Booz Allen Hamilton’s
Disability Accommodations and
Workplace Adjustments Program
JAN Webcast: Best Practices
April 9, 2013
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The Request Process
Information posted on the firm’s Intranet site and the new employee portal
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Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation or
a Workplace Adjustment
The Accommodation Team is available to answer any employee or applicant
questions or concerns prior to a request being submitted
Completed request forms and medical documentation, as described on the form, are
submitted to the Accommodation Team mailbox (Note: All information pertaining to
requests remains confidential and separate from personnel files)
The Accommodation Team reviews each request and schedule a time to discuss
with the employee or applicant
Manager(s) and/or HR representative are included in the interactive process when
applicable
Products and services are purchased through a centralized investment fund
Upon implementation, the Accommodation Team verifies that accommodations &
adjustments are effectively meeting and balancing employees’ needs with those of
the firm
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Original Tracking System
Consisted of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, which included the following fields:
– Fiscal year & date of request
– Employee’s name & location
– Disability description & type of request (ADA or Medical)
– Responsible party (e.g., Facilities Planning & Design, Business Assurance Office)
– Description of accommodation/adjustment
– Purchasing source and order details (e.g., date of order, order #, price)
Disadvantages
– Multiple line items per request for an individual
– Cumbersome process to quickly generate reports
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Current Tracking System
Converted to a Microsoft Access database in 2010, which allows for a single record
per employee request and the ability to quickly run queries and reports
Has expanded as our employee needs have grown (i.e., addition of new fields, staff,
products, and services)
Includes the following fields: Status, waiting for, employee’s name, request notes,
employee ID, level, organizational alignment, geographic location, request date,
date medical documentation received, request type (ergonomic vs. non-ergonomic)
specific request, functional limitation, specific diagnosis, assigned to, assigned on,
date request discussed, date chair request forwarded to FP&D and staff member
assigned, date chair ordered, date chair received, date chair delivered to employee,
chair tagged checkbox, no longer has chair checkbox, items issued (general and
specific), services provided, management-approved accommodations, date closed,
no longer with Booz Allen checkbox, and date separated
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Monthly Reporting
Disability Accommodation and Workplace Adjustments Program
Request Activity for <Month/Year>
Prior to the
Period
Type of Requests
Requests
Pending
During the Period
New
Requests
Received
Requests
Closed
End of the
Period
Totals
Fiscal Year to Date
Requests
Received
Requests
Closed
Non-ergonomic
Ergonomic
Information
Totals
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The Strategic Partnership
Between Human Resources
and the Accommodation Team
at Booz Allen
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A Senior Consultant’s
First-Hand Experience
with Booz Allen’s
Accommodation Process
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Challenges Faced and
Lessons Learned
Through the Accommodation Process
at Booz Allen
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Assistive Technology Solutions Discussed
WhiteSmoke writing software (grammar and spell checker on steroids) http://www.whitesmoke.com/
Text-to-speech
– WordQ (with or without SpeakQ) - http://www.goqsoftware.com/products/
– Read&Write - http://www.texthelp.com/North-America/our-products/readwrite
– Kurzweil 3000 - http://www.kurzweiledu.com/kurzweil-3000-v13-windows.html
Andrea Electronics USB Headset NC-185 VM http://shop.andreaelectronics.com/nc-185-vm-usb-high-fidelity-stereo-headset/
Windows Speech Recognition - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Setup-Speech-Recognition
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Questions?
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