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Disability in the Workplace Essay

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Disability in The Workplace

"The Americans With Disabilities Act is one of the most significant laws in American History. The preamble to the law states that it covers 43,000,000
Americans."(Frierson, p.3) Before the Americans With Disabilities Act(A.D.A.) was passed, employers were able to deny employment to a disabled worker, simply because he or she was disabled. With no other reason other than the persons physical disability were they turned away or released from a job. The Americans
With Disabilities Act prevented this type of discrimination by establishing rules and regulations designed to protect persons with physical disabilities.
With a workforce made up of 43,000,000 people, it is impossible to ignore the impact of these …show more content…

These measures have been set not only to put persons with disabilities on level ground with other applicants, it also protects their rights as to the kind of treatment they will receive
. Because of this, more and more people with disabilities are going out and applying for jobs. With the added assurance and comfort the A.D.A. provides, disabled workers can go out with confidence and apply for almost any position. There is a certain classification set by A.D.A. on what constitutes a person with a disability, that is if the person has a physical or mental disability that substantially limits a major life activity. Also, in order to be protected by the A.D.A. this person must have a long standing record of this disability and how it impairs his or her life. Once this has been established and the person has been hired there are still other guidelines set by the A.D.A. on how the employer goes about bringing this person into the company. This can be a very sensitive area for employer, applicant and existing employees. Because of the fact that the person has a disability, undue assumptions made by all parties involved. For instance, the new employee with the disabilitiy may assume that the existing employees will think that he or she needs help with many trivial things. Or the employer may tell the other workers to watch over this person for a while. What should be happening is what ever happens when any other person comes in for a new

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