Accessibility
The ease with which a site, facility, work environment, service, or program can be approached, entered, operated, participated in, and/or used safely and with dignity by a person with a disability.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Legislation that prohibits discrimination based on a person’s disabilities. It covers the private sector and state and local governments. The ADA requires such entities to accommodate individuals with disabilities in all phases of government services, public accommodations, transportation, and employment.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended (ADAAA)
An amendment signed into law on September 25, 2008, and effective on January 1, 2009. This amendment significantly broadened the definition of “disability” to ensure that the law would cover more individuals. In addition, it amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 so that it conforms to the ADAAA changes.
Bona fide job offer
An offer made to an applicant selected competitively or noncompetitively after having met the overall eligibility and initial personal suitability requirements.
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
A codification of the rules published in the Federal Register by executive departments and agencies of the federal government. See 39 CFR for Postal Service regulations.
Collective bargaining agreements
Also referred to as National Agreements or Contracts, these are the Postal Service-wide binding terms and conditions agreed upon by the Postal Service and labor unions.
Communication accommodation
Reasonable accommodation designed to enhance effective communication for and with employees who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Communication Accommodation Plan (CAP)
Documents specific reasonable communication accommodations that the Postal Service will provide for employees and applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Competitive employment process
The consideration and selection of individuals from a hiring register established because of rankings achieved in a competitive hiring process.
Direct threat
A significant risk of substantial harm to the safety or health of the individual or others that reasonable accommodation cannot eliminate or reduce to an acceptable level. A significant risk means there is a high probability of substantial harm, not a slightly increased risk. The Postal Service will base the determination that an individual poses a “direct threat” on an individualized assessment of the individual’s present ability to perform safely the essential functions of the job. The Postal Service will base this assessment on a reasonable medical judgment that relies on current medical knowledge, on the best available objective evidence, or both. In determining whether an individual would pose a direct threat, the Postal Service considers the following factors: (1) the duration of the risk; (2) the nature and severity of the potential harm; (3) the likelihood that the potential harm will occur; and (4) the imminence of the potential harm.
Disability
A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of an individual.
Disability retirement
An application for annuity filed by an employee claiming permanent, total disability for his or her job.
District Disability Coordinator (DDC)
Serves as the district point of contact for employees who are deaf or hard of hearing. The DDC receives oral and written requests for communication accommodations and explains the process to employees who are deaf or hard of hearing. The DDC is responsible for the following: (1) forwarding a request to the Reasonable Accommodation Committee (RAC); (2) serving as a subject matter expert on the RAC when reviewing the request; and (3) coordinating the implementation of the Communication Accommodation Plan with the employee’s supervisor.
Division or Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR)
State offices providing rehabilitation assistance for individuals with disabilities.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
The agency responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity, including transgender status), national origin, age (40 or over), physical or mental disability, genetic information or previous complainant status.
Essential functions
The major tasks that must be accomplished on a specific job. They are tasks that, if the individual performs incorrectly or omits, will result in failure to attain the basic purpose of the job. Other factors to consider are (1) the amount of time an individual usually spends performing the function; (2) whether the function is uniformly performed by incumbents; (3) the experience of jobholders; and (4) the degree of skills and abilities needed to perform the function (see 223). Essential functions may vary from one installation to another for specific jobs with the same job title and occupation code.
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
The federal law that requires covered employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to eligible employees for certain family and medical reasons. Generally, employees are eligible if they have worked for at least one year and for 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months.
Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA)
A law that provides compensation benefits to civilian employees of the United States for disability due to personal injury (including occupational disease) sustained while in the performance of duty. In addition, damage to or destruction of medical braces, artificial limbs, and other prosthetic devices incidental to a personal injury is compensable. FECA also provides for the payment of benefits to dependents if job-related injury or disease causes the employee’s death.
Full duty
As used in this text, “full duty” includes marginal as well as essential job functions or may mean performing job functions without any accommodation.
Impairments
See physical or mental impairments.
Interactive process
An informal, fact-gathering and information-sharing process whereby the individual who seeks reasonable accommodation and the employer explore available options. In most cases, depending on the disability in issue, the focus will be on the essential functions of the job in question and potential accommodations to enable the individual to perform those functions, and not so much on medical evidence to establish a disability. Refer to Chapter 2 for the six steps in the interactive process.
Job restructuring
Altering a job to enable a qualified person with a disability to perform the essential functions.
Light duty
Work, as defined in a specific collective bargaining agreement, provided to an employee who is unable to perform the regularly assigned duties of his or her job due to a non-work-related injury or illness.
