Week 10 writing assignment independent final project

ADA & Forensic Psychology

The Americans with Disabilities Act, often referred to as the ADA, has empowered and enabled many disabled Americans to attain positions that they were often unfairly and punitively excluded from the in the past. The ADA has not squashed all discrimination against disabled people but it has certainly helped. However, one gray area that exists as far as the ADA and disabled people goes is when the job being hired for has irremovable physical requirements and potential safety issues (ADA, 2013).

For example, one task that a police officer in the field has to do is to get in and out of their car, chase suspects, deploy stop sticks to stop cars and so forth. A person that is wheelchair-bound, for example would not be able to do those tasks quickly if at all. Then there is the specter of suspects being able to either get away or assault a disabled person as compared to a person that is entirely able-bodied. However, it is possible to paint with too broad a brush with this line of thought because many ADA-eligible disabilities are mental in nature and do not center entirely (if at all) on physical ability or lack thereof (ADA, 2013).

Even so, a forensic psychologist or any other person involved in the hiring chain for a person with an ADA-sanctioned disability, there have to be honest concerns about the potential hire and for the broader public in light of the disability. There are many jobs that an ADA-disabled person can do but a lot of the ones they cannot do are in the field and/or are dangerous in nature and this precludes the persons from being able to the job at a satisfactory level, if at all. For example, a disabled person would generally be completely able to do a desk job like receptionist or dispatcher or even drive "paddy wagons" to help transport prisoners (ADA, 2013).

However, a person who is wheelchair-bound would not be a regular field officer, a prison guard or anything else that requires massive and/or immediate mobility abilities. However, the police department must be careful to not preclude the ADA applicants from those jobs to which they can be ascribed and hired for with little to no reasonable accommodations because not allowing or considering such reasonable accommodations can indeed be construed a violation of the law so the hiring managers and associated forensic psychologists need to be very careful (ADA, 2013).

It may seem to some people including many forensic psychologists that the ADA is a double-edged sword that potentially puts ill-prepared people in the line of fire while at the same time raising the possibility that a department will deemed to be anti-disabled or discriminatory. However, there are best practices and good habits that can and should be undertaken so that ADA applicants are hirable for the jobs that they are able to do while at the same time protecting the public because physically incapable applicants (regardless of what the genesis of the incapability is) are not in the field because that would post a danger to the applicant and the broader public (ADA, 2013).