The EEOC Issues New Guidance Reminding Employers of Protections for Applicant and Employees with Hearing Disabilities

On January 24, 2023, the U.S. Equivalent Work Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released an up-to-date resource document titled “Hearing Disabilities in the Workplace and the Individuals with Disabilities Act,” outlining how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to work applicants and personnel who are deaf or difficult of listening to or have other listening to conditions.

According to the Countrywide Institute on Deafness and Other Interaction Issues, approximately 15% of People have of some form of issues hearing, which could qualify as a disability beneath the ADA. Through a series of concerns and solutions, as effectively as situational hypotheticals, the EEOC’s current guidance explains employer obligations pre-offer you, submit-offer, and for the duration of employment and explores these types of troubles as:

• when an employer may well ask an applicant or staff thoughts about a hearing situation and how it should handle voluntary disclosures
• what varieties of reasonable accommodations candidates or staff with listening to disabilities may require
• how an employer should really take care of safety fears about candidates and staff members with listening to disabilities and
• how an employer can guarantee that no employee is harassed for the reason that of a listening to disability or any other incapacity.

The freshly current guidance will come on the heels of the EEOC’s the latest bulletins of settlements arrived at amongst the EEOC and two personal companies accused of engaging in incapacity discrimination and/or failure to accommodate listening to-impaired people today. It comes as a reminder to all businesses that lots of hearing-impaired applicants and staff are protected less than the ADA. Businesses must critique the up-to-date steerage as a reminder as to what their obligations are below the ADA and, as often, make contact with your Weintraub Tobin Labor and Employment legal professional with any concerns.