Limited duty
As used in this text, the term “limited duty” refers to a temporary assignment for an employee who is unable to perform the regularly assigned duties of his or her job due to an occupational illness or injury.
Major life activities
Functions such as, but not limited to (see 142.3), caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working.
Medical assessment
Preemployment medical examination, medical assessment questionnaire process, or additional information to identify an individual’s ability to perform the functions of the job in question without endangering the health and safety of the individual or others.
Mitigating measures
Treatment or devices such as, but not limited to, medication; assistive technology; prosthetics; equipment; learned behavioral or adaptive neurological modifications; hearing aids, including cochlear implants; and mobility devices. You must not consider mitigating measures when evaluating whether a disability exists. The only exception is ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses.
Noncompetitive employment process
The Postal Service’s structured procedure for hiring and placing qualified persons outside the competitive process (see “Competitive” employment process), e.g., persons with severe disabilities evaluated, certified, and referred by state DVR or the VA for employment consideration.
Physical or mental impairments
Any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the following body systems: neurological, musculoskeletal, special sense organs, cardiovascular, reproductive, digestive, genito-urinary, hemic, and lymphatic, skin, circulatory, immune, and endocrine; or any mental or psychological disorder, such as an intellectual disability, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities.
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2023
A federal law that imposes legal duties on employers with respect to employees and applicants affected by pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, including provision of reasonable accommodation.
Privacy Act of 1974
A federal law that provides privacy protections for personal information maintained by agencies, including the Postal Service. The protections apply to information maintained in a “system of records,” which is a file, database, or program from which personal information is retrieved by name or another identifier. The Postal Service maintains Reasonable-Accommodation records in the system of records identified as “Privacy Act System of Records 100.700” (Medical Records).
Qualified individual with a disability
With respect to employment, an individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the job in question without endangering the health and safety of the individual or others. A qualified individual with a disability must perform at a level comparable to that of other employees.
Reasonable accommodation
Modification or adjustments to the job application process, the work environment, or both, to allow individuals protected by the Rehabilitation Act to be considered for positions, perform the essential functions of a position, enjoy benefits and privileges of employment equal to similarly situated employees without disabilities, or all of these.
Reasonable Accommodation Committee (RAC)
Multifunctional group that helps management consider and offer reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. The RAC facilitates interactive discussions with employees and supervisors or managers and helps develop and implement reasonable-accommodation solutions, including communication accommodations for employees or applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Prohibits discrimination in the federal government against qualified employees and job applicants based on a disability. The Rehabilitation Act essentially applies the ADA’s employment provisions to federal employers, including the Postal Service.
Rehabilitation assignment
An assignment into which the Postal Service places an on-the-job injured employee when the employee’s doctor notifies the Postal Service that the employee has reached maximum medical improvement and the employee still has medical restrictions that prohibit the employee from returning to his or her date-of-injury job. A rehabilitation assignment may or may not include essential functions of the employee’s date-of-injury job.
Restrictions
See “Work restrictions.”
Restructuring
See “Job restructuring.”
Substantially limits
The “substantially-limits” criteria is not a demanding standard and does not require extensive analysis. An impairment need not prevent, or significantly or severely restrict, an individual from performing a major life activity in order to be substantially limiting.
Targeted disabilities
Disabilities targeted by the EEOC for emphasis in affirmative-action program planning. The disabilities and the codes that represent them are as follows: 02 (developmental disability), 03 (traumatic brain injury), 19 (deafness or serious difficulty hearing), 20 (blindness or serious difficulty seeing), 31 (missing extremities), 40 (significant mobility impairment), 60 (partial or complete paralysis), 82 (epilepsy or other seizure disorders), 90 (intellectual disability), 91 (significant psychiatric disorder), 92 (dwarfism), and 93 (significant disfigurement).
Undue hardship
The Postal Service is required to make reasonable accommodation to known physical and mental limitations of a qualified individual with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation to which the Postal Service assigned the individual with a disability. The Postal Service must base undue hardship on an individualized assessment of current circumstances that show that a specific accommodation would cause significant difficulty or expense. In determining undue hardship, you must consider the following factors: (1) the overall size of the operation with respect to the number of employees, number and type of facilities, and size of budget; (2) the type of operation, including composition and structure of the workforce; and (3) the nature and cost of the accommodation.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
An agency of the federal government, formerly called the Veterans Administration, serving the needs of former members of the United States armed forces.
Work restrictions
Specific functions or tasks that a person should not perform (e.g., no heavy lifting over 50 pounds).
