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Filing an ADA Employment Discrimination Charge:
Making It Work for You

Recommendations

• Try to work things out with the employer before filing an ADA employment discrimination charge.
  
  
• If you decide to file a charge, do so quickly to preserve your right to go to court.
  
  
• When filing a charge in person, check to see if the office schedules charge receipt interviews. If it doesn't, get to the office as early in the morning as possible.
  
  
• When filing a charge by telephone, it may be difficult to get through to an office. Be persistent!
  
  
• Document the details of the discrimination you encountered: if and when you disclosed your disability, the relevant details of your disability, if and when you asked for an accommodation, why and how you are qualified to do the job in question (especially the results of job performance reviews), the dates of any discriminatory actions, what happened, what you did about it, and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of witnesses.
  
  
• Provide only relevant documentation. Keep it as brief as possible you don't want to confuse the picture, and investigative time is very pressured.
  
  
• Give a copy of your documentation to the charge receipt investigator before or during the charge receipt interview.
  
  
• Try to provide documentation from a physician or other mental health professional about your specific psychiatric disability and the issues it may raise in the workplace. Give it to the investigator before or during the charge receipt interview. If you mail your charge, be sure this documentation is included.
  
  
• If you hear nothing from the EEOC office or FEPA after a six-to-eight-week time period, contact the office to check the status of your charge.
  
  
• Above all, remember that it can take both the EEOC offices and FEPAs anywhere from about six months to two years to investigate and resolve an ADA case. In light of the very heavy workloads of investigators, be patient and cooperative, but be persistent.

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