ADA: Know Your Rights - Returning Service Members with Disabilities

Reasonable Modifications

Businesses must make "reasonable modifications" in their policies, practices, or procedures when necessary so that people with disabilities can be their customers. Businesses are not, however, required to make any changes that would fundamentally alter or change the nature of the business or its services. Additional information about the rules for "reasonable modifications" can be found at www.ada.gov/reachingout/lesson11.htm or by calling the ADA Information Line. See Contact Information.

Typical examples of reasonable modifications are:

• Modifying a no-pets policy to allow someone with PTSD to bring in a service animal that has been trained to calm the person when he or she has an anxiety attack.
• Modifying a membership policy at a health club to allow a person who uses a wheelchair to bring an aide to provide assistance in getting on and off exercise equipment, in and out of a swimming pool, or to assist with showering and dressing in the locker room, at no additional charge to the club member.
• Instructing staff that if a customer who has lost the use of his or her arms asks them to reach into a shirt or jacket pocket to retrieve the wallet or credit card needed to pay the bill, they should honor the request.
• Modifying procedures at a bank so customers who have difficulty standing for a long time can sit down without losing their place in line.
• Providing refueling assistance at the self-serve price for a customer with a disability who cannot pump his or her own gas.

An example of a fundamental alteration or change is:

• At a gas station with only one employee whose primary job is to protect the cash box or activate the gas pumps remotely, it would be a fundamental change for the employee to leave his or her post unattended in order to pump gas for a customer with a disability.