                J.O.B. Employer's Bulletin / 1993
                 (Third in a Series on the ADA)

                     NEGOTIATION PRINCIPLES
                  FOR REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

     In parts one and two of our series on the Americans With
Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), JOB spoke of some of the issues
involved in the hiring process and their solutions. Now let's
take a look at the next stepnegotiating reasonable
accommodations. The following examples are from actual events
that occurred in the last three months.

     Based on her credentials and personality, a Midwestern
college chose Ms. Mary Doe from among several candidates for a
25-30 hour per week job as a counselor for students. The
interviewer from the counseling department learned during the
interview that Ms. Doe is legally blind. After the contract was
offered, the departmental chairman directed his number two person
on the counseling staff to find out what they might do and must
do to provide reasonable accommodation. Because the job is
part-time, and because this college is suffering budget cuts and
freezes, they are a little worried that a need will exist that
they cannot supply. In spite of their can-do attitude,
underlying all is some fear that they might run afoul of the ADA.

     The researcher called JOB to ask for answers to their
practical questions on the needs of legally blind colleagues. He
stated:

The job entails reading files on students, direct counseling with
students on schedules, resolving schedule conflicts or
difficulties with professors or other college personnel,
researching and making referrals to college and community
resources for emotional or other problems, and writing any
reports required for the files.

     Here is part of the information JOB covered with this
researcher:

     You must be wondering how Ms. Doe is going to handle the
reading required for most of these tasks. Alternative techniques
do exist. We'll look at this specific issue as a way to cover the
principles involved in working out reasonable accommodations for
an employee who has a handicap.

                    NEGOTIATION PRINCIPLE #1:

BEGIN EARLY

     We suggest you begin your negotiation very soon after your
company makes an offer of employment to the job candidate. Ask
the candidate for advice on accommodations requested, preferred,
or critical in order to perform the job on a competitive basis
with other employees.
Specifically which accommodations are needed always depends on
the individual. Generally it is useful, and less expensive, to
confer with a new employee with a handicap before she arrives on
the job. Some accommodations take a little time to set up.

     It is important to note that the majority of those who are
legally blind either do not read print or do not read print
materials fast enough to be competent and competitive in an
office situation unless they use alternative techniques. However,
some persons who are legally blind do read print, especially if
their central vision is unaffected. Others can read print some of
the time, but not all of the time.

     If Ms. Doe cannot read print directly, the most common and
most inexpensive method of accommodation to the print needs of
this job would be to use a sighted person as a reader. Using this
method, Ms. Doe would likely batch her print reading needs as
much as possible. She might set aside the first hour of each
morning as reader time. Ms. Doe would direct her reader to pull
and read to her the files of students coming in for appointments
that day or week.

     Should this be the preferred accommodation, Ms. Doe will
likely search for volunteer readers from the literate community
around the college. As you might provide a list of apartments or
real estate firms to help a newly hired professor get settled
quickly, you might provide her with a list of names and phone
numbers for local persons who are recent college staff retirees
or perhaps of local organizations that many educated retires
belong to. It would be her responsibility to interview and decide
on how many and whom to hire. (Just as your list of apartments
would be intended as a help, not as an order.)

     Depending on her favorite form of accommodation, Ms. Doe may
take notes in large print, in Braille, or on tape as the reader
speaks. If she has a computer with a large print program or with
voice output, she may enter her notes in that system. Student
records that are already in a computer system will most likely be
directly accessible once her adaptations have been added. (JOB
offers free expert consultants on computer adaptations. See JOB
Employer's Bulletin / 1992 for more on funding computer aids.)

               VOLUNTEER READERS or PAID READERS?

     This job is part-time, and therefore the department may
decide it would be, in the language of the ADA, an undue
hardship to supplement Ms. Doe's salary with money for paid
readers. Should her position become a full-time position,
providing a stipend to pay all or part of her reader costs would
be in line with the ADA.

     A systems engineer, recently hired by a telecommunications
firm in California, is totally blind. He graduated from Stanford
University last spring with a master's degree in electrical
engineering. Here, he recaps his job interview in a speech made
to an audience of legally blind job seekers at a JOB seminar:

     I explained that I thought to do good engineering work I
would like to work with readers ten hours a week and pay them
$7.50 an hour. This would be $3,250 a year. I would be willing to
pay it out of my salary or they [the employer] could supply the
funds in addition to my salary. He said he would take that into
consideration and wrote it into the offer letter I received
several weeks later.

