§12111 Definitions

Summary

Defines the key words used in this part of the law. Commission means the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Covered entity means an employer, an employment agency, a labor organization, or a joint labor-management committee. Direct threat means a serious health or safety risk to others that cannot be removed by a reasonable accommodation. Employee means a person who works for an employer and, for work abroad, includes U.S. citizens. Employer means a business affecting commerce that has 15 or more employees for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or previous year (for two years after this law started the cutoff was 25 employees); it includes agents but does not include the United States, a wholly government-owned corporation, an Indian tribe, or a tax-exempt private membership club (other than a labor organization). Illegal use of drugs means using, possessing, or distributing drugs made illegal by the Controlled Substances Act, but not drugs taken under a doctor’s supervision or other uses allowed by federal law. Drug means a controlled substance listed in Schedules I–V of the Controlled Substances Act. The words person, labor organization, employment agency, commerce, and industry affecting commerce have the meanings given in section 2000e. Qualified individual means someone who can do the essential duties of a job with or without reasonable accommodation; a prior written job description is evidence of those essential duties. Reasonable accommodation may include making facilities accessible, changing job duties or schedules, reassigning to vacant jobs, changing equipment, tests, or training, or providing readers or interpreters. Undue hardship means an accommodation that would cause significant difficulty or expense, judged by factors like the nature and cost of the accommodation, the resources and size of the facility and overall entity, the number of employees, and the effect on operations and workforce structure or location.