September 15, 2000

A new study in the Fall 2000 issue of Policy Studies Journal says fear may keep many employees with HIV/AIDS from asking for the “reasonable accommodations” they are entitled to receive under the Americans With Disabilities Act to perform their jobs.

Under Title I of the Americans With Disabilities Act, an employer’s failure to provide disabled workers with “reasonable accommodations” is discrimination. Persons with HIV/AIDs often suffer debilitating physical symptoms and side effects from their disease and medications. In his study, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researcher James Slack, Ph.D., interviewed 29 California workers with HIV/AIDS. While several in the study had requested and received special accommodations, the overwhelming majority hid their HIV/AIDS status from their employers and asked for no special accommodations such as longer breaks, flextime or medical leave. Many in this group said they preferred taking long-term disability leave rather than request special assistance and thus admit that they had HIV/AIDS.

James Slack, Ph.D., is a professor and chairman of the UAB Department of Government and Public Service, and a senior scientist in the UAB Center for AIDS Research, specializing in human resource management and anti-discrimination policy as applied to the workplace. His latest book is HIV/AIDS and the Workplace: Local Government Preparedness in the 1990s (1998, University of Alabama Press).

“Too many seropositive employees are simply afraid to seek protection and request needed accommodations. The fact that ‘reasonable accommodations’ are not sought out in ostensibly supportive environments places into question the sincerity of those organizations. The fact is, the backbone of the ADA — ‘reasonable accommodation’ remains a bit bowed from lack of exercise and application.”