ADD Coverage

If you are an American employee with ADHD, the diagnosis doesn’t necessarily means you are covered under the American With Disabilities Act.

Here are suggestions for getting started from an employee’s perspective:

1. Analyze the task that is giving you difficulty (be exact about the nature of the problem or barrier)
2. What aspect of your ADHD contributes to this difficulty,
3. Brainstorm solutions around work environment, work style, communication style, between yourself and supervisor, and the job itself,
4. Implement one solution at a time,
5. Assess whether the accommodation is meeting your needs, meet with the supervisor to share feedback, implement necessary adjustments in work routines in order to sustain your progress.

Rights and Responsibilities Around Accommodations

You may want to read these articles

An employment attorney explains the workplace rights of adults with ADHD and how you can benefit from them

 Does your employer qualify?

Private companies with 15 or more employees, employment agencies, labor organizations and joint labor-management committees, as well as state and local government employers must comply with the ADA.

Do you qualify?

To qualify, you, as an employee, must “satisfy the skill, experience, education, and other job-related requirements of the position sought or held, [must be able to] perform the essential job functions of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation. (Askjan.org)”

Having ADHD does not necessarily mean you qualify as having a disability, which requires that

1. you have an impairment
2. your impairment substantially limits you in one or more major life activities.

 When can you request for accommodations?

According to the Job Accommodations Network, you

1. can request for an accommodation at any time during your employment even if you didn’t request one during the application process.
2. should request accommodations when you know there is a workplace obstacle that’s preventing you, because of your disability, to perform your job.
3. ideally, should request accommodations before your job performance suffers.

How to request an accommodation?

Requests don’t have to be in writing. However, when you request an accommodation, it must be for a reason related to a medical condition and employers are not required to offer accommodations

Employees’ Practical Guide to Negotiating and Requesting Reasonable Accommodations Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)