Court draws the line on what is — and isn’t — a disability

by Christian Schappel

The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act expanded the definition of a disability so much that just about anything’s considered a disability these days. Just not what this employee was trying to sell to a California court. 

Meet Michaelin Higgins-Williams. She was a clinical assistant at Sutter Medical Foundation.

About three years into her employment, Higgins-Williams visited her doctor complaining about stress caused by interactions with her manager and Sutter’s HR team.

The doctor diagnosed her with adjustment disorder with anxiety.

As a result of the diagnosis, Sutter granted Higgins-Williams a stress/disability-related leave of absence under California’s Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act and the FMLA.

When Higgins-Williams exhausted her leave allotment, she returned to work. But all was not rosy.

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