Diabetes and the Americans with Disabilities Act
Another day, another new disability discrimination case involving a plaintiff with diabetes. In my practice, I have screened a number of cases involving legitimate claims of diabetes-related disability discrimination, more than any other protected disabling condition. As it turns out, there is a long history of intolerance towards employees with diabetes. For many years, a diagnosis of diabetes automatically disqualified many otherwise qualified applicants from certain categories of employment, including firefighting and police work. While these early prohibitions have since been declared illegal, many diabetic plaintiffs still face an uphill battle in court.
What's the problem, anyway? Well, before the 2009 Amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act, diabetics often slipped through gaps in the law that left them unprotected (i.e. diabetics were not considered disabled because they could entirely mitigate symptoms with medication). However, with the changes to the ADA, employers must now accomodate disabled employees regardless of the impact of mitigation measures (medication) on an employee's disabling condition.
Employers don't like accommodating diabetes in the workplace. I had a case where an employer told a diabetic employee that her diabetes was the result of her own poor lifestyle choices and refused to accommodate her. The most serious disability discrimination case I have ever seen involved a diabetic plaintiff - a graveyard shift employee pleaded with his employer for a daytime shift to accommodate his diabetic condition, and the employer refused. As a result, his diabetes worsened to the point where hospitalization was required.
If you have diabetes and believe you have been discriminated against, the EEOC has an extremely detailed fact sheet which outlines a disabled employee's rights under the ADA. If you have diabetes, expect hostility from your employer, and protect yourself from discrimination by clearly requesting accommodations necessitated by your condition in an email to your EEO officer or Human Resources representative.