     Generally, whether paid or volunteer, it works best if
readers are treated as part-time workers under the supervision of
the person who is legally blind. As a staff counselor, Ms. Doe
will be responsible for retrieving all necessary data and
maintaining the confidentiality of student records. This holds
true whether she reads files directly or trains and supervises
readers who work at her direction.

     If your department decides to provide a stipend to pay for
some reader service, would your accounting department require
that Ms. Doe submit periodic requests for reimbursement? We
suggest if requested to do so by management, Ms. Doe could
maintain a log of reader hours similar to a mileage log for
travel reimbursements.

                    NEGOTIATION PRINCIPLE #2:
            ASK THE ONE INVOLVED FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

     During the interview it was determined that Ms. Doe is a
competent person. Generally you can expect that she has dealt
with her disability for several years and will have a good idea
of the accommodations that can best help her to perform the job
according to your departmental standards. Should she propose an
accommodation that you consider too expensive for the
circumstances, make a counter-proposal. We suggest you go to
Principle #3.

                    NEGOTIATION PRINCIPLE #3:
                          DON'T PANIC, 
              also known as, ENCOURAGE FLEXIBILITY

     For instant reader needssuch as a student who needs an
emergency appointment when Ms. Doe's reader is not available, or
for a quick review of written phone messagesyou could offer to
Ms. Doe your permission to use on a short-time basis, any
available person in the department's secretarial pool. You agree
to add this duty to the job description for each secretary and
you provide the leadership that encourages (and, if necessary,
requires) the secretaries to treat her reader requests as no
different than other urgent requests they receive from other
staff persons.

     Should you feel Ms. Doe is taking unreasonable advantage of
the situation, you have a right to discuss it and require a
change in behavior just as you would do should a sighted staff
member overstep staff privileges of access to the secretarial
pool.

     Occasionally for quick reading needs, fellow counselors may
act as her reader, especially if Ms. Doe has shown willingness to
assist them when they need a favor. This is similar to any staff
member asking another for help in order to build on the other's
insight, knowledge, or skills. Such give-and-take is seldom going
to work if it is legislated but will be affected by the
attitude displayed by the department heads. Will you set an
example of willingness to share your skills with her and will you
request a variety of assistance from her? This might be anything
normally asked of fellow staff members from refilling the paper
in the copy machine to covering a speaking engagement at the
student union.

                    NEGOTIATION PRINCIPLE #4:
          GIVE LINE ITEM VETO POWER TO THE EMPLOYEE.

     As the employer, you set the standards for the level of
performance you expect from your employees. In all fairness, the
employee who is legally blind must be expected to produce results
in line with your usual standards.

     According to the ADA, that employee has the right to use
reasonable accommodations to reach your goals. If Ms. Doe's
colleagues are expected to work with a minimum of 45 students per
week, then she must meet that same requirement. In all fairness,
you as the employer should have veto power, and do, on the cost
of accommodations. Again, in fairness, the person with a
disability should have veto power over the specific
accommodations offered. Here's one example...

     You probably believe that you need a car in order to be able
to get to work or to fulfill the needs of your position. Would
you say the following to a friend? Here's my credit card. All
cars have four wheels and will get me where I'm going; therefore,
go buy one for me.

     Operating on the belief that anyone can read aloud and
therefore you should chose another person's reader, is similar to
asking another to buy your tool, the car. You might get a tool to
fit your needs; but perhaps not. When accommodations, including
those which were provided with the best of intentions, create
problems for the person with the disability, they are not
reasonable.

                        THE BOTTOM LINE:

     REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION MEANS YOU MANDATE STANDARDS AND END
RESULTS; AND, YOU ARE FLEXIBLE ABOUT MEANS TO YOUR ENDS.


     JOB offers employers free, nationwide job listings to locate
competent workers who are legally blind, free consultation on
cost-effective solutions for reasonable accommodation needs, and
free educational seminars on hiring legally blind employees.
