A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is when something hits or shakes your head really hard, causing your brain to get hurt. When the brain gets hurt like this, it can cause lots of changes in the way you think, feel, and move. If the damage is bad enough, it can be a disability.

Qualified individuals are people with disabilities who have the skills to a job with or without an accommodation.

Probably, if you can do your job with or without a reasonable accommodation. The ADA protects people with disabilities. To have a disability, you must have an impairment that makes at least one important part of your life hard. If your TBI makes it hard to do things like, walking, talking, thinking, seeing, sleeping, reading, learning, or something else that is important at work and/or home, you are protected by the ADA.

A person with a TBI may need changes in the rules or workspace to help them do their job. The calls these changes “reasonable accommodations.”

A reasonable accommodation means as any change an employer makes that lets you:

• Apply for a job and go through the hiring process.
• Do the important parts of your job.
• Use all the benefits and privileges of your job.

The ADA has rules about what employers can ask you about your disabilities. These rules are different during different parts of the hiring process.

Stage 1: Applying for a job

The ADA says employers cannot ask any medical questions or do any medical tests. Employers can only ask about your ability to do the job.

Questions that cannot be asked:

• Do you have a disability?
• Have you ever filed for workers’ compensation?
• What prescriptions are you taking?
• Have you ever been treated for mental health problems?
• How many sick days did you take in the last year?

Questions that can be asked:

• Can you do the job with or without a reasonable accommodation?
• Please tell us about how you would do the job.
• Can you come to work as often as you need to in order to do the job?
• Do you have the license needed to do the job?

Stage 2: After you get a conditional job offer, but before you start work 

After an employer offers you a job, they can ask medical questions or make you take medical tests if they ask everyone to do the same things. An employer cannot ask only a person with a TBI to do a medical test, unless every person applying has to take the same test. They cannot refuse to hire you based on results of those things unless the reason is related a part of the job that must be done.

Stage 3: After being hired

After you are hired, your employer can only ask for medical information or tests if you ask for a reasonable accommodation or there is a problem on the job that the employer has good reason to think is because of your TBI. This does not include things like tests you say yes to taking for employee health programs or tests that the state or federal government ask people to take.

You have a right not to be harassed, bothered, or teased because of your disability by anybody, including a boss, co-workers, or other people like customers or contractors.

You also have the right to not face retaliation, intimidation, threats, or interference while using the rights these laws give you.