The ADA and Accommodating Employees in a Small Business

If your business has 15 or more employees, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) makes it your legal duty to give a qualified employee or applicant with a disability a reasonable accommodation — a change to the job, the workplace, or how work gets done — unless that change would cause your business an "undue hardship." The ADA also flatly bans treating someone worse because of a disability, a history of one, or because you perceive them as disabled. This is a real compliance obligation, not a suggestion, and it's enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

This page covers your responsibilities as the employer. If you're the one who needs an accommodation or believes you were discriminated against, observed.org's employment coverage addresses the employee side of these same laws.

Does the ADA apply to my business?

Title I of the ADA — the employment part — applies to private employers with 15 or more employees, counted for each working day in each of 20 or more weeks in the current or prior calendar year. That's the same headcount that triggers Title VII's ban on race, sex, religion, and national-origin discrimination. (For reference: the Age Discrimination in Employment Act kicks in at 20 employees; the Family and Medical Leave Act generally kicks in at 50, within 75 miles — different laws, different thresholds.)

State law may cover you even if the federal ADA doesn't. Many states have their own disability discrimination laws that apply to much smaller employers — in some states the threshold is far lower than 15, and it varies from state to state. Being under the federal line is not a safe harbor. Check your state's civil rights or human rights agency to confirm the threshold and any added duties that apply to you.

What counts as a "qualified" employee or applicant

The ADA protects a "qualified individual with a disability" — someone who, with or without a reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the job.

• Disability is defined broadly: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity (walking, seeing, hearing, concentrating, learning, major bodily functions, and more), a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one.
• Qualified means the person can do the essential — not marginal — functions of the job, as-is or with accommodation. You're not required to eliminate an essential function or lower a legitimate production standard.

What a "reasonable accommodation" actually looks like

A reasonable accommodation is any change to the job or work environment that lets a qualified person with a disability apply for a job, perform its essential functions, or enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment. There's no fixed list, because it depends on the person and the job, but common examples include:

• Restructuring a job to reassign a non-essential task to someone else
• A modified or flexible work schedule
• Acquiring or modifying equipment (a screen reader, an ergonomic chair, an amplified phone)
• Permitting remote work or telework where feasible for the role
• Providing a sign language interpreter or written materials in an alternate format
• Reassignment to a vacant position the person is qualified for, when accommodation in the current role isn't possible
• Unpaid leave, or an adjustment to leave policy, when it would allow the person to return to work
• Making existing facilities accessible — an accessible restroom, a ramp, reserved parking

You don't have to provide the exact accommodation the employee requests. If more than one option would be effective, you generally get to choose which one to offer, as long as it's effective.

What "undue hardship" means — and doesn't mean

You're excused from a particular accommodation only if it would impose an undue hardship — significant difficulty or expense — weighing the accommodation's cost, your overall financial resources, the size and structure of your business, and its effect on operations. This is a fact-specific, case-by-case standard, not simply "we'd rather not." Cost alone rarely wins the argument, especially for low-cost accommodations like a schedule change. If one option is an undue hardship, move to whether a different one would work.

The interactive process: how accommodation requests are supposed to work

Once an employee or applicant lets you know — plain language, no magic words required — that they need a change because of a medical condition, the EEOC expects an informal, good-faith back-and-forth called the interactive process:

1. Listen for the request. "I'm having trouble standing for my whole shift because of my back" is enough to start the process; no one has to say "ADA accommodation."
2. Ask what's needed. If the disability or the need isn't obvious, you can ask for reasonable documentation from a health care provider about the limitation and the type of accommodation needed — not a full medical history.
3. Discuss options together. Talk through what would work, including options the employee or their doctor suggests and ones you propose.
4. Decide and document. Choose an effective option, explain the decision, and keep a written record.
5. Follow up. Check whether it's actually working and revisit if things change.

Delay matters. Dragging out the process, or ignoring a request altogether, can itself be treated as a failure to accommodate — even if you eventually would have said yes.

Limits on medical questions and exams

The ADA restricts what you can ask about health, and when:

• Before a job offer: No disability-related questions or medical exams at all, even if they seem job-related. You can ask whether the applicant can perform specific job functions, with or without accommodation.
• After a conditional offer, before the start date: Disability-related questions and medical exams are allowed, but only if required of everyone entering that job category, with results kept in a confidential medical file separate from the regular personnel file.
• Once employment begins: Questions or exams must be job-related and consistent with business necessity — tied to a documented performance or safety concern, for example.
• Confidentiality always applies. Medical information, including from an accommodation request, stays in a separate confidential file, with disclosure limited to those who genuinely need to know (a supervisor may be told the needed restriction, not the diagnosis).

What "no discrimination" covers beyond accommodation

Separately from the duty to accommodate, the ADA bars discriminating against a qualified person with a disability in hiring, firing, pay, promotion, assignments, training, and benefits. It also prohibits disability-based harassment and retaliation against someone for requesting an accommodation or raising a concern. You can't use qualification standards or tests that screen out people with disabilities unless the standard is job-related and consistent with business necessity — and even then, only if no reasonable accommodation would let the person meet it.

What to do if you get an accommodation request

1. Acknowledge the request promptly — don't let it sit.
2. If the need isn't obvious, ask for limited medical documentation describing the functional limitation, not a full diagnosis or complete records.
3. Talk with the employee about what would help; loop in a supervisor and, if useful, an HR contact or outside advisor.
4. Evaluate options against the essential functions of the job and your real operational constraints — get specific about cost and impact rather than assuming hardship.
5. Put the decision in writing, keep documentation in a confidential medical file, and set a date to check whether it's working.
6. If you believe every option is an undue hardship, document why in concrete terms before saying no.

A request that also touches family or medical leave, a workplace injury, or a pregnancy-related condition may be covered by more than one law at once — don't assume the ADA analysis alone settles the question.

Where to get it right the first time

The EEOC publishes free guidance built for small employers, including a resource on small employers and reasonable accommodation and formal enforcement guidance on reasonable accommodation, undue hardship, and disability-related inquiries, all at eeoc.gov. The Department of Justice's ADA.gov covers the public-accommodation side of the law (your physical space and customers) and links to the EEOC for employment questions. For a specific, high-stakes decision, or if you're facing a charge, loop in an employment attorney — real situations turn on facts an attorney needs to see.

This is general business information, not legal, tax, or financial advice.