Addressing Ergonomics in Disabilities and in Design

Presenters: Laura Lapidus, risk control consulting director of CNA, and Josh Kerst, vice president and ergonomics engineer for Humantech 

This webinar features two presentations previewing content at the Applied Ergonomics Conference 2014, which will be held March 24-27 in Orlando, Fla.

The ADA in the Workplace: Where Does Ergonomics Fit In? 
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) require that employers provide reasonable accommodation to applicants and employees who are qualified individuals with disabilities, unless doing so would be an undue hardship. Ergonomics can assist employers in accommodating disabled employees with various disabilities, ranging from muscular-skeletal disabilities to chronic diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis. The course will discuss some of the important definitions and provisions in the ADA and ADAAA, focusing on what constitutes reasonable accommodation under the law. We will focus on the role of ergonomics at various stages of the application, hiring and employment process.

The Ten Commandments of Ergonomic Design
What we see as "ergonomics problems" are, in most cases, rooted in the design of equipment and manufacturing processes. While safety and health professionals must manage the unfortunate outcomes of these design issues – injury and illness, it is the engineering function that can ultimately fix the issue. This session will explore the 10 essential ergonomic design principles to prevent the conditions which caused the injuries and prevent them from being repeated. Both good and bad examples of these design principles will be examined in real-world examples along with their impact on safety, quality, delivery and cost (SQDC) through case examples.

View presentation by Laura Lapidus  | View presentation by Josh Kerst  | View recording