[author: Ted Olsen]
A cardinal rule of disability discrimination law has been that an employer must make reasonable accommodations for a disabled employee, so that the individual can perform the essential functions of his or her job, but not for the individual's personal convenience or benefit. Another cardinal rule in the Tenth Circuit is that, if a disabled employee is unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job, the employee is entitled to transfer into any vacant position for which he or she satisfies the minimum qualifications. Recently, the Tenth Circuit issued a decision making significant changes to these two rules. In Sanchez v. Vilsack,[1] the Court ruled that an employer was obligated to transfer a disabled employee into a vacant position, for which she was at least adequately qualified, despite the fact she was already performing the essential functions of her existing position, because the transfer would facilitate her medical treatment.
In Sanchez, a U.S. Forest Service employee in Lufkin, Texas fell down a flight of stairs at work and suffered irreversible brain damage. The brain injury resulted in a permanent loss of fifty percent of the employee's visual field in each eye. The employee requested a hardship transfer to the Albuquerque, New Mexico office because Lufkin did not have the specialized therapy she needed to adjust to her condition, because Lufkin lacked public transportation, and because her friends and...
