Difference Between Traditional and disability Based Discrimination

First, discrimination against individuals with disabilities generally is not motivated by malevolence or ill will, as is the case with other types of discrimination. Rather, the denial of equal opportunity most often is the result of thoughtlessness or indifference, such as an employer's: - Failure to consider how policies or practices may adversely affect job applicants or employees with disabilities; - Feelings of awkwardness in dealing with persons who are disabled; or - Ill-advised benevolent efforts to protect or assist persons with disabilities. Second, decisions by employers not to hire persons with disabilities, even though predicated in part on stereotype, may have a legitimate factual basis. Many persons with disabilities experience some impairment in their ability to perform various job tasks efficiently and expeditiously. Indeed, the very characteristic that may place an individual in the protected class as being disabled may also be the factor that justifies the decision not to hire or not to promote that individual. As explained by the First Circuit of Appeals in Gillen v. Fallon Ambulance Service, Inc. , there is ''a fine line that separates permissible and impermissible decision making under the ADA. The ADA prohibits employment decisions based on stereotypes about a disability, but it does not prohibit decision-making based on the actual attributes of a disability. Thus, an employer may base a decision on an employee's actual limitations, even if those limitations result from a disability.'' Third, in order to provide equal opportunity in the workplace to persons with disabilities, an employer needs to do more than simply eliminate stereotypes. An employer must take affirmative steps to accommodate the special needs and requirements of both job applicants and employees with disabilities. Fourth, because of the need to provide accommodation, assuring equal opportunity to individuals with disabilities in some cases may require an employer to incur substantial costs. Such costs include not only out-of-pocket expenditures, but also the time and attention that must be devoted to accommodating applicants and employees with disabilities.