
Federal law, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, prohibits covered employers from engaging in disability discrimination against their workers. It also puts certain additional requirements on employers. One of these is the reasonable accommodation requirement.
Under federal law, it is generally mandatory for employers to reasonably accommodate their employees who have disabilities. In regards to disabled employees, a reasonable accommodation is a work process change or work environment change aimed at helping a disabled individual be able to enjoy a job’s privileges/benefits or be able to perform job duties.
Unfortunately, employees with disabilities sometimes experience resistance from their employer when they make a request for a reasonable accommodation.
One tactic they could possibly end up facing from their employer is their employer claiming that the requested accommodation falls under the undue hardship exception to the reasonable accommodation requirement, and thus that they do not have to grant it.
Under federal law, an employer is not required to give a disabled employee a requested reasonable accommodation if that accommodation would be too expensive or difficult, given that employer’s particular circumstances, for the employer. A variety of different factors influence whether the undue hardship exception actually applies to a given situation.
When facing employer resistance to a reasonable accommodation request, it can be important for a worker with disabilities to seek out appropriate help. Experienced employment lawyers can provide legal help and support to workers with disabilities who are facing undue hardship allegations or other roadblocks to getting a critical reasonable accommodation.
Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Disability Discrimination,” Accessed Feb. 23, 2016