Worker’s Bias Suit Revived Despite Ability to Do Job Without Aid

A New York school district was too quickly granted judgment against a teacher with PTSD, because she may have been entitled to a disability accommodation even though one wasn’t “strictly necessary,” the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to accommodate workers with disabilities who can perform their job’s essential functions “with or without the accommodation,” a unanimous panel said. The ability to do the work without an accommodation is relevant, but a lower court mistakenly concluded it was dispositive in granting summary judgment to Whitehall Central School District, the panel said.

With the ruling, the ...