Americans with Disabilities Act Policy

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act, known as the ADAAA, are federal laws that require employers with 15 or more employees to not discriminate against applicants and individuals with disabilities and, when needed, to provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees who are qualified for a job, with or without reasonable accommodations, so that they may perform the essential job duties of the position.

It is the policy of IAMT to comply with all federal and state laws concerning the employment of persons with disabilities and act in accordance with regulations and guidance issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Furthermore, it is our company policy not to discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities in regard to application procedures, hiring, advancement, discharge, compensation, training or other terms, conditions and privileges of employment.

When an individual with a disability is requesting accommodation and can be reasonably accommodated without creating an undue hardship or causing a direct threat to workplace safety, he or she will be given the same consideration for employment as any other applicant. Applicants who pose a direct threat to the health, safety and well-being of themselves or others in the workplace when the threat cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation will not be hired.

IAMT will reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with a disability so that they can perform the essential functions of a job unless doing so causes a direct threat to these individuals or others in the workplace and the threat cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation and/or if the accommodation creates an undue hardship to IAMT.
All employees are required to comply with the company safety standards. Current employees who pose a direct threat to the health and/or safety of themselves or other individuals in the workplace will be placed on appropriate leave until an organizational decision has been made in regard to the employees’ immediate employment situation.
Individuals who are currently using illegal drugs are excluded from coverage under the company ADA policy.

The HR department is responsible for implementing this policy, including resolution of reasonable accommodation, safety/direct threat and undue hardship issues.

Terms used in the policy

As used in this ADA policy, the following terms have the indicated meaning:

Disability means a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of the individual, a record of such an impairment or being regarded as having such an impairment.

Major life activities include the following, but are not limited to: caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating and working.

The  ADAAA also includes the term “major bodily functions,” which may include physical or mental impairment such as any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more body systems, such as neurological, musculoskeletal, special sense organs, respiratory (including speech organs), cardiovascular, reproductive, digestive, genitourinary, immune, circulatory, hemic, lymphatic, skin and endocrine. Also covered are any mental or psychological disorders, such as intellectual disability (formerly termed mental retardation), organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities.

Substantially limiting: In accordance with the ADAAA final regulations, the determination of whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity requires an individualized assessment, and an impairment that is episodic or in remission may also meet the definition of disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active. Some examples of these types of impairments may include, but are not limited to, epilepsy, hypertension, asthma, diabetes, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. An impairment such as cancer that is in remission but that may possibly return in a substantially limiting form also is considered a disability under EEOC final ADAAA regulations.

Direct threat means a significant risk to the health, safety or well-being of individuals with disabilities or others when this risk cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation.

Qualified individual means an individual who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires.

Reasonable accommodation includes any changes to the work environment and may include making existing facilities readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, job restructuring, part-time or modified work schedules, telecommuting, reassignment to a vacant position, acquisition or modification of equipment or devices, appropriate adjustment or modifications of examinations, training materials or policies, the provision of qualified readers or interpreters, and other similar accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

Undue hardship means an action requiring significant difficulty or expense by the employer. In determining whether an accommodation would impose an undue hardship on a covered entity, factors to be considered include, but are not limited to:

• The nature and cost of the accommodation.
• The overall financial resources of the facility or facilities involved in the provision of the reasonable accommodation; the number of persons employed at such facility; the effect on expenses and resources; or the impact of such accommodation upon the operation of the facility.
• The overall financial resources of the employer; the size, number, type and location of facilities.
• The type of operations of the company, including the composition, structure and functions of the workforce; administrative or fiscal relationship of the particular facility involved in making the accommodation to the employer.
• The impact of the accommodation on the operation of the facility.

Essential functions of the job refer to those job activities that are determined by the employer to be essential or core to performing the job; these functions cannot be modified.