Disability discrimination occurs when an employer denies an employee, who is considered disabled under the law, the measures of protection that the various city, state, and federal laws intend to provide for the disabled employee.

Such protection also extends to those who are perceived as disabled, although they are actually not disabled. In other words, as long as the employer believes an employee is disabled and discriminates against the employee, it may be unlawful, even if the employee is not in fact disabled.

Disabilities may include a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities. The law prohibits employers from discrimination against qualified employees on the basis of their disability. If you are a person with a disability who can perform the essential functions of the position in question, then you may well be a qualified job applicant or employee with a disability. You may be similarly protected if your employer wrongfully perceives you as disabled although you are not, and discriminates against you because of that erroneous perception.

Employers must not discriminate against qualified individuals with a disability in all phases of the employment process, including but not limited to recruitment, job application procedures, hiring, firing, promotions, benefits, compensation, job training, job assignments, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.

A few examples of conduct which might meet the level of disability discrimination include but are not limited to the following:

• Your employer maintains a workplace that poses substantial physical barriers to the movement of people with physical disabilities.
• Although you have always received positive performance evaluations at work, your employer begins to criticize you, without justification, after you took days off to care for your disabled child.
• You are in a wheelchair and you work in a building without elevators. Your employer refuses to assign you with workspace on the ground floor to allow you to work, even though workspace is available on the ground floor, and it would not disrupt or interfere with your right to perform if you were relocated to the ground floor.
• You complained to your employer about the constantly hostile and harassing behavior of your coworkers because of your disability, but your employer does not do anything to help resolve the situation and instead ignores the harassment.