibited by the ADA. To protect privacy rights, the ADA requires employers to keep medical information confidential (i.e., maintained on a separate form and in a separate medical file).
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1The EEOC enforces Title I of the ADA. The ADA’s provisions in regards to disability-related inquiries, medical examinations, and confidentiality apply to all applicants and employees of covered employers, regardless of whether those individuals have disabilities, as defined by the ADA. By contrast, other ADA requirements apply only if an applicant or an employee is an individual with a disability under the ADA. More >> |
| Q | May employers mandate employees stay home if they or members of their family are known or suspected to have the flu or been exposed to someone with the flu? |
| A | Yes, even if an employer believes that individual would pose a direct threat in the workplace due to a disability, the employer would not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) if it required a qualified individual with a disability to stay home. A direct threat is a significant risk of substantial harm to safety that cannot be eliminated or reduced by a reasonable accommodation. A determination of direct threat must be based on the most recent and reputable medical information. If a pandemic illness did not rise to the level of a disability, then a decision to require infected employees to stay home would not implicate the ADA. More >> |
| Q | May employers ask employees if they may have a higher risk of infection, for example, a compromised immune system? |
| A | Generally, an employer may not ask employees disability-related questions (i.e., a question likely to elicit information about a disability), unless the questions are job-related and consistent with business necessity. More >> |
| Q | May an employer require entering employees to have a medical test post-offer to determine their exposure to the influenza virus? |
| A | Yes, in limited circumstances. More >> |
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