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Help Explain Need for Workplace Accommodations

Sun, 08/06/2017 - 21:04
I am an attorney and my current assignment within my office requires 4-6 hours in the courtroom per day. Additionally, I am exposed to secondary trauma each day based on the difficult subject matter I deal with and the contentious nature of the daily courtroom dynamic. In March 2016, I began to have breakthrough focal seizures. They continued to increase in frequency and intensity and I requested an accommodation; namely, a reassignment to any other attorney position within my office as none require even close to the courtroom commitment as my current position. Instead, I was granted "breaks as necessary, frequency and duration to vary." This is not really possible to utilize, in that the judge and courtroom staff are not legally required to allow me to take breaks as needed. My health continues to deteriorate and my pleas for reassignment have been ignored. I believe I need to better articulate to those ignorant about epilepsy the effect it has on the body and how being unable to sit in an environment free from ongoing tension and stimuli can be detrimental to my health. It seems so intuitive to me, so I was hoping someone has encountered a similar situation in which epilepsy had to be dumbed down dramatically and can provide me insight as to what was said to allow a sufficient understanding of how an individual in my situation NEEDS accommodation.

Comments

your local epilepsy

Submitted by Amy Jo on Mon, 2017-08-07 - 11:46
your local epilepsy foundation affiliate or national epilepsy foundation should be able to connect you with that info or the right kind of representation to look for this situation. for national see 'contact us' under the 'about the foundation' below. there's a search for local affiliates on this site, findable via search (upper right corner).

Thank you for your post.  We

Submitted by csanders on Tue, 2017-08-08 - 16:53
Thank you for your post.  We recommend that you review the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's factsheet entitled "Reasonable Accommodations for Attorneys with Disabilities". See, https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/accommodations-attorneys.html.  I recommend that you review this document and consider whether you would like to contact the EEOC to file an administrative complaint.

If this doesn't help please

Submitted by epihelp on Thu, 2017-08-10 - 23:16
If this doesn't help please contact our 24/7 help line directly and someone from our Legal Defense Fund may be able to help. 

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