Employment ADA: Qualified Individual with a Disability

Statutes
Regulations
Case Law

Statutes:

42 U.S.C. 12112(a) - Discrimination - General rule

No covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.

42 U.S.C. § 12111(8)

The term qualified individual with a disability means an individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires. For the purposes of this subchapter, consideration shall be given to the employer's judgment as to what functions of a job are essential, and if an employer has prepared a written description before advertising or interviewing applicants for the job, this description shall be considered evidence of the essential functions of the job.

42 U.S.C. § 12114(a)

For purposes of this subchapter, the term qualified individual with a disability shall not include any employee or applicant who is currently engaging in the illegal use of drugs, when the covered entity acts on the basis of such use.

Regulation:

29 C.F.R § 1630.2(m)

Qualified individual with a disability means an individual with a disability who satisfies the requisite skill, experience, education and other job-related requirements of the employment position such individual holds or desires, and who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of such position.

Case Law:

Cleveland v. Policy Management Systems Corp., 000 U.S. 97-1008 (1999).

The plaintiff had applied for and received Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. The Social Security program provides benefits to "a person with a disability so severe that she is 'unable to do [her] previous work' and 'cannot ... engage in any other kind of substantial gainful work which exists in the national economy.'" 42 U.S.C. § 423(d)(2)(A).

She also pursued an ADA disability discrimination suit claiming that with reasonable accommodation she could perform the essential functions of her job.

Even though her two claims seem to contradict each other, the Supreme Court held that the pursuit and receipt of SSDI benefits does not automatically estop the recipient from pursuing an ADA claim nor does it raise strong presumption against the recipient's success under the ADA. "There are too many situations in which an SSDI claim and an ADA claim can comfortably exist side by side."

The ADA plaintiff can not simply ignore her SSDI claim that she was too disabled to work. To survive a motion for summary judgment, she must explain the (in)consistency of the two claims. In this situation, the plaintiff pointed out that whether an individual is disabled for SSDI purposes does not take the possibility of "reasonable accommodation" into account. "An ADA suit claiming that the plaintiff can perform her job with reasonable accommodation may well prove consistent with an SSDI claim that the plaintiff could not perform her own job (or other jobs) without it." The plaintiff also adequately explained that the basis of the two claims arose out of different time periods.