Benefits July 27, 2006

EEOC Issues Fact Sheet on Employment of Hearing Impaired

July 27, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a new question-and-answer fact sheet on the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to job applicants and employees who are deaf or who have hearing impairments.
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The new publication includes real-life examples illustrating the kinds of jobs people with hearing loss successfully perform and the wide range of accommodations available for employers to offer workers with hearing loss, according to an EEOC news release.

Topics addressed in the document, according to the release, include:

  • When a hearing loss is a disability under the ADA;
  • When an employer may ask an applicant or employee about a hearing impairment and what it should do if an applicant voluntarily discloses the impairment;
  • What type of reasonable accommodation an applicant or employee with a hearing disability may need; and
  • What an employer should do if it has safety concerns about an applicant or employee with a hearing impairment.

The document is the sixth in a series of publications about specific disabilities in the workplace. EEOC Chair Cari Dominguez announced the issuance of the publication at a meeting sponsored by the National Council on Disability in observance of the 16 th anniversary of the ADA.

The fact sheet is here .

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