AMERICANS-WITH-DISABILITIES-ACT LITIGATION AND MUSCULOSKELETAL-RELATED IMPAIRMENTS - IMPLICATIONS FOR WORK REENTRY

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was designed, in part, to as sist in work re-entry for the disabled. ADA-related complaints that ar e more difficult to resolve and consequently reach the litigation stag e may provide useful insights into the challenges associated with the re-integration of disabled workers into the workplace. The present stu dy identified patterns of impairments and areas of dispute from all AD A litigation (n = 189) between 1990 to 1996. While HIV/AIDS was the mo st common single impairment category (18.8%), combined musculoskeletal -related (i.e., back and upper extremity) impairments comprised the la rgest group of impairments (23.4% of total) involved in litigation. Th e top two areas of dispute were termination and alleged failure to pro vide reasonable accommodation, respectively. The distribution of muscu loskeletal- and nonmusculoskeletal-related cases were similar for thes e two areas of dispute. These findings highlight the direction upon wh ich effective work re-entry strategies for workers with musculoskeleta l-related disabilities must focus. Efforts to provide effective accomm odation for these workers should improve return-to-work outcomes and r educe the risk of litigation. Specific recommendations for such effort s are provided.