Employee's Right to Privacy
Confidentiality and Disability in the Workplace
Persons with disabilities have the right to keep their disability confidential. Everyone should respect their privacy.
For accommodation, this means:
- To accommodate a disability, you do not need to know what the disability is.
- Do not ask the person who wants accommodation to tell you their condition or diagnosis. Asking this question violates the person's privacy.
- Employers may ask for a doctor to assess the request for accommodation. The doctor only has to tell the employer about what the employee can do, and how the workplace needs to change so they can do their job. The employer can ask the doctor for more information if the assessment is not clear.
What to do if the employee chooses to talk about their disability:
- Do not tell anyone else unless you get the person's consent.
- Talk about the idea of holding awareness sessions to teach others and to build support for accommodation in the workplace.
- Consider how to include accommodation in workplace training programs. Think about what other issues, such as mental health, could also be part of workplace training programs.
