David Gotthelf, Ph.D.

Q: What do The American Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 mean to employers and employees?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are similar, but not identical, laws that address discrimination on the basis of a disability. Section 504 prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating on the basis of disability. The ADA strengthens Section 504 by extending it to the workplace, private institutions, and other institutions that were not identified under Section 504 (Brinckerhoff, L.C., Shaw, S.F., and McGuire, J.M., 1992). In addition, Title II of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in state and local government services by state and local governmental entities, whether or not they receive federal funds. Section 504 and the ADA do not specify evaluation and placement procedures; they do specify provision of reasonable accommodations for eligible employees across different activities and settings. The purpose of this article is to help employers understand these obligations, particularly regarding how they apply to individuals with learning or attention issues.

Neither Section 504 nor the ADA delineates specific due process procedures. People with disabilities have the same remedies that are available under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended in 1991. Thus, individuals who are discriminated against may file a complaint with the relevant federal agency or sue in federal court. Enforcement agencies encourage informal mediation and voluntary compliance (Henderson, 1995). The Office for Civil Rights monitors compliance with these plans as well as any other accommodations that may be necessary.

Q: How are employees identified as needing accommodations?
The ADA requires that all employers provide reasonable accommodations to employees who are identified as having a disability. All qualified persons with disabilities and those individuals who are discriminated against because they may have a relationship with a person who has a disability are covered under this law. There is no specific list of disabilities, but the same criteria are used to define a disability under ADA as are used in Section 504. Exceptions to this are HIV status and non-contagious diseases, both of which are defined as disabilities under ADA. An individual may qualify for an accommodations plan under ADA or Section 504 if the following criteria are met:

1. The individual has a diagnosed disability.
2. The individual has a record of the disability.
3. The disability "substantially affects one or more major life activities." (This includes learning or job performance.)

Employers and employees should note that it is the responsibility of the employee to identify himself or herself to the employer and to provide the employer with the necessary documentation identifying the disability.

Q: What are the definitions of learning and attention disabilities?
"Learning disability" and "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" are not terms reserved for only children and adolescents. Despite significant advances in diagnosis and in educational techniques that have been developed for students, most individuals grow into adulthood with some degree of their learning or attention issues still affecting their performance. More problematically, many adults have learning disabilities that have never been properly diagnosed. A good number of these adults could be more successful on the job with appropriate accommodations, most of which cost relatively little or are of no cost to their employer.

Learning disabilities comprise a number of specific disorders, many of which are used in general conversation interchangeably. But not all learning disabilities are alike. The following definitions are taken from either special education regulations or from clinical references. Remember, not everyone agrees with the specifics of each definition, but they generally describe the issues an employee may have.

Specific learning disability: A disorder in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations (IDEA definition).

• Dyslexia (disorders of reading): The individual has average to above average intelligence, but has deficits in visual, auditory, or motor processing that interfere with reading and reading comprehension.



• Dysgraphia (disorders of writing): The person has average to above average intelligence, but shows deficits in writing. Deficits may include lack of organization, clarity, unity, fragmentation of written concepts, mechanical errors, reversals, transpositions, and omissions of letters or words. Spelling may be poor, handwriting may be illegible, and written ideas may be disorganized and incomprehensible.



• Dyscalculia (disorders of arithmetical calculation): The individual has average to above average intelligence, but has difficulty with numbers or remembering facts over a long period of time. Some persons have spatial problems and difficulty aligning numbers into proper columns. Some persons may reverse numbers and have difficulty in mathematical operations.



• Dyspraxia (disorders of muscle coordination): The person has problems with messages from the brain being properly transmitted to the body; though the muscles are not paralyzed or weak, they have problems working well together; might cause speech problems as well as poor posture, poor sense of directions and/or difficulty with actions such as throwing and catching.



• Auditory processing disorder: The individual has difficulty in receiving accurate information from the sense of hearing; there is no problem with his hearing, just in how the brain interprets what he hears; might have problems with understanding and remembering oral instructions, differentiate between similar sounds, or hearing one sound over a background noise.



• Visual perceptual disorder: The person has difficulties receiving and/or processing accurate information from her sense of sight; might have a problem picking out an object from a background of other objects or seeing things in correct order.

