Psychological Testing in ADA's Wake

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SEVERAL YEARS AFTER the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), companies remain confused over its impact on the use of integrity tests or psychological tests in general. The ADA's impact on written psychological tests is minimal, except in the case of those tests containing medical inquiries or used to diagnose impairments.

The ADA describes discrimination as "using qualification standards, employment tests |integrity and other psychological tests~ or other selection criteria that screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability or a class of individuals with disabilities unless the |standard or~ test...is shown to be job-related for the position in question and is consistent with business necessity."

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), this language means that an employer must only demonstrate that a test is job-related and consistent with business necessity when a direct link exists between performing poorly on the employment test and the disability. A test that screens out individuals for reasons unrelated to a disability does not violate the ADA. If performance on the test is directly affected by the disability, ADA is not violated if documentation shows that the test is valid for predicting essential aspects of the job, while also taking into consideration reasonable accommodation for performing the job. Such an approach closely parallels the long-standing approach to determining whether a test is justified …