Welcome to Take 5 – a fact-filled segment of personnel-related information you need
to know -- presented in five minutes or less, the Personnel Cabinet has produced Take 5
to further its vision of being a trusted and valuable resource for you for innovative,
accessible and responsive human resource services.
Hi. Welcome to Take 5. I’m Pat Stipes. I’m here with Americans with Disabilities Act
Administrator Donna Shelton to help all Commonwealth employees understand the ADA. Donna, first
tell us what is the ADA? Well, the ADA is the Americans with Disabilities
Act which is a federal civil rights law that was passed in 1990. Now, the purpose of the
ADA is to protect citizens from discrimination in employment and other services. Under the
ADA there is 5 Titles. Title 1 is the Employment title. Title II has to do with services provided
by the state and local governments. Title III is the public accommodations title which
has to do with hotels, restaurants, theatres, doctor’s offices. Title IV is the telecommunication
title and then Title V is a miscellaneous title which has in there language to prohibit
retaliation against an individual who asserts their rights under the ADA or any individual’s
representative. Great. Now, what employers are covered by
Title I? Well, employers that are covered under Title
I are private employers with 15 or more employees, state and local government, employment agencies,
anyone in those categories that have 15 or more employees.
What employment activities are covered by the ADA?
Well, Title I prohibits discrimination in all employment practices, whether it’s job
application process, the hiring process, firing process, training, and any and all other related
activities to employment. Who is protected by Title I of the ADA?
Title I of ADA provides protection for qualified individuals with a disability. Now, when we
say qualified we are indicating that it’s the person that has the skill and the expertise
to do the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. Now,
when we’re talking about the definition of a disability, what we’re talking about
is a three-pronged definition. The first is an individual has a physical or mental impairment
that substantially limits a major life activity. The second is that employee has a record of
a physical or mental impairment and the third part of that definition is that a person is
regarded as having a physical or mental impairment whether one exists or not.
Now, in September of 2008, the Americans with Disabilities Act was amended and that changed
the interpretation of the definition of disability. So supervisors or employers who have the process
of the ADA coming up needs to really make sure that they contact their ADA Coordinator
in order to make sure that they are following the current procedures and policies of their
agency. Where can employees get additional information
about the ADA? Well, state government actually has a state
ADA Coordinator who is employed by state government and they can certainly contact him. His name
is Norb Ryan and he can be reached at 502-564-2304 or they can visit his website, which is ada.ky.gov.
Also, every agency has an ADA Coordinator and so employees can also contact those ADA
Coordinators or they can certainly contact me at 502-564-0348.
Thank you, Donna, for sharing this helpful information for employees. This is Pat Stipes for Take 5.
