My ethical dilemma was about Margaret Bayshore, who is a valued employee in the accounting department and recently suffered a mild stroke. She has worked with company since it was founded and is a skilled accountant who is responsible for preparing financial statements and evaluating reports from various sources. Margaret has used all her sick leave during the past recuperation period. As a result of the stroke, Margaret’s eyesight has been compromised. There are no other short or long term implications of her stroke. The physicians expect that within 12 to 18 months Margaret’s sight will return to 70 - 80% of normal, or perhaps as much as 95% of normal.
Margaret had requested that she be able to work during the next year or so while her eyesight returns to normal. She has suggested that for the first six to nine months she be given an assistant who will read the numbers to her and assist her in completing the reports that are due. The assistant would also help her become reoriented to the workplace and provide training for her with her new disability. She is also asking for a computer screen which would magnify the characters, a scanner which would be used to scan in all of the paper work and materials she would have to read, and a program which would read the material aloud for her. The cost of the technology and the assistant is $35,000
Together with ethics committee we had decided that the best option for Margaret, the company and the community at large would be grant Margaret's request and fully fund her accommodation.
I think that I have corrected for personal bias and my own hubris by accommodating an individual with a physical disability but the same mental capacity as any other employee in the same work position. I have eliminated the option for discrimination by providing her with the accommodation that she will need to complete her work. For we are all equals in this world and so, we should support each other. Yes, I am using the company’s...