How to Ask for a Reasonable Accommodation: Documentation and Denials

To ask for a reasonable accommodation at work, tell your employer, in plain language, that you need a change to your job because of a medical condition, and describe what would help. You do not have to use the phrase “reasonable accommodation,” cite the ADA, or file formal paperwork to start the process.¹ Once you ask, your employer is required to work with you to find something that helps.

What to Say

The request itself is simple. You need to communicate two things: that you have a medical condition, and that it is causing you a problem at work that a change could fix. Something like “I’m having trouble standing for my full shift because of my back condition, and I need to be able to sit periodically” is enough to trigger your employer’s legal obligation to respond.¹

You can raise it in a conversation, an email, a letter, or any other way you normally communicate at work. If you are unable to make the request yourself, a family member, friend, or your doctor can do it on your behalf.¹

Even so, put it in writing. If you begin the conversation verbally, follow up with an email that summarizes what you asked for. An email creates a timestamped record of when you asked, what you said about your limitations, and what accommodation you proposed. If a dispute comes up later about whether you actually requested an accommodation or when you did it, that record becomes the most important document in the file.

Direct the request to your supervisor or to HR. If your employer has a written procedure in the handbook, follow it, but a request made outside that procedure still counts as a request under the law.

What to Figure Out Before You Ask

Vague requests stall. Specific ones move. Before you send the email or start the conversation, spend some time working out exactly where your condition creates a barrier at work. Which tasks are hard? Which environments cause the problem? What change would actually make a difference?

You do not have to arrive with the perfect solution, but having at least one concrete idea gives the conversation a starting point. If a schedule adjustment would help, say so. If you need a particular piece of equipment, name it. Your employer is not required to give you exactly what you propose, but they are required to engage with you in finding something that works.

If you have no idea what to ask for, the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) is worth a call before you approach your employer. JAN is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, its guidance is free and confidential, and it maintains a searchable database of accommodation ideas organized by disability, limitation, and occupation.² Most people who need accommodations have never heard of it.

The accommodations that get approved most often are the least dramatic ones: a schedule shift, a different chair, permission to take breaks at set intervals, working from home a day or two a week, ergonomic equipment, or a modified training format. Reassignment to a vacant position you are qualified for is also on the list of examples the statute recognizes.³

Medical Documentation and Privacy

Your employer can ask for medical documentation when your disability and your need for accommodation are not obvious. The documentation should come from an appropriate health care professional and should explain your functional limitations and how the requested accommodation addresses them.¹

There are firm limits on what they can demand. They cannot request your complete medical records; they can only ask for information tied to the specific disability and the specific accommodation. They cannot ask for any documentation when the disability and the need are both obvious. And once you have provided enough to establish that you have a qualifying condition and need an accommodation, they cannot keep demanding more. If your employer says what you gave them is insufficient, they are supposed to explain what is missing and give you time to supply it, not simply deny the request.¹

Any medical information you hand over has to be kept in a separate confidential file, not in your regular personnel folder. Supervisors can be told about necessary work restrictions and accommodations, and first aid personnel can be informed if your condition might require emergency treatment. Beyond that, your employer cannot share it.⁴ If you find your medical information in your general HR file or hear that coworkers know about it, that is a separate violation.

What Happens After You Ask

Once you make the request, your employer is required to engage in what the law calls the “interactive process,” meaning a back-and-forth conversation aimed at landing on an effective accommodation. This is not a formality. An employer that ignores your request, sits on it indefinitely, or refuses to discuss it can face liability for that failure alone, separate from any liability for denying the accommodation.¹

During the process, your employer may ask questions about your functional limitations and how they affect specific tasks. They may suggest alternatives to what you proposed. Both of you are expected to participate in good faith.

Timing matters. The EEOC’s guidance says employers should respond “expeditiously” and that unnecessary delays can violate the ADA.¹ There is no fixed deadline in the statute, but weeks of silence, or meeting after meeting with no resolution, is a warning sign. If a permanent fix will take time to put in place, such as ordering specialized equipment, ask about a temporary accommodation to bridge the gap.

The Three Ways Your Employer Can Respond

The response will usually take one of three forms.

The first is approval of what you asked for. This is common when the request is low-cost and clearly tied to a functional limitation, such as a standing desk, a modified schedule, or noise-canceling headphones.

The second is an alternative accommodation. Your employer can decline your specific request and offer something different, as long as the alternative is effective at addressing your limitation. If you asked to work from home full time and the employer offers three remote days plus a private on-site workspace, that can satisfy the obligation, provided it actually resolves the barrier you identified. You do not get to insist on your preferred accommodation.

The third is denial based on undue hardship. An employer can refuse an accommodation entirely if providing it would cause “significant difficulty or expense” relative to the employer’s resources and operations.³ This is a higher bar for a large employer than a small one, and even when an employer proves undue hardship for one accommodation, it still has to consider whether a less burdensome alternative would work.

If You Are Retaliated Against

Asking for an accommodation is a protected activity. Your employer cannot fire you, demote you, cut your pay, give you an unjustified negative review, reassign you to a less desirable role, or take any other action that would discourage a reasonable person from making the request.⁵

Retaliation does not have to look like a firing. Increased scrutiny of your work, exclusion from meetings or training, a sudden pile-up of written warnings, or a transfer that looks neutral on paper but meaningfully worsens your working conditions can all qualify. The legal test asks whether the employer’s action would deter a reasonable person from requesting an accommodation or filing a complaint. Courts have found retaliation even when months or years pass between the request and the adverse action, as long as other evidence connects the two.⁵

This is why the written record matters. If you requested an accommodation by email in March, received a strong performance review in April, and got a negative review and a demotion in June, that paper trail tells a story an investigator can follow.

If Your Request Is Denied

If your employer refuses to accommodate you and you believe the refusal is discriminatory, you can file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. You generally have 180 calendar days from the date the discrimination occurred to file. The deadline extends to 300 days if your state or locality has its own agency that enforces a similar anti-discrimination law, which most states do.⁶

Those deadlines include weekends and holidays, and they do not pause while you pursue an internal grievance, a union process, or mediation. Filing an HR complaint does not buy you more time with the EEOC. Federal employees follow a different process and generally must contact their agency’s EEO counselor within 45 days.⁶

After you file, the EEOC investigates and eventually issues a Notice of Right to Sue, which lets you file a lawsuit in federal or state court. If the investigation has been pending for more than 180 days, you can request the notice yourself. Once you receive it, you have 90 days to file your lawsuit. Miss that window and the court will likely dismiss the case.⁷

An employer that engaged in the interactive process in good faith, even if it ultimately failed to provide an effective accommodation, may be shielded from punitive damages. An employer that stonewalled or ignored the process faces greater exposure.¹ That distinction is one more reason to document every step of your side of the conversation.

A Few Boundaries Worth Knowing

The ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees.⁸ If your employer is smaller, you may still have rights under state law; many states set lower thresholds, some as low as one employee. Check your state’s fair employment agency.

If your need for accommodation is related to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect in 2023, gives you a separate and in some ways more generous right. Even a temporary inability to perform an essential job function can qualify, as long as you can be reasonably accommodated. Your employer also cannot force leave on you if another accommodation would work, or require you to accept an accommodation you did not agree to.⁹¹⁰

1
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship under the ADA
2
Job Accommodation Network. JAN – Job Accommodation Network
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12111 – Definitions
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12112 – Discrimination
5
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retaliation – Making it Personal
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
7
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
8
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Small Employers and Reasonable Accommodation
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 2000gg-1 – Nondiscrimination with Regard to Reasonable Accommodations Related to Pregnancy