1. Qualified individuals with physical or mental impairments are the only ones entitled to the protection of the ADA. 

Correct answer: False. A person who has a record of a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, or one who is perceived as having such an impairment, is also considered to be an individual with a disability and is protected by the law. 

2. Every physical or mental impairment is considered a disability for purposes of the ADA. 

Correct answer: False. Simple physical characteristics are not disabilities; pregnancy or behavioral disorders aren't either. An impairment, whether physical or mental, becomes a disability only when it "substantially limits" one or more of a person's major life activities (caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, procreating and working). Even the loss of a special sense (for example, sight, hearing or ability to experience pain, touch and temperature) will not necessarily qualify a person as having a disability because, in the employment context, the loss of one special sense is only disabling for tasks that specifically require the missing sense for which no other sense can substitute. 

3. An employer may not refuse to hire or promote a person whose child has Down's Syndrome because the employer thinks the person's work will be negatively affected by the association. 

Correct answer: True. People who associate with individuals with disabilities and who are discriminated against because of the association are protected by the ADA. The association could be family, social, or business relationships, or any other association. 

4. Employers may not offer different insurance policies for employees with disabilities than those offered to employees without disabilities. 

Correct answer: True. Whatever health insurance coverage an employer provides to other employees should be just as accessible to employees with disabilities. An employer cannot limit, segregate or classify a job applicant or employee in a way that negatively affects that person's employment opportunities or status on the basis of stereotypes and myths about the person's disability. However, insurers, hospitals, medical service companies and health maintenance organizations may underwrite, classify or administer risks that single out a particular disability, a discrete group of disabilities, or disability in general, even if their policies adversely affect people with disabilities, as long as these activities are not used as a subterfuge to evade the purposes of the ADA. Furthermore, employers do not have to provide the same coverage for employee dependents as they do for employees. 

5. An employer must provide a reasonable accommodation to every applicant who comes through its doors. 

Correct answer: False. Only the person who meets all of an employer's job-related criteria - except the criteria that cannot be met because of a disability - is entitled to a reasonable accommodation. Of course, an applicant who needs reasonable accommodation merely to apply for work is entitled to reasonable accommodation in the application process. The application process may begin when a person enters or attempts to enter the door or with a phone inquiry or e-mail response. That's why it is so important that whoever responds is trained not to express bias in any manner against a person with a disability. In addition, don't speculate about your ability to provide an individual with reasonable accommodation to perform the job on the basis of a request for accommodation in the application process; assess the need for accommodation for the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. 

6. Churches are not required to comply with the ADA's employment provisions.

Correct answer: It Depends. Religious organizations must comply with the employment provisions of the ADA just as any other employer. But they can give a preference in employment to individuals of a particular religion and can require that applicants and employees conform to the religious tenets of the organization in order to do work connected with the carrying on by the organization of its activities. 

7. A restaurant's short-order cook who is diagnosed as HIV-positive can be transferred by his employer to the position of busboy instead. 

Correct answer: False. Because it has not been determined that the HIV virus can be transmitted through handling food, an HIV-positive short-order cook could not be transferred. Accommodations to individuals with a disability must be weighed against health and safety concerns for others in the workplace. Concerns about the risk of infectious and communicable diseases being transmitted through food-handling jobs have resulted in special rules covering food handlers. Employers are allowed to refuse to hire or retain any employee with an infectious or communicable disease on a job involving food handling, provided that the employer makes reasonable accommodations that offer an alternative employment opportunity for which the employee is qualified. The Secretary of Health and Human Services annually publishes a list of infectious and communicable diseases that are transmitted through handling of the food supply. State food-handling laws may provide greater protections. 

8. An employer believes that a disabled employee poses a danger to the health and safety of herself and her co-workers. As a result, the employer does not have to accommodate the disabled employee. 

Correct answer: It Depends. An employer cannot automatically choose to deny an accommodation under such circumstances. First, the company must be able to clearly identify the risk of harm based upon objective or factual evidence. The risk must be a "significant risk of substantial harm" to the health or safety of the individual or others. Second, the harm must also be current and not speculative. It must be based on the current condition of the applicant or employee, and cannot be based on merely an elevated risk of injury. Finally, if the company can minimize or eliminate the health or safety risk by providing the employee with a reasonable accommodation, it must do so. 

9. Because the fact that there is a disability is obvious, an employer may ask an applicant with a visible disability questions about the extent of the disability before an offer of employment is made.

