Pandemic Exposes Ongoing Job Challenges for Disabled Workers

The Covid-19 pandemic has trained a spotlight on the scope and effectiveness of the federal civil rights law that protects people with disabilities, as jobless rates increase for the underrepresented workforce.

In the three decades since the Americans with Disabilities Act passed, courts have weighed in on which workers are shielded from discrimination under the law and when they must receive reasonable accommodations. The spread of the coronavirus has tested those issues while also raising new legal questions for essential workers and dilemmas for employers facing return-to-work plans.

Debates have circled around whether Covid-19 or mental health issues exacerbated by ...