Not Suprisingly, It's Not All About the Money

Employees with learning disorders such as ADD, dyslexia, and memory disorders are certainly nothing new. The increase in diagnoses of these disorders is, however. Unfortunately for such individuals, they are finding that their employers are not nearly as accommodating as their schools were.

The 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act states that employers are not required to make accommodations if "undue hardship" to the business would be the result. Furthermore, employers are not required to re-engineer their operations in any accommodating ways by, for instance, eliminating essential job duties or creating new jobs.

While we certainly don't enjoy being the bearer of bad news, we do feel it's our responsibility to warn any blog readers who may suffer from a learning disorder. We empathize with you, particularly those right out of school who are used to accommodations, but we feel we would be violating our fiduciary responsibility if we didn't tell you where things still stand on the employer front and tactfully remind you that there is a huge difference between an employer-employee relationship and that between a teacher and student.

back to the October blog