Correct answer: False. The employer can ask the applicant to explain how he or she believes the job can be performed. The employer may also ask whether the applicant needs reasonable accommodation and what type of reasonable accommodation is needed to perform the functions of the job. However, an employer may not ask a general question such as: "Do you have a disability that would prevent you from performing the essential functions of this job?" What a company can do is explain the job functions and ask how the applicant would perform the job. 

10. Once an offer of employment is made, an employer may require applicants to take a medical examination or answer medical questions before the applicant actually starts working. 

Correct answer: True. A company cannot require an applicant to take a physical examination unless it has made an offer of employment. An offer that has been made, however, can be conditioned upon the applicant's passing of a physical exam, provided that every other applicant offered employment is similarly required to undergo the examination. Even if the applicant has an apparent disability, a company cannot require a physical exam unless all others are also examined. If the offer of employment is conditioned on the results of the examination, all entering employees within the same job category must be subject to the exam, regardless of disability. Drug testing is treated differently, however. Because the ADA does not protect illegal drug use, mandatory testing for illegal drug use is allowed. But, because alcoholism is a covered disability under the statute, a company may not require mandatory alcohol testing except under certain specified circumstances. 

11. An employee who gives notice of a disability after he or she has been disciplined or put on notice of termination is protected from discipline or termination as a result of the disability. 

Correct answer: False. Notice is notice, no matter when it occurs. An employer is not obligated to provide a reasonable accommodation if it has no knowledge of the disability. Therefore, a company that makes a termination or disciplinary decision without notice of a disability may be able to follow through with that decision even if the employee states after-the-fact that he or she is disabled. An employer may discipline or terminate disabled employees for job-related misconduct when the same discipline would be imposed on employees without disabilities; employers never have to tolerate violence, threats of violence, stealing, or destruction of property. However, to head off a later ADA charge, the employer should investigate further into the nature of the disability and the performance issue and determine if there may be a correlation that could be addressed through a reasonable accommodation. 

12. An employee comes to the employer claiming he is under severe stress. The employer should treat the worker as though he has a mental health disability. 

Correct answer: It Depends. Mental health disabilities pose a special challenge to employers, as they often are not obvious from a person's actions or appearance. Companies have particular trouble in regards to employee notice of a mental health disability. To give notice, an employee is not required to use the word "reasonable accommodation," and it may be enough that the employee states that he or she is under stress and needs to take some time off. However, the mere inability to get along with others, or normal feelings of job stress, are not disabilities. In addition, a disability must last several months, not just a short period of time. Examples of mental health disabilities covered under the ADA may include depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive/compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. Once an employee claims a disability requiring reasonable accommodation, the company must engage in an interactive process to determine whether the employee is indeed disabled, and if so, whether a reasonable accommodation would allow him or her to perform the essential functions of the job. 

13. A current employee can no longer perform the essential functions of his regular job due to impaired vision. His employer has been able to accommodate the employee's impairment by shuffling case assignments. The fact that the employer has been able to accommodate the employee in the past means that the accommodation is reasonable, and the employer may not legally discontinue the accommodation. 

Correct answer: False. An employer may accommodate an employee by reallocating or redistributing nonessential, marginal job functions. As an accommodation, the employer may redistribute the marginal functions so that marginal functions that the individual with a disability cannot perform are transferred to another position. An employer is not required to reallocate essential functions, however. Essential functions are by definition those that the individual who holds the job would have to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, in order to be considered qualified for the position. Employers who make accommodations that exceed that which the law requires, such as a reallocation of essential job functions, are under no obligation to continue to do so. Even though the department had been able to accommodate the employee for quite some time with relatively minor disruption or inconvenience, the decision to cease making accommodations that pertained to essential functions of the job does not violate the ADA. 

14. An employer has a current employee with a disability performing successfully in her position. The employer may not implement new standards that change the essential functions of the job and result in the employee's inability to perform that job.

Correct answer: False. The essential functions of a job may change from time to time. Employers have the right to establish or change the content, nature or functions of a job. The ADA simply requires that employers evaluate the qualifications of a person with a disability in relation to the job's essential functions. Thus, an employer can combine two jobs into a new one that requires an employee to perform the essential functions of both former jobs as, for example, a grocery store combining the jobs of checker and bagger. When changes to essential job functions are made for legitimate business reasons, the impact on employees with disabilities does not render the change unlawful. 

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