It’s easy to think about the Americans with Disabilities Act and its amendments as compliance matters once an employee is fully in the door. An employee requests an accommodation to perform a job, the employer initiates the interactive process, etc. With a recent federal lawsuit in EEOC v. ALM Freight, LLC & LMDmax Corp., the EEOC is sending a very clear message about when ADA protections begin, and employers should pay close attention.

Employers might be just a bit more anxious after learning that the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (“EEOC”) defined the “ability to interact with others” as a major life activity, bringing social anxiety disorder into the scope of protection afforded by the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). The Fourth Circuit, in the case of Jacobs v. N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts,[1] recently agreed with the EEOC that social anxiety disorder may be a disability for ADA purposes. For practical purposes, however, the important takeaway in this case is that reasonable accommodation requests should never be taken lightly and all decisions that adversely affect employees should come with ample documentation.