ADA Frequently Asked Questions
Category: Title I: Employment
Question: #9
Are there certain requests that are not considered reasonable?
Answer:
Yes. In general, an employer does not have to:
- Change an employee’s supervisor;
- Eliminate a primary job responsibility (i.e., an essential job function);
- Lower production standards or quotas
- Provide personal use items that are needed and used for activities both on and off the job, such as prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs, eyeglasses, hearing aids, and other similar devices;
- Provide an accommodation that would result in a legitimate threat to health or safety; or
- Provide an accommodation that would result in an undue financial or administrative hardship.
- Change supervisory methods, such as the method of communicating assignments;
- Eliminate or reassign marginal job functions;
- Provide reasonable accommodations that allow a person with a disability to meet production standards; and
- Provide personal use items when they are provided to other employees (a company phone, a work laptop, etc.). They can also be provided when the item is specifically designed or required to meet job-related rather than personal needs (a hearing device to use the company phone, a cooling vest for a grounds keeper with multiple sclerosis, etc.). When personal use items are provided as an accommodation, they can be required to be left at the workplace.
