The Americans with Disabilities Act protects against employment discrimination due to a disability. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, this includes job discrimination. As long as a person is qualified for the job and can perform it with reasonable accommodation, then it is illegal to fire a person solely based on the disability.
The ADA does not impart special privileges to the party involved. It is essential that all duties of the job must be handled by the individual or with the help of reasonable accommodation. As long as it does not put an undue hardship on the employer, he or she must pay for this reasonable accommodation. This could consist of modifying equipment, creating an accessible workplace, restructuring the job, modifying work schedules, providing readers or something else. Any required skills or education must be present.
There must be a record in place that a major life activity is significantly affected by a mental or physical disability. This might be walking, working, hearing, seeing, breathing or learning. If there is an assumption by a manager or employer of one in existence or a history of one, the individual is also covered by the ADA.
According to the Department of Labor, an employee with disability can be fired, if the situation meets certain conditions. Otherwise, it would be considered wrongful termination due to discrimination against a disability. If the health and safety of the workplace is put into danger by the disability, the employee cannot perform the job even with reasonable accommodation or if the termination is not related to the disability in question, then a termination is lawful.