ADD Meets ADA
ABLEnews Extra - is a newsletter featuring news and information regarding disabilities and related medical topics. In this issue, a discussion of Attention Deficit Disorder and the American Disabilities Act. Description Copyright 1994 PsL
ABLEnews Extra
ADD Meets ADA
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Although Mari Kennedy scored at the genius level on intelligence tests, she had problems concentrating on her job as a secretary when her work was interrupted with yet another project. Then, in December, Ms. Kennedy was diagnosed with ADD, or attention deficit disorder. ADD is a syndrome characterized by distractibility, short attention span, underachievement, and poor impulse control.
Ms. Kennedy asked her employer, Legacy Health Care System in Portland, OR to restructure her job to accommodate her under the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Failing that, she asked to be reassigned to a position with longer term tasks and fewer odds and ends, or to be given a severance package.
The human resources department told Ms. Kennedy that although Legacy had 6,000 employees, it had no other position for which it felt she was qualified. She could stay in her current position but would have to fulfill all aspects of her job description. If she couldn't, she would be subject to corrective action. Legacy said it was her choice to leave and offered her three weeks' pay. Now on unemployment, Ms. Kennedy is starting a medical transcription business and consulting her lawyer. A Legacy spokesman declined to comment.
ADD is not something many Americans are aware of--yet. But employers in particular should pay attention. They will hear much more about ADD when those who are diagnosed with it learn that they probably have some level of protection under the disabilities act. Until recently people with ADD were viewed as having character or moral problems; these are the kind of people businesses love to fire.
Those with ADD may have recourse,however, if they can show they have the condition, let their employers know about it, and were fired instead of accommodated. Employers could find themselves facing civil suits and forced to restore the discharged people to their old positions, or even given them promotions, as well as back pay or reasonable accommodation. Employers may also be forced to pay the employees' legal fees.
What makes this situation so worrisome is the ambiguity. No one knows how many adults have the disorder, and no one knows how the disabilities act requirements will be enforced. Moreover, an employer may suspect that an employee with behavior problems has ADD, but he can neither ask the employee about it nor make the employee take a test for it.
Thus, unless the employee is diagnosed with ADD and tells his employer, the company has no way of knowing whether that person is a goof-off or legitimately disabled. Although it is the employee's responsibility to tell the employer about the disability and ask for accommodation, this situation is still potential quicksand for the unaware manager.
Carol Means is a consultant with the Jobs Accommodation Network, a service of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. An average of one to two ADD calls are now received each day, compared with only 20 calls in the entire third quarter of 1993.
What are some of the signs of ADD? People with the disorder get into power struggles, which they seem to prefer to negotiation; they have bad judgment, shoot from the hip, act impulsively. They become irritable, especially when interrupted or forced to make changes. They procrastinate. Their desks are a mess; they can't find things in the files. You can have what you think is a conversation with them and five minutes later you realize they haven't heard a word you said. They forget people's names. They don't like to go through established channels or respect set procedure. They start projects with a flourish and get bored or overwhelmed before they finish. They are always in a daze, getting distracted from one thing to another.
It's no wonder employers want to fire such workers. But this may not be so much a character problem as an impairment of the brain that can be mitigated with medication such as Ritalin, or managed by modifications in the workplace. Ms. Means advises that the larger the employer, the more it will be expected to accommodate those with ADD. It may be in the company's best interest to accommodate if ADD is only suspected.
It is possible that such employees can be helped at little or no cost. Almost a third of ADD accommodations cost nothing, she says, and half cost less than $50. More than two-thirds cost less than $500; 89% cost less than $1,000. One publication gave a distractible journalist a sound- reduction cubicle in which to work, and a tape recorder for interviews. A designer working on a computer worked out a 'buddy system,' with co- workers ready to check work and remind the employee of key functions.
Some other ADD accommodations:
- Playing white noise to cover distracting conversations.
- Moving the employee's desk away from high-traffic areas, such as the copy machine.
- Repeating and simplifying instructions, telling the employee what to do both orally and in writing.
- Keeping people organized and on task with software organizers, flow charts, and electronic desktop organizers.
- Color coding task files.
- Offering memory aids such as personal assistant devices, alarm clocks, stick-on notes, and cue cards.
The key for both employer and employee becomes documentation. Employees who want accommodation should first make an oral request, then repeat the request in writing, advises Ms. Means. She says the request must be specific--for a tape recorder or a move to another desk, for example. Employees should be prepared to show how their ADD significantly limits or restricts a major life function. To learn more, they can ask for the 'ADA, Title I Technical Assistance Manual,' from the Job Accommodation Network at 1-800-526-7234.
Employers, for their part, can't blow those requests off. If they are not going to make the accommodation, they should state their reasons in a note and file it. 'Leave a paper trail.' Ms. Means says. Information for employers is available at the same number.
All these accommodations must be at the employer's expense, but don't panic. The disabilities act requires only 'reasonable accommodation' that neither alters the essential nature of the job nor results in 'significant difficulty or expense' to the employer. If an employee asks for an accommodation that seems unreasonable, be prepared to offer something else and have a good explanation why.
[Attention Deficit Disorder Can't Be Ignored, Gary Eisler, Wall Street Journal, 6/27/94]
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