Work Capacity Evaluators & Therapists Training

The purpose of pre-ADA Title I job analysis is to determine the tasks performed in a job and the competencies required to successfully perform those tasks. The physical demands described in those analyses are categorized in terms of Sedentary, Light, Medium, Heavy, or Very Heavy. These categories are NOT compliant with the ADA Title I requirement to judge a job applicant or incumbent worker against much more specific measurement of demands of a specific job rather than a whole class of jobs. ⁽¹⁾

This course you will train you to identify the essential and marginal functions of the jobs you are asked to analyze. You will quickly grasp the difference between the essential functions of a job and the physical demands of job tasks. This important distinction is one of the hallmarks of an evaluator who has been trained to work in both the Department of Labor (Sedentary, Light, Medium, Heavy, or Very Heavy levels of the Occasional, Frequent, or Constant frequency categories) system and the current EEOC/ADA system. (The essential functions of a job are rarely described in terms of lifting, carrying, standing, etc.)

Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a functional capacity evaluation (FCE) of an individual returning to work in the same job capacity, an FCE to determine whether or not an individual is safe to remain in his current position, and all post-offer tests must be performed with job-specific measurements that are not available in the old system of job analysis. This course will prepare you to offer services to work evaluators, attorneys, case managers, physicians, and reasonable accommodation program managers who rely on valid data.

Course Topics

• A look into the changed world of traditional job analysis
• How to write compliant essential function task statements
• How to approach measurement of physical demands tied to essential functions
• How to establish valid job-relatedness of work tasks and essential function statements
• How to use work measurement tools such as a push-pull gauge
• How to use OSHA 300 log data to select jobs for analysis
• How to match the structure of your report to the purpose of the analysis
• The legal and professional boundaries of your essential function job analysis training

Training Materials

The essential function job analysis course uses a variety of printed and digital media.

• 200-plus page “The Americans with Disabilities Act – Title I Case Reference Document”
• 60-plus page course manual with slides and case studies
• 28 page job analysis forms set
• 3 digital videos of manufacturing, heavy labor, and office jobs
• 6 on-demand course modules