Enforcement Guidance: Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the Americans with Disabilities Act

33. Does an employer have to change a person's supervisor as a form of reasonable accommodation?

No. An employer does not have to provide an employee with a new supervisor as a reasonable accommodation. Nothing in the ADA, however, prohibits an employer from doing so. Furthermore, although an employer is not required to change supervisors, the ADA may require that supervisory methods be altered as a form of reasonable accommodation.⁽⁹⁹⁾ Also, an employee with a disability is protected from disability-based discrimination by a supervisor, including disability-based harassment.

Example: A supervisor frequently schedules team meetings on a day's notice often notifying staff in the afternoon that a meeting will be held on the following morning. An employee with a disability has missed several meetings because they have conflicted with previously-scheduled physical therapy sessions. The employee asks that the supervisor give her two to three days' notice of team meetings so that, if necessary, she can reschedule the physical therapy sessions. Assuming no undue hardship would result, the supervisor must make this reasonable accommodation.