41-1461

41-1461. Definitions

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Auxiliary aids and services" includes:

(a) Qualified interpreters or other effective methods of making aurally delivered
materials available to individuals with hearing impairments.

(b) Qualified readers, taped texts or other effective methods of making visually
delivered materials available to individuals with visual impairments.

(d) Other similar services and actions.

2. "Being regarded as having such a physical or mental impairment":

(a) Means an individual who establishes that the individual has been subjected to
an action prohibited under this article because of an actual or perceived physical or
mental impairment whether or not the impairment limits or is perceived to limit a major
life activity.

(b) Does not mean an impairment that is transitory and minor. For the purposes of
this subdivision, "transitory impairment" means an impairment with an actual or expected
duration of six months or less.

3. "Covered entity" means an employer, employment agency, labor organization or
joint labor-management committee.

4. "Disability" means, with respect to an individual, except any impairment caused
by current use of illegal drugs, any of the following:

(a) A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the
major life activities of the individual.

(b) A record of such a physical or mental impairment.

5. "Employee":

(a) Means an individual employed by an employer.

(b) Does not include an elected public official of this state or any political
subdivision of this state, any person chosen by an elected official to be on the elected
official's personal staff, an appointee on the policymaking level or an immediate adviser
with respect to the exercise of the constitutional or legal powers of the office, unless
the person or appointee is subject to the civil service laws of this state or any
political subdivision of this state.

6. "Employer":

(a) Means a person who has fifteen or more employees for each working day in each
of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, and any agent
of that person, except that to the extent that any person is alleged to have committed
any act of sexual harassment, employer means, for purposes of administrative and civil
actions regarding those allegations of sexual harassment, a person who has one or more
employees in the current or preceding calendar year.

(b) Does not include either:

(i) The United States or any department or agency of the United States, a
corporation wholly owned by the government of the United States or an Indian tribe.

(ii) A bona fide private membership club, other than a labor organization, that is
exempt from taxation under section 501(c) of the internal revenue code of 1954.

7. "Employment agency" means any person regularly undertaking with or without
compensation to procure employees for an employer or to procure for employees
opportunities to work for an employer and includes an agent of that person.

8. "Labor organization":

(a) Means a labor organization and any agent of a labor organization.

(b) Includes:

(i) Any organization of any kind, any agency or employee representation committee,
group, association or plan in which fifteen or more employees participate and that exists
for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances,
labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours or other terms or conditions of employment.

(ii) Any conference, general committee, joint or system board or joint council that
is subordinate to a national or international labor organization.

9. "Major life activities" includes:

(a) Caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping,
walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading,
concentrating, thinking, communicating and working.

(b) The operation of a major bodily function, including functions of the immune
system, normal cell growth and digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain,
respiratory, circulatory, endocrine and reproductive functions.

10. "Person" means one or more individuals, governmental agencies, political
subdivisions, labor unions, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal
representatives, mutual companies, joint-stock companies, trusts, unincorporated
organizations, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy or receivers.

11. "Qualified individual " means a person with a disability who, with or without
reasonable accommodation, is capable of performing the essential functions of the
employment position that the individual holds or desires.

12. "Reasonable accommodation" includes:

(a) Making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable
by individuals with disabilities.

(b) Job restructuring, part-time or modified work schedules, reassignment to a
vacant position, acquisition or modification of equipment or devices, appropriate
adjustment or modification of examinations, training materials or policies, the provision
of qualified readers, taped texts or other effective methods of making visually delivered
materials available to individuals with visual impairments, the provision of auxiliary
aids and services or interpreters and other similar services and actions for individuals
with disabilities.

13. "Religion" means all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as
belief. Unlawful practices as prohibited by this article include practices with respect
to religion unless an employer demonstrates that the employer is unable to reasonably
accommodate to an employee's or prospective employee's religious observance or practice
without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business.

14. "Undue hardship":

(a) Means an action requiring significant difficulty or expense when considered in
light of the factors set forth in subdivision (b) of this paragraph.

(b) When determining whether an accommodation would impose an undue hardship on a
covered entity, factors to be considered include:

(i) The nature and cost of the accommodations needed under this article.

(ii) The overall financial resources of the facility or facilities involved in the
provision of the reasonable accommodation, the number of persons employed at the
facility, the effect on expenses and resources of the facility and any other impact of
the accommodation on the operation of the facility.

(iii) The overall financial resources of the covered entity, the overall size of
the business of the covered entity with respect to the number of its employees and the
number, type and location of its facilities.

(iv) The type of operation or operations of the covered entity, including the
composition, structure and functions of the workforce of the covered entity.

(v) The geographic separateness and the administrative or fiscal relationship of
the facility to the covered entity.