Americans with Disability Act: financial aspects of reasonable accommodations and undue hardship

The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) is a significant piece of discrimination legislation that merits ongoing managerial exploration. This civil rights legislature indicates that employers are expected to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with reported disabilities. The statute also indicates that employers can refuse to offer a reasonable accommodation if doing so creates an undue hardship on the organization. However, health care managers should exercise extreme caution when using undue hardship as a defense against providing reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities. This point should be duly noted by health care managers given that studies indicate that lawsuits alleging disability discrimination are on the rise. This is unfortunate given the costs of reasonable accommodations are typically miniscule.