July 26, 2025
Happy 35th Anniversary ADA – Why One Employer Was Not Celebrating
July 26th marked the 35th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Just two weeks prior, on July 10th, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s finding that an employer violated the ADA when it refused to hire a truck driver who was deaf. Some of the employer’s defenses included:
Direct threat defense – the employer asserted that all deaf drivers posed a direct threat to others on the road because of their condition. The district court noted that the employer had failed to individualize the direct threat analysis as to this driver, precluding them from establishing that defense as a matter of law. Remember, you must conduct an individualized assessment when it comes to considering what is/not a reasonable accommodation, aka on a case-by-case basis.
Undue hardship – district court also dismissed the employer’s undue hardship defense because it expressly disclaimed any financial burden imposed by accommodating the driver and did not point to any reason why accommodating him would fundamentally alter its entire business, not just the training program.
Was there any good news for the employer? The jury initially awarded the would-be driver $36M(!) in punitive damages. The district court reduced that to the statutory cap of $300,000.
Take-aways. It is training again. This case involved the company’s recruiting manager and Vice President of Safety and Compliance. In a phone call with the three of them, the VP told the driver, “No, I’m sorry, we can’t hire you because of your deafness.” Ensure your HR team and hiring managers understand your company’s obligations to (1) not discriminate based on actual or perceived disability; and (2) for HR or someone outside an individual’s chain of command to engage an applicant or employee in an interactive dialogue about reasonable accommodation.
Speaking of training. Check out August 27th’s upcoming webcast “ADA Update 2025“
