Americans with Disabilities Act
Q. What limitations does the ADA impose on medical examinations and inquiries
about disability?
A. An employer may not ask or require a job applicant to take
a medical examination before making a job offer. It cannot make any
pre-employment inquiry about a disability or the nature or severity of a
disability. An employer may, however, ask questions about the ability to
perform specific job functions and may, with certain limitations, ask an
individual with a disability to describe or demonstrate how s/he would perform
these functions.
An employer may condition a job offer on the satisfactory result of a
post-offer medical examination or medical inquiry if this is required of all
entering employees in the same job category. A post-offer examination or
inquiry does not have to be job-related and consistent with business necessity.
However, if an individual is not hired because a post-offer medical examination
or inquiry reveals a disability, the reason(s) for not hiring must be
job-related and consistent with business necessity. The employer also must show
that no reasonable accommodation was available that would enable the individual
to perform the essential job functions, or that accommodation would impose an
undue hardship. A post-offer medical examination may disqualify an individual
if the employer can demonstrate that the individual would pose a "direct
threat" in the workplace (i.e., a significant risk of substantial harm to the
health or safety of the individual or others) that cannot be eliminated or
reduced below the oedirect threatî level through reasonable accommodation. Such
a disqualification is job-related and consistent with business necessity. A
post-offer medical examination may not disqualify an individual with a
disability who is currently able to perform essential job functions because of
speculation that the disability may cause a risk of future injury.
After a person starts work, a medical examination or inquiry of an employee
must be job-related and consistent with business necessity. Employers may
conduct employee medical examinations where there is evidence of a job
performance or safety problem, examinations required by other Federal laws,
examinations to determine current oefitnessî to perform a particular job, and
voluntary examinations that are part of employee health programs.
Information from all medical examinations and inquiries must be kept apart from
general personnel files as a separate, confidential medical record, available
only under limited conditions.
Tests for illegal use of drugs are not medical examinations under the ADA and
are not subject to the restrictions of such examinations.