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FOCUS ON TRAINING
THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
By
John A. Leonard
Captain
Connecticut State Police Training Academy
Hartford, Connecticut
In July 1990, President George Bush signed into law the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This milestone
legislation, which is intended to end discrimination based upon
physical or mental disabilities, presents new challenges to law
enforcement administrators. These administrators must now
ensure that their agencies comply with the provisions of the new
law.
In order to meet this challenge successfully, police
executives must first implement training that focuses on the ADA
and how this law may affect hiring practices. The legislation
explicitly defines what is expected of employers; however,
before employers can meet these expectations, they must develop
training programs that focus on educating all employees within
their agencies. This education process should accomplish two
goals: It should educate employees on the specifics of the law,
and it should allay their fears that the law may have a negative
impact on the agency or its current employees.
EARLY TRAINING
Agency leaders should begin the education process by
targeting selected personnel to receive early training in the
particulars of the ADA. The initial training sessions should
include those employees who will direct the implementation of
the law. This encompasses the agency heads themselves, as well
as their administrative staffs.
Administrators should then target for training those
involved in the hiring process. In order to ensure that hiring
procedures adhere to the new regulations, background
investigators, polygraph examiners, and oral interviewers must
know what information they should obtain, how they can
legitimately obtain this information, and what types of
inquiries are inappropriate. Early training of these employees
may avoid problems for the agency at a later date.
BROADENING THE SCOPE OF TRAINING
After key personnel receive training on the specific
provisions of the ADA that directly affect their job
responsibilities, all other personnel within law enforcement
agencies should receive training to broaden their understanding
of the law. Taking this critical step may help to minimize many
of the misconceptions that occur when agencies lack training of
this nature.
For example, any modification of hiring criteria by police
agencies, either real or imagined, will likely be greeted with
skepticism by some officers and outright hostility by others.
Some officers will immediately begin to speculate on how the new
legislation may affect them and whether it will lower the
standards of the agency--a source of great pride to most
officers.
Early intervention by administrators in the form of
training can do much toward allaying any unfounded fears that
employees may have. Clearly, if employees view the
implementation of the ADA as a reduction in hiring standards,
concern--and even resentment--can build. This may, in turn, cause
the employees' sense of pride, which is built on traditional
practices within the department, to be challenged, lowering
employees' morale. In addition, new recruits who do not meet
the expectations of the existing personnel may never be fully
assimilated into the organization.
However, with effective training programs in place,
employees learn not only what the ADA is but also what it is
not. They will then understand that the employment provisions
of the ADA do not reduce or eliminate selection criteria--the
law simply attempts to offer equal employment opportunities to
qualified individuals with certain disabilities.
Through effective training programs, employees also learn
that persons with disabilities must demonstrate that they can
perform the essential functions of the position they seek. The
essential functions of a job may be determined by a variety of
factors, including written job descriptions, collective
bargaining agreements, the amount of time spent performing the
task, the consequences that may occur if the task is not
performed, and the employer's judgment. (1)
Finally, effective training programs underscore the fact
that the ADA expressly excludes certain individuals, including
current drug users, transvestites, kleptomaniacs, and
pyromaniacs, among others. In addition, the law allows certain
employers, such as law enforcement agencies, to exclude
applicants with a history of illegal drug use if it is
established that such an exclusionary standard is job-related
and consistent with business necessity. (2)
Providing employees with this critical information reduces
employee stress and the opposition that frequently accompanies
change. Through education, employees gain both an understanding
and an acceptance of the law.
CONCLUSION
Law enforcement administrators who develop instructional
programs that prepare employees for the changes the ADA brings
to their agencies create an atmosphere where well-informed
employees both understand and support the law. This, in turn,
creates an atmosphere that fosters the successful fulfillment of
this legislative mandate.
ENDNOTES
(1) Jeffrey Higginbotham, "The Americans with Disabilities
Act and the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973: An Overview,"
(unpublished manuscript, 1992).
(2) Ibid.