Please imagine the following hypothetical to answer this essay. You are the manager for a large warehouse that does order fulfillment for an online company. Your employees spend their days moving up and down the aisles, retrieving goods for shipment to customers. They must move very quickly and efficiently to retrieve items and bring them back to the shipping desk. Although they are not required to run, employees always end up running up and down the aisles at some point during the day, because their daily quotas are set very high to insure maximum efficiency. You worked on the floor yourself before becoming manager, and you can't imagine being able to walk fast enough to complete the daily quotas.

One day, an employee comes to you with a letter from her doctor. The letter says that, due to a bulging disc in her back, she cannot do any high impact activities such as running or jumping. However, she is able to walk.

When you tell the employee you are concerned that she will not be able to meet her quotas without running, your employee says you shouldn't worry. "I can run a little," she says. "My doctor is just being really protective. But I would like you to change my route in the warehouse so I can run less."

There is one shorter route in the warehouse that a senior employee is typically given that does involve less running, though you've never seen an employee make their quotas here without any running.

You need to decide whether to grant your employee's request and give her the accommodation she has requested.

Read the following case before you answer the questions: Horn v. Knight FacilitiesPreview the documentView in a new window.

Now, answer the following questions, based on that case and your understanding of the ADA.

1) Assuming that the employee's back condition qualifies as a disability, what is the standard (rule) for determining whether she should be given the accommodation she requests?

2) Is this a reasonable accommodation? Based on Horn v. Knight Facilities, do you think your factory would be required to provide the employee the shorter route in the warehouse?