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Comment by SatvikBeri | Hacker News Reader

FMLA provides unpaid leave, and usually only up to 12 weeks. I'm not sure how well ADA would apply here, but my wife had a lot of trouble using ADA to even get her employer to use video meeting software with captions (she's deaf, and Zoom didn't have captions at the time.) It eventually worked but took something like 6 months.

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I really wish more people would realize this about the ADA and other similar legislation in other countries - yes, a company is legally required to make reasonable accommodations... but they don't have to be happy about it or hop to it right away. They will delay as long as they can and try to avoid it like the plague if it's going to cost them money.

> They will delay as long as they can and try to avoid it like the plague if it's going to cost them money.

The worst part: It's a tax writeoff like all the other business expenses they're so happy to buy without question. Sometimes it's even covered by grant money.

Why wouldn’t it be a tax write off? Profits are taxed, not revenues. If revenues were taxed instead of profits, there would be even more powerful consolidation market forces to vertically integrate every single industry to avoid double-taxing revenue.

You can thank the existence of every single independent company to the existence of that tax writeoff you find so unfortunate.

My reading of GP was that it makes it worse because it means there's much less financial reason to avoid making accommodations - which would be somewhat understandable - and that implies they're doing so for other reasons.

Less financial reason, but not much less. 25%-ish at best, or possibly none at all if they're already running at a loss.

The other thing with ADA it's always distinctly had the feel of the kind of thing that sure, they have to (eventually, maybe) comply with, but I can't help but feel it's the sort of thing that will implicitly count against you when it comes to things like promotions. Similar debate (also applicable to me) to "I have diagnosed high-function autism. Do I disclose?"

> implicitly count against you when it comes to things like promotions.

Illegal, if you can prove it. So functionally, legal.

> "I have diagnosed high-function autism. Do I disclose?"

Nope. There's zero reason to disclose until there is an actual barrier that can fall under ADA.

And ADA isn't a guarantee you'll get what you need, it is asking the employers for a modification, one which they don't have to grant if they have a legitimate reason.

This is the part where many ADA lawyers can punch thru the SSA bureaucracy and make you shine.

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