127In our recent blog, Businesses & the ADA- Practise I Have to Let Service Dogs into My Business? nosotros talked about the requirements that businesses have to accommodate customers with service animals nether the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). Here, nosotros want to explain some of the differences and additional requirements on businesses to adjust employees with service animals. Nosotros encourage you lot to read our previous blog start, to get a consummate understanding of the ADA requirements regarding service animals.

What are the general requirements for accommodating employees with service animals?

According to Championship I of the ADA, employers must provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities. "Reasonable accommodations" can include changes or modifications to the work environment, the way a position is performed, and/or the application process. One example of a reasonable accommodation is allowing the employee to bring their service animal to work.

  • Finding the Right Adaptation: Providing reasonable accommodations is an interactive process. The employee volition first need to request some sort of accommodation. From at that place, the employer and the employee can piece of work together to effigy out what the all-time accommodations would be that the employer can reasonably carry out without "undue hardship" (meaning difficulty or expense) or a straight threat to the health or safe of others. It is important to consider the job, the duties that need to be performed, the environment, and several other factors to reach a fair determination. The employer tin too crave the employee to show that the service creature would be constructive at reducing the bear upon of the employee'southward disability.
  • Making the Workplace "Service Brute Friendly": Occasionally, employers may have to go a pace further to ensure that the employee tin comfortably use the service fauna at work. For case, it can be a reasonable accommodation for an employee to asking that floor mats are put downwardly at work to prevent her service creature from slipping, and failure to do so may violate the ADA. Other times, employers may need to change the workplace to assist other employees with a fright of dogs or domestic dog allergies past installing air filters, separating the employees, permitting electronic communications in identify of contiguous meetings, and things like that.
  • Ensuring "Reasonable Comfort" for Employees: Employers should keep in mind that the employee should be given reasonable accommodations and then that they can do their job with reasonable comfort. For case, if an employee confined to a wheelchair can do her task with just the wheelchair, but having a service brute to call back objects, open the door, and pull the wheelchair would allow her to do her job more comfortably (and help reduce the impact of her disability), the employer needs to consider allowing her to have a service animal.

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What are the differences between accommodating customers with service animals and employees with service animals?

Dissimilar Title III of the ADA, which requires businesses to allow service animals in all areas of public admission, Title I (which regulates employment) only requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities. "Reasonable accommodations" vary based on the circumstances and there may be more than than one alternative, so in that location is no automatic right for an employee to accept a service animal at work.

Additionally, while there are limits on what medical exams employers can require or what medical inquiries employers can make, they can ask for reasonable documentation regarding the employee's inability and ask near the service fauna's training.

Finally, Title I of the ADA does not define "service animal", and then it is possible that a service fauna in the employment context includes animals other than dogs.

Final Notes

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It is very important for employers to understand what the ADA requires employers to do to conform employees with service animals. It is as well important to remember that every business and employment position is different, and these situations can vary. The rules above use simply for employees, and other entities or businesses may have different requirements (for instance, housing requirements fall under the Fair Housing Act, and government entities autumn under Championship 2 of the ADA).

See also:

  • The The states Department of Justice's "Ofttimes Asked Questions well-nigh Service Animals and the ADA
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act Federal Regulations
  • Edwards five. USEPA, 456 F. Supp.2d 72 (D.D.C. 2006).
  • McDonald 5. Department of Environmental Quality, 214 P. 3d 749 (Mont. 2009).
  • Branson v. West, 1999 WL 1129598 (N.D. Ill. E. Div., 1999).