On May 15, 2013 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued four revised Question and Answer documents on protection against disability discrimination. The documents apply to individuals with cancer, diabetes, epilepsy and intellectual disabilities. The EEOC’s press release states:
[T]he revised documents reflect the changes to the definition of disability made by the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) that make it easier to conclude that individuals with a wide range of impairments, including cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, and intellectual disabilities, are protected by the ADA. Each of the documents also answers questions about topics such as: when an employer may obtain medical information from applicants and employees; what types of reasonable accommodations individuals with these particular disabilities might need; how an employer should handle safety concerns; and what an employer should do to prevent and correct disability-based harassment. These new documents are useful tools for employees. For example, in the Questions & Answers about Diabetes in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the EEOC answers question about whether an employer can ask about a workers’ medical condition before making a job offer, they remark:
No. An employer may not ask questions about an applicant's medical condition or require an applicant to have a medical examination before it makes a conditional job offer. This means that an employer cannot legally ask an applicant questions such as:
