Colorado Disability Discrimination Laws

Fair employment practices law: Employers must make reasonable accommodations for the known disabilities of qualified employees or applicants with disabilities, unless employers can show that these accommodations would impose undue hardship or require an additional expense. Reasonable accommodations can include making facilities accessible and usable for people with disabilities, job restructuring, part-time or modified work schedules, acquiring or modifying equipment or devices, and providing readers or interpreters.

Undue hardship is determined based on factors such as the:

• overall size of employers’ operation in terms of workforce and budget size and the number and type of facilities;
• type of employers’ operation, including workforce composition and structure; and
• nature, cost, and funding of needed accommodations, including sources such as the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, employees’ and applicants’ personal resources, and private organizations that provide financial support and auxiliary aids.

Additional expense is an expense that goes beyond what is needed to allow a person with disabilities to participate in employment on the same level as other people.

Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 24-34-401 to 24-34-402  (see Smart Code® for the latest cases); 3 Colo. Code Regs. §§ 708-1-10.2, 708-1-60.2, 708-1-60.6

Covid-19 Update: Effective March 24, 2021, to April 16, 2021, Executive Order D 2020 235 (extended most recently by Executive Order D 2021 69) requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations and prohibits employers from discriminating against employees who are showing symptoms of Covid-19 or who have been in contact with a known positive case of Covid-19.

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Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers, including state and local governments, with 15 or more employees, are prohibited from discriminating against people with disabilities. Title I protects qualified individuals with disabilities in several areas, including job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation and job training. It is also unlawful to retaliate against someone for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on disability, or for filing an ADA discrimination charge. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) shares enforcement authority for Title I of the ADA with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has primary responsibility for enforcing the employment provisions of the law. (Note: Federal employees and job applicants are covered by Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 instead of the ADA.