EEOC Adopts New Internal Procedures on Reasonable Accommodation for Individuals with Disabilities

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the public issuance of new internal procedures for providing reasonable accommodation for EEOC employees and applicants with disabilities.  The full text of the standards are available on the Commission's web site at http://www.eeoc.gov.

"EEOC's new procedures provide a clear guide to federal employees and managers and emphasize the importance of quickly processing requests for reasonable accommodation," said Commission Chairwoman Ida L. Castro. "In addition to serving as an example to other federal agencies, the procedures will assist private sector employers in their efforts to comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act which will increase opportunities for people with disabilities to become productive members of the work force."

The new standards implement the requirements of Executive Order 13164, which requires all federal agencies to develop written procedures explaining how they will process reasonable accommodation requests.  The Executive Order also directed EEOC to publish a guidance to assist federal agencies in drafting their procedures. That guidance, issued on October 20, 2000, is also available on the agency's web site.

Consistent with Executive Order 13164, EEOC's procedures address the following issues:

   
• Who can receive and process requests for reasonable accommodation;
   
• The importance of a dialogue between the person making the request and the manager who will decide whether to grant it; and
   
• The time frames for processing and providing accommodation.
 

In addition, EEOC's internal procedures include appendices addressing certain types of reasonable accommodations, such as sign language interpreters, as well as sample forms to facilitate compliance with the procedures' requirements.

In addition to enforcing Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in the private sector and state and local governments, and the Rehabilitation Act's prohibitions against disability discrimination in the federal government, EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which prohibits discrimination against individuals 40 years of age or older; the Equal Pay Act; and sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.