Reasonable Accommodation Under the ADA: The Interactive Process
The obligation is narrower than many employers fear and broader than many realise. Most accommodation problems are not about the accommodation at all — they are about the process, and specifically about an employer who did not engage in it.
For a related Monitask resource on employee attendance tracking, see this link.
General information, not legal advice. Accommodation questions should go to employment counsel, and state laws are frequently broader than federal law.
When the obligation arises
The ADA generally applies to employers with 15 or more employees. Many state laws apply to smaller employers and define disability more broadly, so check your state before concluding you are out of scope.
A qualified individual with a disability is entitled to reasonable accommodation enabling them to perform the essential functions of the job, unless doing so would impose undue hardship.
Three terms carry the weight: qualified, essential functions, and undue hardship.
What triggers the process
A request does not have to use the word "accommodation." It does not have to be in writing, and it does not have to come from the employee directly — a family member or a doctor can raise it.
"I'm having trouble getting here by 9 because of my medication" is a request. So is "my back condition makes the standing part hard."
Once you are on notice, the obligation to engage begins. Failing to recognise a request is one of the most common findings against employers, and it usually comes from a manager who did not know what they were hearing. Train managers to escalate anything that sounds like this rather than resolving it informally or ignoring it.
The obligation also applies to applicants, not only employees. An accommodation request during a hiring process must be handled and must not be treated as information about suitability. See interview questions that create EEOC exposure.
The interactive process
It is a conversation, and it is required.
1. Acknowledge the request promptly and in writing.
2. Establish what limitation is involved and what it affects. Not a diagnosis. What job function is difficult, and why.
3. Request medical documentation only if the disability or need is not obvious — and limit it to what is necessary. You may ask whether a limitation exists and what it restricts. You may not demand a complete medical history.
4. Identify the essential functions of the role. What the job genuinely requires, as opposed to what the job description happens to list. Marginal tasks can often be reassigned; essential ones cannot be removed.
5. Explore options together. The employee's suggestion is a starting point. You may propose alternatives, and you are not obliged to provide their preferred accommodation if another is effective.
6. Decide, and document. If you agree, implement it and record what was agreed. If you decline, record why, with the reasoning.
7. Follow up. Accommodations that worked six months ago may no longer fit. Conditions change and so do roles.
Move promptly. Unreasonable delay is itself treated as a failure to accommodate.
Common accommodations
Most cost little or nothing:
- Modified schedule or adjusted start time
- Remote or hybrid work
- Additional or restructured breaks
- Reassignment of marginal, non-essential tasks
- Physical modifications to a workspace
- Assistive equipment or software
- Adjusted training materials or delivery
- Leave as an accommodation, beyond any statutory entitlement
- Reassignment to a vacant position for which the person is qualified, where no accommodation in the current role is possible
Undue hardship
Significant difficulty or expense, assessed against the employer's size, resources, and operations. It is a real defence and a narrow one — inconvenience, discomfort, or the fact that other employees may object are not undue hardship.
If you intend to rely on it, document the analysis: what was considered, what it would cost, what alternatives were explored, and why each was rejected.
Where employers get it wrong
Not recognising a request. The largest single category.
Refusing without exploring alternatives. Saying no to what was asked without proposing anything else is a failure of the process, even where the specific request was unreasonable.
Demanding excessive medical detail, or a full medical record.
Sharing the information. Medical information must be kept confidential and stored separately from personnel files. Managers are told what the accommodation is, not what the condition is.
Treating leave as automatically unreasonable. Indefinite leave is generally not required; a defined period of leave frequently is a reasonable accommodation.
A rigid maximum-leave policy applied automatically. Terminating at a fixed point without individual assessment has repeatedly been found unlawful.
Retaliation. Treating someone worse after they request an accommodation is separately actionable, and it happens through small things — exclusion from projects, changed assignments, a cooler manager.
Not documenting. With no record, the account that survives is the employee's.
Interaction with other laws
Accommodation questions frequently overlap with FMLA leave, workers' compensation, and pregnancy accommodation obligations, and the analyses differ. A single situation can trigger several at once with different tests and timelines.
Pregnancy accommodation in particular has its own federal framework in addition to the ADA, and several states impose broader duties.
Do not assume that satisfying one satisfies the others. This is a common and expensive error.
A workable process
- [ ] Managers trained to recognise and escalate requests
- [ ] A named person who owns the process
- [ ] Written acknowledgement within a defined timeframe
- [ ] Essential functions documented per role, before you need them
- [ ] Medical information limited, and stored separately
- [ ] Options explored and recorded, including those rejected
- [ ] Decision documented with reasoning
- [ ] Review date set
- [ ] Counsel involved before any denial or any termination involving an accommodation history
That fourth item is worth doing in advance. Deciding what the essential functions of a role are after a request arrives looks exactly like what it is.
PJP documents job architecture and essential functions as part of HR consulting engagements. HR consulting → For broader reference, consult ADA.gov.