Takeaway: The Rehabilitation Act provides significant legal protections to federal employees with disabilities. However, it only requires federal agencies to provide a reasonable accommodation, not the employee’s preferred accommodation.
An employee who claimed her accommodations were not fully effective could not show any violation of the Rehabilitation Act.
The U.S. State Department hired the plaintiff as a fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in February 2016. Because the plaintiff had a visual impairment, the State Department’s Disability and Reasonable Accommodation Division provided her with several accommodations. The accommodations included software to help the plaintiff read her computer screen, and noise-cancelling headphones to help her hear the software read to her.
The plaintiff claimed that her screen-reading software did not work well enough and the State Department failed to promptly provide her with people to read aloud from her computer screen. The State Department also placed her in an office that was not sufficiently quiet, and the noise interfered with the use of her screen reading software. In addition, she claimed that her supervisor berated her and screamed at her.
In June 2016, the plaintiff received a letter from the AAAS offering to renew her fellowship for another year beginning the following February to sign and return by June 10. When the plaintiff proposed delaying the return of the renewal paperwork...
ABU DHABI: The Public Prosecution has expanded investigation into the publication and circulation of a false report claiming explosions heard in central Dubai. Counsellor Dr Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, ...