Reasonable accommodations are adjustments to working conditions that allow disabled workers to perform their jobs. Read on to understand your responsibilities as an employer.
What is Reasonable Accommodation in the Workplace?
Key takeaways
- A reasonable accommodation is a workplace change that allows a person with a disability to perform the essential duties of their job.
- Examples of reasonable accommodations include reserved parking spaces, screen readers, work schedule adjustments, and permitting service animals.
- It’s your responsibility as an employer to provide a reasonable accommodation to qualified workers with disabilities, as long as it doesn’t cause substantial costs or disruptions to your company.
What Is A Reasonable Accommodation?
A reasonable accommodation is any workplace adjustment or modification that allows an employee with a disability equal opportunity in recruitment, hiring, compensation, benefits, training, job changes, and separation. Reasonable accommodations are a significant aspect of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a federal law prohibiting discrimination against employees with disabilities.
Not every accommodation is a “reasonable” accommodation. Sometimes, an accommodation request may pose an undue hardship for your business, like a major cost or extensive change that disrupts business operations. In those cases, you must work with the employee to determine an alternative accommodation or consult outside resources like Job Accommodation Network (JAN) or a labor law attorney.
Did you know? You can think of the ADA as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act for disabled workers. All employers with 15 or more employees must adhere to the ADA, with any violations investigated and enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Some states have stricter ADA equivalent laws. Check out State & Federal Labor Laws Employers Need to Know and HR Compliance: Examples, Laws, & Best Practices for more critical laws governing employee management and benefits.
Examples of Reasonable Accommodations
A reasonable accommodation is different for every disabled worker and employer. For example, installing an elevator in a two-story building to accommodate an employee in a wheelchair may be acceptable for an employee in a wheelchair employed by a multinational enterprise corporation — the company can afford to make such changes. But for a small business? Installing the elevator could break the bank or severely hinder its day-to-day operations.
Luckily, most reasonable accommodations cost nothing, according to JAN’s 2024 findings. Click the tabs below to explore common reasonable accommodations at every point in the employee life cycle.
Obligations of Employers
Below are your major responsibilities to provide a compliant ADA reasonable accommodation and support a fair and equitable workplace.
Identify Essential Job Functions
Essential job functions are responsibilities that are key to a specific role; employees must be able to perform these duties to hold this position. For example, an essential job duty for a teacher is instructing students, while an essential job duty for a sales representative is managing client relationships.
Under the ADA, disabled workers must be able to perform essential job duties, with or without a reasonable accommodation. Identifying what duties are essential versus non-essential in a role is vital for understanding a disabled worker’s employment rights.
For instance, writing out task lists on a chalkboard for students is a non-essential job duty for a teacher. Because of this, you shouldn’t use a candidate in a wheelchair’s inability to use the chalkboard to disqualify them from your hiring process or deny employment. Doing so is discriminatory since chalkboard task lists are not essential to a teacher’s job since you can reassign this task to another employee (or maybe an eager student).
Pro tip: Get into the habit of including the essential and non-essential job duties on all your job descriptions and job posts. Beyond providing role clarity to applicants, it’ll be an excellent resource for hiring managers, recruiters, and middle managers when making hiring and other employment decisions.
Allow Employees to Initiate Accommodation Requests
Employees should be the ones to initiate accommodation requests, not the other way around. Requests can be informal or start with a formal ask between the candidate or employee and their recruiter or manager. That said, I always suggest getting something in writing for recordkeeping purposes. A form will do, but a timestamped email works just as well.
Never assume an employee has a disability. Assuming an employee has a disability and acting in a way that highlights that belief can be discriminatory. It also affords the employee protected status under the ADA, which they otherwise would not have qualified.
Remember to store any accommodation requests and supporting documentation in confidential files separate from the employee’s personnel file since they contain sensitive, HIPAA-protected information. Most HRIS have features to store and restrict access to these documents. If you’re in the market for a new system, check out the 8 Best HRIS for Small Business Owners.
Pro tip: If the need for accommodation isn’t clear, you can request that the employee provide supporting documents from medical professionals. However, this should only be in limited situations, such as when the disability is not apparent or you need clarification on the best accommodation. Requiring medical proof of disability for all accommodation requests can be discriminatory, especially if the person’s disability is obvious.
Engage in Interactive Dialogues
An interactive dialogue is when you participate in a good-faith conversation with the disabled worker to determine a reasonable accommodation. The discussion is confidential and allows for an open back-and-forth on the employee’s limitations while brainstorming possible accommodation solutions.
Most reasonable accommodations are apparent. For example, allowing a cashier to sit on a chair when checking out customers is a reasonable accommodation for an employee with an ankle injury.
However, occasionally, a reasonable accommodation is less obvious, making the interactive dialogue a critical component of the process. You have the final say in what accommodation you provide, but remember to consider the employee’s perspective and implement a solution that allows them to perform their primary duties.
And don’t forget to follow up with the employee after implementation: is the accommodation working? Do you need to adjust their accommodation so they can succeed in their role?
In the news: You might have heard about the executive order Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. While this order revokes affirmative action requirements based on race and sex, they remain in place for veteran and disabled workers. Most importantly, the administration is heightening enforcement measures around Title VII and ADA, so take a moment to outline your reasonable accommodation process and beef up your anti-discrimination handbook policies.
Reasonable Accommodation FAQs
The reasonable accommodation process is a way of identifying job and environmental modifications that ensure equal employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
At a company level, the reasonable accommodation process looks at modifying systems to provide fair and equal access to disabled workers. Think of remodeling workplaces with an inclusive design or providing company materials in multiple formats to accommodate the needs of all employees.
At the individual level, the reasonable accommodation process refers to the one-on-one interactive discussion between you and a disabled employee following an accommodation request. This includes a conversation on the employee’s essential duties, brainstorming possible accommodations and implementation, and checking in on the success of the accommodation.
One of the best reasonable accommodation resources is the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), which offers free services to help you craft personalized accommodations. You can also check out the EEOC for guidance on enforcement and anti-discrimination policies or the ADA National Network for all things ADA. I’d also research regional, state, and local agencies specializing in disability accommodation near you.
You must make a “reasonable effort” to identify an appropriate employee accommodation upon their request. You cannot deny someone from making an accommodation request, but you can refuse a reasonable accommodation if it creates an undue hardship for your business.
If you and the employee cannot determine an adequate alternative, the EEOC states that the individual may be considered “not qualified” for the job. But in scenarios like this, I’d always check with a labor law attorney before moving forward with termination.