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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have issued new guidance about how employers’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other software tools to make employment decisions may result in unlawful disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Algorithmic decision-making tools that may be used to hire, monitor performance, score tests, determine pay, etc. may discriminate against people with disabilities.
The EEOC’s new guidance highlighted how such tools may violate the ADA, such as:
- The software screens out a disabled individual, even though they could perform the job with reasonable accommodation;
- The software makes disability-related inquiries or includes medical examinations; and
- The employer doesn’t provide a reasonable accommodation needed for a disabled individual to be rated fairly and accurately by the software
The EEOC guidance also includes best practices on how to avoid these types of violations.
The DOJ’s new guidance discusses that employers must consider various disabilities when designing or choosing their software and explains when an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation using software tools.
Employers should review this guidance and review their employment technology and processes to ensure that they are not violating the ADA.
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