Carl Brahe
Employee only work areas need not be accessible unless new individuals with disabilities are employed, or existing employees become disabled while in employ of the business. Reasonable accommodations must be made for employees with disabilities specific to their needs. All areas where employees with disabilities work must have access to the work areas with sufficient space for maneuvering in performance of work-related tasks. This does not apply to areas that must be elevated such as areas for monitoring or overseeing work activities or areas where large equipment must be accessed. Outdoor work areas subject to weather area also exempt.
Safe means of regress are required in case of emergency. Alarms are required to have both audio and visual cues to accommodate both vision and hearing-impaired employees. If stairs are required for emergency egress, where elevators are normally used, areas of refuge must be provided for physically impaired employees can wait for rescue. These are not required in detention and prisons.
Work areas for individuals with visual impairments require removal of protrusions into path of travel such as fire extinguishers, drinking fountains and other architectural features. Work areas for visually impaired employees must provide audio guidance where visual guidance would normally occur. Work areas for hearing impaired employees require visual guidance where audio guidance would normally be used.
In general, buildings must be altered to allow employees with disabilities to perform the duties required by their jobs. Accommodations must be made to provide access to all areas necessary to safely perform duties on a level with employees without disabilities. These alterations are not required in spaces where no employees with disabilities work but are encouraged when remodeling or new construction occurs in anticipation of possible future employees with disabilities.