Title 23. Labor and Workers’ Compensation

Chapter 3-a. Prohibited Discrimination in Employment

Part III. Disability

23:322     Definitions

For the purposes of this Part, the following terms shall have the following meanings ascribed to them:

(1) “Adaptive devices” means any items utilized to compensate for a physical or mental impairment, including but not limited to braces or other supports, wheelchairs, talking boards, hearing aids, corrective devices, corrective lenses, or seeing eye dogs.

(2) “Direct threat” means a significant risk to the health or safety of the individual or others that cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation.

(3) “Person with a disability” means any person who has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of the major life activities, or has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.

(4) “Discrimination” shall include unreasonable segregation or separation.

(5) “Essential functions” means the fundamental job duties of the employment position the person with a disability holds or desires. “Essential functions” does not include the marginal functions of the position.

(6) “Impairment” means an intellectual disability, any physical or physiological disorder or condition, or prior mental disorder or condition, but, at the discretion of the employer, may not include chronic alcoholism or any other form of active drug addiction, any cosmetic disfigurement, or an anatomical loss of body systems.

(7) “Major life activities” means functions such as caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working.

(8) “Otherwise qualified person with a disability” means a person with a disability who, with reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that such person holds or desires.

(9) “Reasonable accommodation” means an adjustment or modification to a known physical limitation of an otherwise qualified person with a disability which would not impose an undue hardship on the employer. This shall not require an employer to spend more for architectural modifications than that amount now allowed as a federal tax deduction. However, “reasonable accommodation” shall not be construed to impose on any private sector employer, unless otherwise required by law or under any contract with a federal, state, or local governmental body or subdivision, any additional costs in the hiring or the promotion of a person with a disability. Undue hardship is determined on a case-by-case basis taking into account all of the following:

(a) The employee or applicant for which accommodation is to be made.

(b) The specific disability of employee or applicant.

(c) The essential job duties of the position.

(d) The working environment.

Added by Acts 1997, No. 1409, § 1, eff. Aug. 1, 1997. Amended by Acts 2014, No. 811, § 12, eff. June 23, 2014.