Failure-to-accommodate claim doesn't play in Peoria

An employee's request for reasonable accommodations due to disability may spawn a multilayered response from the employer. The company first may need to verify whether he truly has a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and if so, how the disability affects the performance of his essential job functions. And just what functions are essential to the job must also be evaluated. What accommodations would enable him to perform? Are the accommodations reasonable? With so much going on, it's easy to get lost. A recent decision from the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all Illinois employers) reminds us that sometimes you need to keep it simple.

Room with a view

Edward Youngman began working as a youth counselor at the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center in 1998. He was responsible for the supervision, care, safety, and counseling of juveniles at the 63-bed facility. In 1993, he was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor, for which he had surgery. Years later, he had a thyroidectomy resulting in both hypothyroidism and hypocalcemia.

In 2012, the center's superintendent decided every youth counselor needed to be trained in and rotated through all three assignments at the detention center: control room, living units, and floaters. Up to that time, Youngman had worked in the control room on only 10 to 14 occasions during his 13-year career. All counselors on the first shift, which he worked, were required to work in the control room for at least one or two weeks annually.