Former teacher can proceed on ADA claim, but victory may be a heavy lift

The interactive process required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) often feels like a tennis match between an employee and an employer. The employee lobs a claim that she has a disability over the net and requests an accommodation. The employer, using a reflex volley, may believe the claim is weak or strong and handle it accordingly, without fully thinking through the ADA's requirements. A recent case from an Illinois federal court serves up a useful overview of how courts interpret the definition of "disability" under the ADA.

Love all

Rachel Dixon Love worked as a teacher at Arthur Ashe Elementary School in Chicago. During her tenure in Chicago's school system, she suffered not one but two torn rotator cuffs and a hairline fracture. She sustained the injuries while she was working at another Chicago school. She also has two partial amputations on her hand, which she is generally able to hide.

Love claimed that the school required her to carry heavy boxes of paper from the copy room to her classroom, even though it knew (or should have known) that she needed a light-duty accommodation. She asserted that she told the school's assistant principal, Dr. Devin Jackson, that she needed help carrying the paper upstairs, but he informed her that she had to carry the boxes herself.