A “qualified individual” is an applicant or employee who has the position’s required skills, experience, education or other job-related requirements, and who can perform the position’s essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation.2

Employers must defend their actions only after their employees can prove themselves qualified. Employees can’t show that an employer has done anything wrong until they can show that they were able to do the job with or without reasonable accommodation.

Once employees have demonstrated that they’re qualified to perform the job, they can prove discrimination if a preponderance of the evidence demonstrates a causal connection between a disability and being denied an employment benefit. The disability doesn’t need to be the sole or even dominant cause of the adverse action — if it was one of the factors the employer considered and the employer’s action wasn’t justified by an appropriate defense, the employee may be able to prove discrimination.

FEHA doesn’t impose liability on employers if an employee can’t perform job-related duties with or without reasonable accommodation. “To do so would defy logic and establish poor public policy in employment matters,” according to the California Supreme Court.3

1. 2 CCR sec. 11066(a)