New York ADA: What you need to know

The New York Human Rights Law (NYHRL) prohibits employment practices that discriminate on the basis of disability (including gender dysphoria) or predisposing genetic characteristics. The NYHRL covers all employers, regardless of size (NY Exec. Law Sec. 290 et seq.). Effective March 16, 2022, the state is considered the employer of any employee or official (including an elected official) of the state executive, legislative, or judiciary branches. Similarly, a city, a county, a town, a village, or another political subdivision is an employer of any of its employees or officials.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Law applies to public and private employers and prohibits job bias against individuals who use a guide, hearing, or service dog (NY Civil Rights Law Sec. 47-a).

The term "disability" means:

• A physical, mental, or medical impairment resulting from anatomical, physiological, genetic or neurological conditions which prevents the exercise of a normal bodily function or is demonstrable by medically accepted clinical or laboratory diagnostic techniques
• A record of such an impairment
• A condition regarded by others as such an impairment

In the employment context, the term "disability" is limited to disabilities that, with reasonable accommodations, do not prevent the applicant or employee from performing the activities involved in the job in a reasonable manner (NY Exec. Law Sec. 292(21).

"Predisposing genetic characteristic" defined. A "predisposing genetic characteristic" is any inherited gene or chromosome that is scientifically or medically believed to predispose an individual or the offspring of that individual to a disease or disability, or to ...