Disability Discrimination Lawyer Serving San Antonio
The Americans with Disabilities Act (commonly referred to as the "ADA") protects employees against discrimination based on a disability. Additionally, certain Texas laws protect employees from disability discrimination.
What is Considered a Disability under the ADA?Our employment discrimination lawyers can help you determine if you have a disability, as defined by the ADA. Under the ADA, an employee with a disability is:
- Someone who has a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity;
- Someone with a record of having such an impairment; or
- Someone who the employer regards as having such an impairment.
In 2008, the meaning of the word "disability" was expanded. Now, people with epilepsy, diabetes, HIV, AIDS, depression, and a wide range of other impairments are protected from disability discrimination under the ADA.
Employers covered by the ADA are required to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities. The following are examples of what could be considered a reasonable accommodation under the ADA:
- Ensuring that existing restrooms used by employees are accessible and usable to an employee in a wheelchair;
- Modifying work schedules so that an employee can seek treatment;
- Transferring a qualified and disabled employee to an open position when appropriate; or
- Providing a disabled employee with equipment or devices to accommodate a disability.
The ADA requires and employer to engage in an interactive process to determine what is a reasonable accommodation. Thus, a covered employer cannot simply deny a request for a reasonable accommodation. An employer must work with the employee to determine what is the best solution.
Different employees may require a different reasonable accommodation. Sometimes a reasonable accommodation is the ability to take leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") requires covered employers to give employees up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave each year. This leave does not have to be taken all at once. In fact, the leave can be taken incrementally. For example, an employee could take a few hours of leave at a time. Employers who violate the ADA often violate the FMLA.
Contact our discrimination lawyers today if your employer has discriminated against you because of a disability.
The ADA prohibits employers from retaliating against an employee who opposes unlawful disability discrimination, files a charge of discrimination, or participates in an investigation or litigation regarding and ADA violation.
Our disability discrimination lawyers have extensive experience representing employees who have been discriminated against in the workplace.
Contact our employment lawyers if you have been discrimination against by your employer because of a disability.