Taking Injury Factors Into Account

In all cases, when considering claims for alterations, regard should be had to the nature and degree of injury or illness sustained by the employee, and its expected duration.  Medical and any recent rehabilitation assessments will usually establish this.

As a general rule, as alterations involve permanent changes, it is expected that an employee suffering the effects of a more severe impairment would more easily qualify for payment under this paragraph.

Severe impairments may include:

• paraplegia and quadriplegia;

• blindness; and

• full or partial amputation involving the arms or legs (excluding loss of digits).

However, this should not preclude employees with lesser impairments from successfully claiming for alterations.