The Low Cost of ADA Compliance (and the Misconception of the High Cost)

          Along with the spirit of the ADA came the requirement that discriminatory barriers to employment be removed for individuals with disabilities, in order that they may achieve the “equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency” that Congress originally sought when they passed the original ADA.

          The ADA defines discrimination as “not making reasonable accommodations to the known limitations of an otherwise qualified individual.” In order to avoid this discrimination, employers have to accept the financial burden of accommodation up to the undue hardship ceiling.

          Employers often complain about the costs associated with making reasonable accommodations. According to a DePaul University and Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity study, the financial advantages of making the accommodations outweigh the disadvantages:

-Participants with disabilities from the retail and hospitality sectors stayed on the job longer than participants without disabilities.

-Across all sectors, participants with disabilities had fewer scheduled absences than those without disabilities.

-Retail participants with disabilities had fewer days of unscheduled absences than those without disabilities.

Regardless of sector, participants with and without disabilities had nearly identical job performance. <www.disabilityworks.org/downloads/disabilityworksdepaul studyexecutivesummary.pdf>.

The above and other studies point to the ideas that costs of compliance are small, and the additional benefits of compliance are that individuals with disabilities are less excluded in society in general when put into work. They are also taken off government-assisted programs.

It seems, however, that before the individual with a disability begins the arduous task of defining his or herself as disabled under the ADA, they’re faced with a misconception that equality is too expensive. This misconception is a societal obstacle that, so long as it exists and goes unpacked, will hinder the ADA from reaching its goals. 

(Stay tuned for my next blog as the focus of Massachusetts Disability Lawyer turns to guardianship in special education as well as other disability cases.)