Disability discrimination is illegal under federal statutes. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) helped enshrine key protections for people with disabling medical conditions. Employees should not have to worry about businesses considering their disabling medical conditions when making decisions about employment opportunities.
Additionally, businesses may also need to provide reasonable accommodations for workers who can do the job with certain types of support despite their medical challenges. Unfortunately, disability discrimination remains relatively common. Workers with disabling medical conditions may need to take legal action in response to inappropriate business practices.
When are workers particularly vulnerable to illegal employment discrimination?
When applying for a job
One of the most common ways that disability discrimination manifests is during the hiring process. Companies may send a worker a job offer, only to retract it when they show up for training on crutches or in a wheelchair. Conversely, they may retract the offer when the worker asks about accommodations during the onboarding process. Employers often try to hide the reasoning behind their choices, but workers may be acutely aware of how members of the management or human resources teams responded to learning about their accommodation needs or medical challenges.
When seeking a promotion
Some companies are happy to hire workers for entry-level positions despite their disabling medical conditions. However, those workers may not receive the same advancement opportunities and raises that their coworkers do. When a qualified worker finds themselves denied opportunities or unable to obtain the same wage increases that their co-workers do, that can be an indicator of disability discrimination.
When seeking help after a diagnosis
Frequently, disability discrimination does not occur at the beginning of an employment arrangement. Instead, the worker acquires a disability while working for the company. They may then ask their employer to accommodate them based on medical recommendations. Unfortunately, many businesses may refuse to offer workers the support they need to safely do their jobs well. The company may simply refuse to support them or may start taking issue with their performance and finding excuses to write them up for minor infractions.
Understanding when disability discrimination is most likely to occur can help employees protect themselves by maintaining documentation. Those who have experienced discrimination may need to consider taking legal action to hold their employers accountable.