Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, is a US federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities and requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations.

Title I of the ADA covers employment specifically. Other titles of the law address public accommodations and government services, which fall outside typical HR scope. ADA.gov's text of the law as amended is the authoritative source for the statute itself.

Which Employers Are Covered?

The ADA's employment provisions apply to private employers with 15 or more employees, along with state and local governments, employment agencies, and labor organizations. Many states apply disability protections to smaller employers through their own laws.

What Counts as a Disability Under the ADA?

The law defines disability broadly: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a documented history of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one.

Major life activities include things like walking, seeing, hearing, concentrating, and working itself, along with major bodily functions such as immune, neurological, or digestive function.

What Is a Reasonable Accommodation?

A reasonable accommodation is a change to the job or work environment that lets a qualified employee with a disability perform essential job functions, unless it would create an undue hardship for the employer. The EEOC's enforcement guidance on reasonable accommodation is the primary reference agencies and courts use to interpret this standard in practice.

HR Cloud's adaptive equipment for disabilities and adaptive devices for disabled employees glossary entries cover the physical accommodation side in more depth.

What Is the Interactive Process?

The interactive process is the required back-and-forth conversation between employer and employee to identify an effective accommodation once a request is made or a need becomes apparent.

• The employee requests an accommodation, which does not need to use specific legal language
• The employer engages promptly rather than delaying or ignoring the request
• Both sides discuss options, and medical documentation may reasonably be requested
• The employer implements an effective accommodation, though not necessarily the employee's first preference
• The conversation continues if the initial accommodation doesn't work as intended

What Should HR Do to Stay Compliant?

Most ADA violations trace back to a mishandled process rather than outright refusal, which makes the process itself the highest-leverage place to get right. The EEOC's plain-language guide to employer responsibilities is written specifically to help HR teams get the mechanics right without needing a law degree.

• Train managers to recognize an accommodation request even when the employee doesn't use formal language
• Route every request through HR rather than leaving it to individual manager discretion
• Document the interactive process for every request, approved or denied
• Distinguish essential job functions from marginal ones before deciding what's reasonable
• Never make assumptions about what an employee with a disability can or cannot do

Confirm current requirements through the EEOC before making a specific accommodation decision. HR Cloud's anti-discrimination policy template and broader HR compliance glossary entry cover where the ADA fits alongside other federal employment law.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does the ADA require hiring an unqualified candidate with a disability?

A: No. The candidate must still be qualified, meaning able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without a reasonable accommodation.

Q: What is considered an undue hardship?

A: An accommodation that would require significant difficulty or expense relative to the employer's size, resources, and operations. This is assessed case by case, not by a fixed dollar threshold.

Q: Can an employer ask about a disability during an interview?

A: Generally no. Employers cannot ask disability-related questions before a conditional job offer, though they can ask if a candidate can perform specific job functions.

Q: Does the ADA cover temporary conditions?

A: Some temporary impairments can qualify if they are severe enough and last long enough, though short-term, minor conditions typically do not meet the legal threshold.

Q: Is remote work a required ADA accommodation?

A: It can be, depending on the role and whether in-person presence is truly an essential function. Courts have increasingly recognized remote work as a reasonable accommodation in appropriate cases.