ADA Title I Medical Examination Specialist
The Americans with Disabilities Act Title I Medical Examination Specialist designation recognizes the individual who has acquired the knowledge, skill, experience, training, and education to design and administer a medical examination* as defined in 42 U.S. Code § 12112 – Discrimination (d) medical examinations and inquiries.
Further, the individual who has earned the AMES designation has demonstrated the ability to construct a valid reasonable accommodation strategy given a worker’s of physical or cognitive impairment(s) as identified by a physician, a list of essential functions in worker’s job as supplied by an employer, and the worker’s residual abilities identified through functional capacity evaluation as performed by a qualified work evaluator.
(*Individuals not familiar with ADA Title I terminology may refer to this type of service as a “post-offer employment test”, a “function capacity evaluation for return-to-work”, or a “function capacity evaluation for stay-at-work”.)
The highly specialized AMES designation was created as a tool for employers and attorneys to identify community-based occupational therapists, physical therapists, and work evaluators who have considerable work evaluation experience and who have gone on to practice at the level required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The attributes of this level of practice has emanated through Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) enforcement action, relevant EEOC Guidance, and precedent set in the federal courts.
Reference Guide
Each participant in our training and certification programs receives a copy of “Roy Matheson’s The Americans with Disabilities Act – Title I Case Reference Document”. This resource includes a copy of ADA Title I, a compendium of federal court and EEOC settlement documents pertaining to employment testing “do’s and don’ts”, and an important discussion of “Undue Hardship”, published in the Fordham Law Review by author Julie Branfield. (see: Julie Brandfield, Undue Hardship: Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 59 Fordham L. Rev. 113 (1990). Also available at http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol59/iss1/4).
The case reference document is updated from time-to-time with relevant cases or citations. The revised document is sent to each student who has participated in a training program and whose contact information is up-to-date in our database.
