The Americans with Disabilities Act does not require employers to say yes to every accommodation request. It requires something narrower and, in practice, harder: a good-faith, individualized conversation about whether an employee with a disability can perform the essential functions of the job, and what — if anything — would make that possible.
That conversation is the interactive process. Employers rarely lose ADA cases because they chose the wrong accommodation. They lose because they never had the conversation, or because nothing about it was written down.
There are no magic words. An employee does not have to say "ADA," "disability," or "reasonable accommodation" to trigger your obligation. A request is any communication that a workplace adjustment is needed for a reason related to a medical condition.
All of these are accommodation requests:
A request may come from the employee or from someone acting on their behalf. It may be verbal. It may be made to a supervisor rather than to HR — which is exactly why supervisor training matters more than the policy language in your handbook. The clock starts when any manager hears it, not when HR is finally copied.
Train front-line managers on one rule: you do not evaluate accommodation requests, you route them.
The ADA protects a qualified individual with a disability — someone who can perform the essential functions of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Two definitions do most of the work here:
Disability. After the ADA Amendments Act, this is meant to be construed broadly and rarely litigated. An impairment that substantially limits a major life activity qualifies. Mitigating measures other than ordinary eyeglasses and contact lenses are not considered — you assess the condition without medication or assistive devices. Conditions that are episodic or in remission qualify if they would substantially limit a major life activity when active. Do not spend effort trying to prove an employee "isn't really disabled." That fight is usually a loser and it delays the analysis that matters.
Essential functions. These are the fundamental duties of the position, not the marginal ones. Evidence includes the employer's judgment, a written job description prepared before advertising or interviewing, the amount of time spent performing the function, the consequences of not requiring it, and the work experience of past and current incumbents in the role.
This is where accurate job descriptions [link → /job-descriptions] earn their keep. A job description written before the dispute is strong evidence. One drafted after the accommodation request is worth very little.
The interactive process is informal, but "informal" does not mean undocumented. Acknowledge the request in writing within a few business days and establish a point of contact.
Useful opening questions:
Ask about function, not diagnosis. You are entitled to know what the employee cannot do and why; you are generally not entitled to a diagnosis label.
The single most common ADA failure is delay. Weeks of silence while a request sits in an inbox is itself evidence of bad faith — even if you would have granted the accommodation.
If the disability and the need for accommodation are obvious — an employee who uses a wheelchair asking for a desk raised to a workable height — do not demand medical documentation. Asking anyway is an unnecessary medical inquiry.
Where the disability or the need is not obvious, you may request documentation limited to what is job-related and consistent with business necessity. A proper request asks the provider to describe:
Do not ask for complete medical records. Do not ask for the diagnosis if the functional description is sufficient. And keep everything you receive in a separate confidential medical file — never in the personnel file. Our HR Recordkeeping Requirements [link → /hr-recordkeeping-requirements] guide covers the separation rules across all record types.
If the documentation is insufficient, say specifically what is missing and give the employee an opportunity to supplement it before you deny anything.
Generate options with the employee. Most accommodations are inexpensive or free.
What the ADA does not require. You are not obligated to eliminate an essential function, lower production or quality standards, create a new position, promote the employee, displace another employee from their position, or provide personal-use items such as eyeglasses or a wheelchair for general use.
You choose among effective options. If two accommodations would both be effective, you may select the less expensive or less disruptive one. You are not required to provide the employee's first choice — only an accommodation that works.
Undue hardship means significant difficulty or expense, judged against factors including the nature and net cost of the accommodation, the financial resources of the facility, the overall resources of the employer, and the type of operation.
It is a high bar and it is assessed relative to the employer's size. "It costs money" is not undue hardship. "Other employees would resent it" is not undue hardship. Legitimate hardship arguments usually involve real operational impossibility, safety, or costs that are genuinely significant in proportion to the business.
Direct threat is a separate, equally narrow defense. A direct threat is a significant risk of substantial harm to the health or safety of the individual or others that cannot be eliminated or reduced by reasonable accommodation. It must rest on an individualized assessment using the best available objective medical evidence — considering duration of the risk, nature and severity of potential harm, likelihood it will occur, and imminence. Generalized fear about a condition is not a direct threat.
Confirm the outcome in writing: what was requested, what was granted or denied, the reasoning, the effective date, and any review point. If you deny the specific request but offer an alternative, document why the alternative is effective.
Then follow up. Accommodations that worked in January may not work in June. Schedule a check-in — thirty to sixty days is typical — and reopen the interactive process if circumstances change. The obligation is ongoing, not a one-time transaction.
A single employee situation routinely implicates all three statutes, and the deadliest assumption in HR is that FMLA exhaustion ends the analysis.
When an employee's 12 FMLA weeks expire, the correct next question is not "can we terminate?" but "is additional leave a reasonable accommodation, and would it impose undue hardship?" Automatic termination policies tied to a fixed leave maximum — so-called inflexible leave policies — have been a persistent EEOC enforcement target.
Our Disability & Leave Management training covers this handoff, and our FMLA Training covers the entitlement side.
No. Any communication that a workplace change is needed for a medical reason triggers the interactive process, whether or not the employee mentions the ADA. Requests made to a supervisor count.
Generally no. You may ask about functional limitations, duration, and the connection between the limitation and the requested accommodation. Requests must be job-related and consistent with business necessity, and any records must be kept in a separate confidential file.
No. If more than one accommodation would be effective, the employer may choose among them. The accommodation you select must actually be effective — cost savings do not justify an option that does not work.
Generally not. Leave for a defined, reasonably certain duration may be required. A request for leave with no expected end date is typically not a reasonable accommodation, though you should document the analysis rather than deny reflexively.
It depends on whether in-person presence is genuinely an essential function of the specific job — analyzed individually, based on current operations. Employers that have successfully operated the role remotely will find "presence is essential" a difficult position to hold.
Document your outreach. If the breakdown in the interactive process is attributable to the employee — unreturned requests for documentation, missed meetings — that generally defeats a failure-to-accommodate claim. But the documentation has to exist before the dispute.
The interactive process rewards employers who move quickly, ask about function rather than diagnosis, generate options in good faith, and write down every step. It punishes silence, reflexive denials, and inflexible policies applied without individual analysis.
Build the muscle before you need it. Explore our ADA Compliance Training courses, work through the ADA Compliance Checklist , or review the ADA FAQs and Glossary of ADA Terms for quick reference.
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