Q: What questions should be asked when considering accommodations?
Once a diagnosis has been established and a determination made that it is substantially affecting a life activity, both employer and employee need to consider a number of questions in determining what accommodations would be needed.

The following questions are related to the individual employee:

1. What are the individual's job duties?
2. What job duties are problematic?
3. Exactly what does the person have trouble doing within the problematic area? For example:
   • Spelling problems: are they due to reversals, which may be an indicator of LD?
   • Visual or auditory deficits
   • Reading problems: are they due to a visual or auditory discrimination difficulty?
   • Memory deficits: are they due to lack of attention, the inability to focus, and the inability to screen out extraneous stimuli or short-term/long-term memory deficits?
4. How can the deficit be compensated? This is where accommodations are considered.

1. What is the physical layout of the workplace?
2. What specific equipment is utilized in the work setting?
3. What kind of lighting is used and what is the noise level in the workplace?
4. Is the workplace visually or auditorally distracting?
5. How can the physical environment of the workplace be changed, so that the employee will be able to perform her job duties?
6. Can the job duties be restructured, so that the employee can perform the duties that are easier for him?
7. What assistive devices could be used that will help the individual perform her job duties?

Employers may consider the following general accommodations, all of which are taken from the ADA Technical Assistance Manual, (Title I, Section 3):

• Make your facility readily accessible to an individual with a disability.
• Restructure a job by reallocating or redistributing marginal job functions.
• Alter when or how an essential job function is performed.
• Allow part-time or modified work schedules.
• Obtain or modify equipment or devices.
• Modify examinations, training materials, or policies.
• Provide qualified readers and interpreters.
• Reassign an employee to a vacant position.
• Permit use of accrued paid leave or unpaid leave for necessary treatment.
• Provide reserved parking for a person with a mobility impairment.
• Allow employees to provide equipment or devices that an employer is not required to provide.

Employers may consider the following specific accommodations for individuals diagnosed with learning disabilities and/or AD/HD:

• Books on tape, such as those provided by the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. (People with LD qualify for this service)
• Tape-recorded directives, messages, materials
• Reading machines
• Screen reading software for computer use

• Personal computers/laptop computers
• Voice input or output software that highlights and reads (via a speech synthesizer) what has been keyed into the computer
• Word processing software
• Spell check and grammar check software
• Software with highlighting capabilities

• Fractional, decimal, statistical, scientific calculators
• Talking calculators
• Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) software for arithmetic/mathematics
• Computer Assisted Design (CAD) software for architecture/engineering
• Large display screens for calculators, adding machines

• Day planners
• Electronic organizers/schedulers
• LCD watches, data bank watches, timers, counters, alarms
• Personal information managers (P.I.M.S.)
• Use of electronic mail (email) for memory deficits

• Room enclosures/cubicles to reduce auditory and visual distractions
• A private office space
• Use of a sound soother/environmental sound machine to create "white noise"
• Use of colored files
• Mapping of the workspace/office

• Brinckerhoff, L.C., Shaw, S.F., and McGuire, J.M., (1993). Promoting Postsecondary Opportunities for Students with Learning Disabilities, 44-45. Reprinted with permission on the website of the Oklahoma Association for Education and Disability. This is a good website that reviews the differences between IDEA, Section 504, and the ADA. http://www.okahead.org/handbook/legal.html



• Henderson, Kelly: "Overview of ADA, IDEA, and Section 504." ERIC Digest E537. ERIC Identifier: ED389142. 1995-06-00. http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed389142.html



• Job Accommodation Network (JAN): Very comprehensive, this website is devoted to helping employers with appropriate accommodations for employees under ADA. JAN is a service of the Office of Disability Employment Policy of the U.S. Department of Labor. The JAN website also gives a number of specific examples of accommodations that have been submitted to the site by employers or employees. The telephone number is 800-526-7234 (V/TTY) and the website is http://www.jan.wvu.edu . Much of what is presented above is from the JAN site, with credit given to Mayda LaRosse, M.A, for her organization of the material.



• Learning Disabilities Association of California (http://www.daca.org/books/ld . ): This site lists a number of books and other publications that address learning disabilities in adults.