The ADA: Your Employment Rights as an Individual With a Disability

What is Reasonable Accommodation?

Reasonable accommodation is any change or adjustment to a job or work environment that permits a qualified applicant or employee with a disability to participate in the job application process, to perform the essential functions of a job, or to enjoy benefits and privileges of employment equal to those enjoyed by employees without disabilities. For example, reasonable accommodation may include:

• providing or modifying equipment or devices,

• job restructuring,

• part-time or modified work schedules,

• reassignment to a vacant position,

• adjusting or modifying examinations, training materials, or policies,

• providing readers and interpreters, and

• making the workplace readily accessible to and usable by people with disabilities.

An employer is required to provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified applicant or employee with a disability unless the employer can show that the accommodation would be an undue hardship -- that is, that it would require significant difficulty or expense.