![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.hrdive.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?500116090725\")
\n Listen to the article
\n 6 min<\/p>\n
\n Listen to the article
\n 6 min<\/p>\n
This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: The Back to Basics column serves as an accessible way to understand employment law. If you\u2019re new to HR (or just need a little refresher), follow along as the HR Dive team speaks with legal experts, peruses federal guidance and lays out the basics of employment law. Feel free to send tips, questions and feedback to [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n A hiring manager for a hotel chain is interviewing job candidates for a receptionist opening. As she opens the door to call the next candidate into the interview room, she notices that the candidate is using a wheelchair.<\/p>\n The manager assumes that the candidate may be using the wheelchair due to some kind of medical condition. Still, she knows that the Americans with Disabilities Act has strict rules<\/a> regarding what questions employers may ask job candidates about their medical histories at various stages of the hiring process.<\/p>\n Navigating those restrictions can be tricky for HR departments, and it\u2019s an area that employers \u201cmess up all the time,\u201d said Rachel Shaw, an ADA compliance consultant and president of Shaw HR Consulting. This is particularly the case after an offer of employment has been extended, but risks exist for each stage of the process, even post-hire.<\/p>\n To give newcomers to the profession a quick refresher of the ADA\u2019s requirements, HR Dive asked Shaw to walk through a typical hiring decision.<\/p>\n Before an offer: No medical questions allowed<\/p>\n If an employer has not yet given a conditional job offer to an applicant, that employer may not ask anything that would require the applicant to disclose that they might have a medical condition, Shaw said.<\/p>\n According to guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, this restriction extends to written questionnaires and inquiries made during interviews as well as medical examinations. It also extends to any such questions regardless of whether they are related to the job<\/a> to which a candidate is applying.<\/p>\n EEOC lists a variety of examples of prohibited questions, which include asking about conditions such as asthma and mental health problems as well as inquiries about the amount of sick time employees have taken or whether they have taken workers\u2019 compensation.<\/p>\n Shaw noted that employers should also be wary about formats like pre-hire personality tests. Employers \u201chave to be very careful that no question they\u2019re asking could lead a person to disclose whether they have any physical- or mental-type health conditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n After an offer: Inquiries and exams allowed, but be consistent<\/p>\n During the post-offer phase but before a new hire begins to work, employers are permitted to make disability-related inquiries and conduct medical examinations, Shaw said. This may include psychological, physical or cognitive health tests that could reveal a disability, but only if the employer requires the same assessments for all entering employees of the same job category.<\/p>\n Medical examinations can be \u201cpretty broad\u201d under the ADA\u2019s guidelines, Shaw noted, and specific examples include a physical agility test, a medical assessment conducted by a healthcare provider or a psychological test, among others. State and local laws may impose their own restrictions, however.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the key to that is that the results of that would disclose whether the person has functional limitations,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cIf so, the employer is obligated to engage in the interactive process.\u201d<\/p>\n