Be proactive by fostering a supportive workplace with solid policies and practices and provide up-to-date information about HIV/ AIDS.
- Obtain up-to-date information about HIV/AIDS for your own knowledge and to share with employees
- Read Inclusion@Work, an outline of effective practices for recruiting, hiring, retaining and advancing qualified individuals with disabilities
- Adopt respect as a policy and practice
- Brush up on disability etiquette and offer training on the topic for employees
- Adhere to a policy of keeping medical information confidential, as required by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Review your benefits plans with an eye to how they affect people with disabilities.
Pay special consideration to:
- Long-term disability policy
- Prescription medication coverage
- Confidentiality of all conversations about benefits plans
Use a reliable resource to find information about reasonable accommodations.
The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a free service of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), provides information to employees and employers on job accommodations, as well as other resources, for people with disabilities, including individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an accommodation is considered any modification or adjustment to a job or work environment that enables a qualified person with a disability to apply for or perform a job. An accommodation may be tangible (for example, a certain type of chair) or non-tangible (for example, a modified work schedule for someone with a medical condition requiring regular appointments with a health care provider). Qualified individuals with disabilities, including people with HIV/AIDS, have the right to request reasonable accommodations. You are "qualified" if you are able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without a reasonable accommodation.
Tailor the accommodation to the employee.
Be sure to separate open conversations about the accommodation from confidential conversations about one's medical diagnosis. For more information on how to do this, see the Employers' Practical Guide to Reasonable Accommodation Under the Americans with Act (ADA).