12 minutes
What reasonable accommodation is for Understand the purpose of accommodation in employment and in services, and recognize a request when it arrives in ordinary words.
What you’ll be able to do Explain the purpose of reasonable accommodation in employment and in services, and recognize a request that starts the process even when it uses no formal words. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What has the supervisor missed? Document a next step for What reasonable accommodation is for: Think back over the last month for a sentence from an employee or participant that was probably a request. Write down what you did and what the six-step sequence in the next lesson would have changed. Removing what is in the way A reasonable accommodation is a change to how a job is done, how a workplace is arranged or how a program is delivered, so that a person with a disability has an equal chance to do the work or use the service. In employment, the ADA and Minnesota's own human rights law require it for qualified employees and applicants, up to the point of undue hardship for the employer. In programs and services, public entities must make reasonable modifications to policies and practices and provide effective communication, unless doing so would fundamentally alter the program. The purpose in both settings is the same: the person can meet the standard once the barrier is gone. The standard itself stays where it was.
That is why accommodation is not a favor, a lowered bar or a special deal. A screen reader, a schedule change, written instructions, a stool at a standing station, a transfer device, a quieter workstation: each removes something that was in the way of a person doing what everyone else is asked to do. The Job Accommodation Network, which advises employers across the country, reports from its own surveys that a large share of accommodations cost nothing, and that most of the rest involve a modest one-time expense. Cost is rarely the real obstacle. Not recognizing the request is.
Recognizing the request is the skill this lesson is about. Requests almost never arrive as “I am requesting a reasonable accommodation under the ADA.” They arrive as “the new headsets give me migraines,” “I cannot do the stairs at that site anymore,” “I keep losing track when instructions are only spoken,” or, from a family member, “she is going to need something different for the lobby.” Any sentence that links a health or disability-related limitation to difficulty with work or with a service is a request. Once you hear one, the process has started, whether or not anyone has filled out a form.
Two settings, one purpose Employment Programs and services
Who: applicants and employees who can do the essential functions with or without accommodation.
Examples: modified schedules, equipment and software, written instructions, restructured marginal duties, accessible training, leave, a different workstation, reassignment to a vacant position as a last resort.
Limit: undue hardship, meaning significant difficulty or expense for the organization as a whole, determined by the responsible office with evidence.
Not required: removing an essential function, lowering production or conduct standards that apply to everyone, or providing personal-use items.
Who: participants, applicants and members of the public who use a program, service or activity.
Examples: a longer appointment, a home or video visit, materials in an alternative format, an interpreter, a modified deadline, a policy exception such as allowing a service animal or a support person.
Limit: fundamental alteration of the program or an undue burden, determined by the responsible office, with a duty to find another way to provide access where possible.
Not required: changing eligibility criteria that are necessary to the program.
Hear the request in ordinary words What you can change You control whether a sentence about pain, fatigue, confusion or a barrier is heard as a complaint, a personal problem or the start of a process.
What to watch for Do not wait for the word accommodation, a form or a diagnosis. Do not answer a request with sympathy and no action.
Your next step Tell your team in your next meeting: if someone links a health condition to trouble doing part of their job, that is a request, and here is what you do with it.
Starts the process, or not? “The fluorescent lights in the new area trigger my migraines and I cannot get through a shift.”
Choose a category Starts the process Does not by itself “I would prefer the desk by the window.”
Choose a category Starts the process Does not by itself “Since my stroke I cannot follow the intake script when it changes without warning.”
Choose a category Starts the process Does not by itself An employee's spouse calls to say the employee is in the hospital and will need changes when she returns.
Choose a category Starts the process Does not by itself “I do not like the new scheduling software.”
Choose a category Starts the process Does not by itself A participant says, “I cannot fill out forms on a screen; is there another way to apply?”
Choose a category Starts the process Does not by itself Check matches Reset Terms you will hear Reasonable accommodation
A change to the job, the workplace or the way a service is delivered that removes a barrier for a person with a disability. In services, often called a reasonable modification.
Qualified
In employment, a person who meets the job's requirements and can perform its essential functions with or without accommodation. The question is about the essential functions, not about every task ever assigned.
Undue hardship
Significant difficulty or expense in light of the organization's overall resources and operations. A high bar, judged for the whole organization, decided by the responsible office. A supervisor's budget line is not the test.
Fundamental alteration
In services, a change that would alter the essential nature of the program. Rare. Even when one is found, the agency must still look for another way to provide access.
Interim accommodation
A temporary arrangement that gives the person access while the formal process runs. Often the difference between a good process and a person quietly failing for six weeks.
Carry this forward Accommodation removes a barrier so a qualified person can do the essential functions of a job, or a person can use a program or service. It does not lower the standard or excuse the requirement.
A request does not need magic words, a form or a diagnosis. “I am having trouble with X because of my health” is enough to start the process.
Undue hardship and fundamental alteration are organizational determinations made by the responsible office with evidence, not a supervisor's first reaction to cost or inconvenience.
A completed sort of statements that do and do not start the process, a scenario decision and a knowledge check.
Think back over the last month for a sentence from an employee or participant that was probably a request. Write down what you did and what the six-step sequence in the next lesson would have changed.
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Reset this lesson
Course overview Next lesson Carry this into practice Recognize a request, run the interactive process in order, keep the focus on the job and the barrier instead of the diagnosis, and know exactly when to bring in human resources or the ADA coordinator.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
