Further, the court’s ruling pointed to the definitive medical Diagnostic and Statistical Manual’s 4th edition’s (better known as DSM-IV) description of SAD as a condition that can disrupt an individual’s “…normal routine, occupational… functioning, or social activities or relationships.” In other words, both the EEOC and the appeals court are inclined to view social anxiety disorder as a disability under the ADA.
At issue was a woman who had been promoted to a job in the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) that required her to do customer service, which made her extremely anxious. In overturning a federal court’s summary judgment in favor of the employer, the appeals court also cited the AOC’s inability to act in good faith to make reasonable accommodation for the employee’s disorder; as well as not providing complete documentation for the purported performance failure that the AOC used to dismiss her.
That gave the terminated employee the green to light to sue her former employer for disability discrimination.