Toileting/Grooming Issue

A person who performs certain job-related tasks for a person with a disability to help overcome limitations resulting from the disability. Examples include a page turner for a person who has no hands, or a travel attendant to act as a sighted guide to assist a blind employee on work-related travel. WPAS may include personal care-related assistance such as helping an employee to access the restroom, eat or drink at work, or travel for business purposes.

Employees who experience limitations in concentration may need a flexible schedule in order to work optimally during hours of increased attentiveness. Flexible schedules can also be used to have a period of mental rest in order to refocus and reorient into his/her work. Examples of a flexible schedule would be adjusting starting and ending times of the workday, combining regularly scheduled breaks to create one extended break or dividing large breaks into smaller segments, and allowing work to be completed during hours when the employee is most mentally alert.

Support bars installed next to toilets to help individuals stand up from a seated position.

Individuals with motor or dexterity limitations may have difficulty manipulating buttons, zippers, or performing activities of daily living, such as personal care. Adaptive grooming and dressing aids may assist someone who is experiencing difficulty with these tasks.

Aids to assist individuals with independent living needs are available. These tools and devices enable people with various types of limitations to perform personal and household activities such as reaching, reading, writing, dressing, personal hygiene, walking, eating, cooking, cleaning, and gardening.

Some employees can benefit from taking their breaks at a different rate than what may be considered standard by their employer to accomodate certain conditions, symptoms and habits they have in order to perform their job at their optimal level.

Support bars that are mounted on a pivot so they can freely swing allowing more mobile support for individuals with physical impairments.

Telework, within certain fields, can be an excellent alternative for employees who have conditions that make it difficult for them to leave their home or reliably travel to a place of work. Employers should consider if a job can be made compatible with telework for their employees and communicate their expectations and requirement for the job to be performed out of home. Allowing work from home during worksite or office construction; extremely hot, cold, or inclement weather; or parking renovations could be a reasonable accommodation.

Individuals with mobility limitations can benefit from toileting aids to allow for greater independence and safety. Toileting aids can include grab bars, raised toilet seats, toilet supports, or lifting toilet seats.

Transfer aids are devices that assist individuals in going from a sitting position to a standing position and vice versa. Transfer aids come in all shapes and sizes and have a wide range of uses. They can allow an individual to assist in independently transferring themselves, or eliminate the need to lift the patient entirely in the given situation.

These are sheets that can be used to pick up and carry objects or individuals.

Redesigning a worksite as an accommodation can include moving a workstation closer to a break room, restroom, office equipment, or employee parking lot; duplicating work materials in a workspace; teleconferencing into meetings; having others report to the employee physically; or communicating in an alternative way (instant messaging, pager, texting, or telephone). Modifying a workspace for an employee who experiences limitations in concentration can help limit or even eliminate both auditory and visual distractions. These modifications can include relocating employees to private area away from high traffic areas, reducing clutter in the employee’s work environment, redesigning an employee’s workspace to minimize visual distractions, and providing higher cubicle walls and/or cubicle doors.