Employees with disabilities are entitled to request reasonable work accommodations – and, as an employer, you are expected to engage in meaningful attempts to meet those accommodations.
Accommodations for disabilities can take several forms, and a business that is subject to the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) can only refuse accommodations if making them would cause the company undue financial hardship.
Here are some common examples of reasonable work accommodations:
Physical access
Some employees may have difficulties physically accessing the company site. For example, there may be a lack of disabled parking spots, and an employee may ask for a different parking spot as part of their reasonable accommodations.
Other forms of reasonable accommodations that improve physical access may include adding automated doors, elevators, escalators and disabled bathrooms to make it easier for those employees with mobility challenges to navigate the workplace more easily.
Schedule adjustments
Requests to change working schedules are also a form of reasonable accommodation. Schedule changes can take several forms. For instance, an employee may request a specific afternoon off every week to attend medical appointments. Or, an employee may request to work from home twice a week. As long as such requests are reasonable and not damaging to the company, they should be considered.
Other common types of reasonable accommodations include:
- Utilizing technology for those with sensory impairments
- Using different formats for training manuals (audio, braille, multilingual, etc)
- Allowing employees to take statutory family leave
It is important that your business remains compliant in terms of reasonable accommodations, and our firm assists companies with their compliance needs. Call us today to arrange a consultation.
