Takeaway: The reasonable accommodation requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) may require an employer to provide a disabled employee with a full-time aide or job coach.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict in favor of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of an employee with a disability who was denied the continued use of a job coach.

Beginning in 1998, the Walmart store in Beloit, Wis., employed a cart attendant who was deaf, legally blind and experienced anxiety. He communicated via sign language, gestures and facial expressions. As a cart attendant, he retrieved shopping carts and flatbed carts from the parking lot, organized the carts and flatbeds near the store, assisted customers with transporting items and loaded merchandise into customer vehicles.

The cart attendant worked at the Walmart for 16 years, during which time he had three job coaches. His first job coach was his foster mother, legal guardian and caretaker. Then, he had two job coaches who would alternate to provide coverage for him whenever he worked at Walmart.

In 2015, the Beloit Walmart hired a new store manager. Later that year, the shift manager told the store manager that the cart attendant and his job coach were fighting in the parking lot. The shift manager did not witness the alleged incident, and no one called the police or reviewed what had happened.

The store manager decided to observe the cart attendant at work and, after doing...

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