The interactive process is the name for the back-and-forth between a person who needs an accommodation and the organization that provides it. It is called interactive because neither side decides alone: the person knows the barrier and often knows what works; the organization knows the job, the program and what is feasible. The law expects the exchange to be prompt and made in good faith. It does not prescribe a form, but the process falls apart when steps are skipped, and it falls apart most often at the beginning, when a request is heard but not received, and at the end, when an accommodation is put in place and never checked.
The six steps below are in order for a reason. Clarifying the barrier before brainstorming keeps the solution attached to the problem. Weighing feasibility after identifying options, rather than before, keeps a supervisor from vetoing ideas nobody has examined. Documenting after implementing, rather than instead of it, keeps the record honest. The last step, addressing recurring barriers at the system level, is what separates an organization that accommodates from one that keeps re-solving the same problem one person at a time.
Roles matter as much as order. A supervisor receives the request, has the task-and-barrier conversation, arranges what can be arranged now and starts the hand-off. Human resources or the ADA coordinator owns the formal request, any medical documentation, the undue hardship analysis if one is needed, and the official decision and record. This division protects the employee's privacy, protects the supervisor from decisions they are not equipped to make, and makes the process consistent across the agency. A supervisor who tries to run the whole thing alone is not being helpful; they are being a single point of failure.
