Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides recourse to individuals with disabilities who feel they have been discriminated against by an employer because of their disability. Title I allows such individuals to file a charge of employment discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The purpose of the proposed research is to evaluate how this landmark legislation is working for people with psychiatric disabilities as a consequence of a major policy change introduced by the EEOC in June 1995. Previously, the EEOC required full investigations of all charges, even those that appeared groundless upon intake. The new policy requires EEOC field office personnel to categorize and prioritize charges and to conduct full investigations of only those charges in which it appears likely that discrimination has occurred. The applicant hypothesizes that because psychiatric disability is more complicated and less visible than physical disabilities, that overworked and undertrained EEOC staff generally will not devote the careful attention necessary to properly investigate claims by people with psychiatric disabilities. The study has 3 aims: (1) Using the EEOC's computerized database, it will evaluate the benefits obtained by individuals with psychiatric disabilities under the new policy instituted by the EEOC in 1995, as compared to such individuals prior to the policy change and as compared to people with physical disabilities under the current policy. (2) It will examine factors affecting the execution of new policy, using the computerized database, site visit information, and office budgets. (3) It will assess how the new policy is being executed in and between field offices. Policy execution will be assessed by reviewing investigative files and conducting interviews with EEOC personnel during site visits to 10 field offices and by analyzing data from the EEOC's national database relating the charge processing history of every charge the agency receives. Among the many hypotheses to be tested, two main hypotheses are: (1) Individuals with psychiatric disabilities will fare worse under the new policy than they did under the previous policy; (2) Individuals with psychiatric disabilities will fare worse under the new policy than individuals with physical disabilities will fare under the new policy.
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| Ullman, M D; Johnsen, M C; Moss, K et al. (2001) The EEOC charge priority policy and claimants with psychiatric disabilities. Psychiatr Serv 52:644-9 |
| Moss, K; Ullman, M; Starrett, B E et al. (1999) Outcomes of employment discrimination charges filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Psychiatr Serv 50:1028-35 |
| Moss, K; Ullman, M; Johnsen, M C et al. (1999) Different paths to justice: the ADA, employment, and administrative enforcement by the EEOC and FEPAs. Behav Sci Law 17:29-46 |
