Inclusion Daily Express -- Disability Services Worker Claims Employer Discriminated Against Her (Sept. 29, 2004)

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Disability Services Worker Claims Employer Discriminated Against Her
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 29, 2004

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND--An employee of the Montgomery County Aging and Disability Services claims that her employer discriminated against her because of her disability, the Washington Post has reported.

Social worker Susan Cohen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998. In October of that year, she requested a desk job as an accommodation.

Cohen was reassigned to a desk job, but not until February 2000, after she hired an attorney and filed a complaint with the county's Human Relations Commission.

She sued the county in August 2001, arguing that her former supervisors violated a county civil rights law because they took too long to accommodate her disability.

The next month, a Montgomery Circuit Court judge tossed out the suit because Cohen had already been reassigned to a desk job.

She appealed to the state Court of Special Appeals, which ruled in her favor last year and sent the case back to the lower court. That case is being heard this week.

Cohen, who is being represented by the AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), is seeking a nonspecific monetary award and a judgment directing the county to not discriminate against her in the future.

"If the county cannot abide by the [Americans With Disabilities Act], then there is no hope anyone can," Cohen said. "I want to hold them accountable."

Related:
"Disability Office Sued Over Own Law" (Washington Post)

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