United States of America: US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues guidance on Americans with Disabilities Act Requirements concerning the use of AI Algorithms in hiring decisions

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US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues guidance on Americans with Disabilities Act Requirements concerning the use of AI Algorithms in hiring decisions

On 12 May 2022, the United States (US) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance on the use of software, algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI) in employment procedures and on how to prevent the use of algorithmic decision-making from disadvantaging job applicants and employees with disabilities, in order to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC guidance lays out different situations in which the use of algorithmic decision-making tools may violate the ADA, namely in the cases of providing reasonable accommodation, screening out and disability-related inquiries and medical examinations. It therefore recommends companies that use AI, software of algorithms in job applications processes to pay attention to the following points: 1) Any applicant with disabilities has the right to assistance in the application or screening process, especially if the latter makes use of AI. A company is therefore advised to explicitly indicate the procedure to apply for reasonable accommodation, immediately respond to such requests and provide as much information as possible on the software. 2) An algorithmic decision-making tool might disqualify an individual due to its disability if the impairment results in a less acceptable assessment for the employer during the screening, especially without reasonable accommodation. This potential loss of job opportunity can be limited by asking the software developer whether the tool has been designed to take individuals with disabilities into account or to provide special care while deploying the tool to reduce the possibility that it will screen out a candidate with a disability because of a biased configuration. 3) An employer is allowed to request medical documentation before considering whether to offer reasonable accommodation. However, an algorithmic decision-making tool cannot be used to identify an applicant's medical issues prior to a potential employment offer, related inquiries must be followed up with a human.

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Scope

Policy Area
Labour law
Policy Instrument
Worker monitoring regulation
Regulated Economic Activity
ML and AI development
Implementation Level
national
Government Branch
executive
Government Body
other regulatory body

Complete timeline of this policy change

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2021-10-28
under deliberation

On 28 October 2021, the United States (US) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) launched …

2022-05-12
adopted

On 12 May 2022, the United States (US) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidan…

2023-05-18
adopted

On 18 May 2023, the United States (US) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Guidelines in…