2023 New York Laws › CVS - Civil Service › Article 4 - Recruitment of Personnel › Title A - Examinations and Eligible Lists › 55-A - Employment of Persons With Disabilities by Municipalities.

§ 55-a. Employment  of persons with disabilities by municipalities. 1.
  Municipal civil service commissions in the state may, by rule, determine
  a prescribed number of positions, not to exceed seven hundred positions,
  with duties which can be performed by physically  or  mentally  disabled
  persons  who are found qualified, in the manner hereafter prescribed, to
  perform satisfactorily such duties.
2. Upon such a determination, such positions shall  be  classified  in
  the non-competitive class, and shall be filled by persons who shall have
  been  certified  by  either  the  commission  for the blind in the state
  office of  children  and  family  services  as  physically  disabled  by
  blindness  or  by the state education department as otherwise physically
  or  mentally  disabled  and,  in  any  event,   qualified   to   perform
  satisfactorily  the  duties of any such position. At least three hundred
  of such positions shall be filled by persons who have been certified  as
  physically  disabled.  If  no qualified physically disabled persons have
  applied for such positions, the municipal civil service  commission  may
  fill those unfilled positions with qualified mentally disabled persons.
3.  Prior  to  making certification of physically or mentally disabled
  persons for any such position, the commission for the blind in the  case
  of  persons  physically  disabled  by  blindness  or the state education
  department in the case  of  persons  otherwise  physically  or  mentally
  disabled  shall  obtain  from  the  appropriate  municipal civil service
  commission a detailed description of all duties  of  the  position,  and
  shall  investigate  the  extent  of the disability by examination of any
  such person or otherwise, and shall determine and report its findings to
  the appropriate civil service commission,  as  to  the  ability  of  the
  disabled  person  to  perform the duties of such position. Such findings
  shall  be  given  due  consideration  by  the  municipal  civil  service
  commission.
4.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a municipal commission
  may, for titles designated by it, extend to employees in the service  of
  a  civil  division  who  are  holding or who have held a position in the
  non-competitive class of such services pursuant  to  the  provisions  of
  this section, the same opportunity as employees in the competitive class
  to take promotion examinations.
5.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a municipal commission
  shall treat employees appointed  pursuant  to  the  provisions  of  this
  section,   who   are  holding  or  who  have  held  a  position  in  the
  non-competitive class, as if they  were  employees  in  the  competitive
  class   where,  because  of  economy,  consolidation,  or  abolition  of
  functions, curtailment of activities or  otherwise,  a  number  of  such
  positions  in  either  the  non-competitive  or  competitive classes are
  abolished or reduced in rank or salary grade, suspension or demotion, as
  further provided in title  C  of  article  five  of  this  chapter.  For
  purposes  of  seniority,  the  date an employee is appointed pursuant to
  this section, shall be deemed  equivalent  to  the  date  a  competitive
  employee is appointed from an eligible list.