When it comes to compliance careers, ensuring that ADA is enforced during holidays can be especially difficult. Holiday retail poses special challenges for those who have jobs in compliance, because merchandise is usually piled higher than usual, there are long lines at the counter, and crowded stores. For those with disabilities, holiday shopping can be even more of a challenge.

Specifically, if ADA compliance employment focuses on providing for those with special needs, remember that even the holidays may be more challenging, it's always enforced no matter the time of year. That means compliance employment is in demand all the time, not just for particular challenges during the holiday season. By law, retailers have to accommodate shoppers who may have difficulty navigating in the store or parking lot, or who may have other challenges besides.

Anne Brouwer is a senior partner at McMillan/Doolittle, a retail consultant. She has stated that the challenges are even greater for those in compliance careers, because even though major retailers know that ADA guidelines must always be enforced, smaller retailers may not. That means they aren't always compliant with the 28 to 30 inches needed to walk across or around the store.

Because retailers specifically pack stores with merchandise to maximize revenues during the holidays, they must at the same time be sensitive to ADA compliance. Daniel Butler, who is vice president of merchandising and retail operations at the National Retail Federation, has said that these retailers understand the rules and that they have to provide additional customer service as necessary when an environment is particularly crowded, as it can be during holidays. When disabled customers ask for assistance, retailers must and do offer it within reason, as the law requires.

What it comes down to is ''reasonable'' accommodation. While that may not mean the sales associate can accompany a customer to his car parked far away, certainly, the sales associate can ask the customer to pull up to the curb, where the purchases can then be loaded.

In addition, some disabilities are ''invisible,'' which means that retailers must be especially sensitive to keeping accessibility at the forefront with these types of compliance careers. Merchandise especially must be within easy reach, and if a manager doesn't pay attention, it's a document to everyone. Merchandises want to put on the best faces during the holidays, and retailers must therefore pay attention to what's going on everywhere.

Jobs in compliance can include training temporary workers, who may only be hired for ''overflow'' times of business, and thus be especially challenging. These workers, for example, may just get an overview of ADA compliant at its most basic level, because employers don't see this part of compliance employment is particularly a concern. Merchandise layout and store design, for example, may be addressed because of potential lawsuits. Situational compliance can be addressed on an individual basis by store managers so overall, employers don't see individual training with jobs in compliance as a major concern.

However, some disagree. Daniel Butler, for example, has said that he always covered ADA expectations when he was training store workers in compliance employment. If a particular employee was not able to help a customer, that employee was to get someone who could. Therefore, temporary help's attention to ADA should be just as important as permanent employees' focus on it is.

And, Brouwer states, it's only in the retailers' best interests to comply with ADA even during the holiday season, so that all customers have the best holiday experience. That, too, is part of compliance employment.

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