Policy required document Workplace
Reasonable Accommodation and Interactive Process Policy
An accommodation policy tells employees how to ask for a change to their job, schedule, equipment or workplace because of a disability, pregnancy or religious practice, and tells managers what to do when they hear such a request.
The legal duty to accommodate is in the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. 12112(b)(5)), the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (42 U.S.C. 2000gg) and Title VII for religion; none of them names a policy.
The claims turn on process. The regulations describe an informal, interactive process between the employer and the employee to identify the limitation and the accommodations that would overcome it (29 CFR 1630.2(o)(3) and 29 CFR 1636.3), and the usual allegation is not that the employer chose the wrong accommodation but that it never had the conversation, or had it only in a manager's head.
The volume is large and growing on all three fronts. Disability was alleged in 36,256 EEOC charges in fiscal year 2025, 41 percent of all charges, up from 33,668 the year before (EEOC Table E1a). The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, in force since June 27, 2023, drew 3,448 charges in its second full year, up from 2,729 (EEOC Table E8a).
The federal courts recorded 3,422 new ADA employment cases in the year to September 30, 2025 (Table C-2). And the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Groff v. DeJoy raised the bar for refusing a religious accommodation from anything more than a trivial cost to a substantial burden on the business, which retired the reasoning many older policies were built on.
A written procedure with a named contact, a documented conversation and a written outcome is the employer's evidence on every one of these.
Obligation ledger
Who requires it, and what each one says.
| Source | Applies when | What it requires | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Americans with Disabilities Act, discrimination defined 42 U.S.C. 12112(b)(5)(A) | Employers with 15 or more employees | Not making reasonable accommodations to the known limitations of a qualified individual with a disability is discrimination, unless the employer can show undue hardship. The duty; the policy is the procedure. | Mandatory |
| ADA regulations, interactive process 29 CFR 1630.2(o)(3) | Employers with 15 or more employees | To determine the appropriate accommodation it may be necessary to initiate an informal, interactive process with the individual, identifying the precise limitations and the potential accommodations that could overcome them. Courts treat a failure to engage as evidence of a violation. | Mandatory |
| Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations 29 CFR 1636.3 | Employers with 15 or more employees, for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions | Defines the interactive process for pregnancy accommodations; names four accommodations that will virtually always be reasonable (water, additional restroom breaks, sitting or standing, breaks to eat and drink); limits when documentation may be requested. Legally required. | Mandatory |
| Groff v. DeJoy 600 U.S. 447 (2023) | Any Title VII religious accommodation request | An employer refusing a religious accommodation must show the burden of granting it would result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business. The earlier de minimis reading is gone; policies built on it need rewriting. | Implied |
| EEOC, Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act EEOC guidance, May 9, 2016 | Employers with 15 or more employees | Unpaid leave must be considered as a reasonable accommodation even where the employer offers no leave benefit; a policy that caps leave and terminates at the cap cannot be applied without an individual assessment. Agency guidance, not a regulation. | Implied |
Required sections
- The three bases in one procedure: disability, pregnancy and related conditions, and religion, with the differing rules noted
- How to request an accommodation, in any words, to any manager or HR, and that no form is required to start the process
- The interactive process steps: acknowledge, discuss the limitation and the job, consider options, decide, and confirm in writing, with target timelines
- What documentation may be requested and when, and the PWFA limits on asking for it (29 CFR 1636.3)
- The four PWFA predictable assessments, granted without documentation
- Leave as a possible accommodation, and that a maximum-leave policy will not be applied without an individual assessment
- Undue hardship: the ADA factors and, for religion, the Groff substantial-cost standard
- Confidentiality: medical information kept separate from the personnel file (29 CFR 1630.14)
- No retaliation for requesting an accommodation, and no coercion or interference
- Who owns the process and where the record is kept
What the examiner asks for
What changed
Change log.
Frameworks
Where this document is required.
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From the publisher
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Route it for approval, keep every version, and record a named acknowledgment from everyone who has to read it.
Questions
What people ask.
Does the employee have to say the words 'reasonable accommodation'?
No. A request in plain language that connects a work problem to a medical condition, pregnancy or religious practice is enough to start the process. The policy should say that, so managers do not wait for a form.
Can we ask for a doctor's note?
For disability, usually yes where the need is not obvious. For pregnancy the regulation is narrower: not when the limitation is obvious, not when you already have enough information, not for the four predictable assessments, and not when the same adjustment is available to everyone without documentation. For religion, the sincerity of a belief is rarely something to document.
What if the accommodation the employee wants is unreasonable?
Offer an alternative. The employer chooses among effective accommodations; it does not have to give the one requested. What it cannot do is stop the conversation. The record of alternatives considered is the defense.
How does this interact with our leave and attendance policies?
Leave can itself be an accommodation, even beyond FMLA and even if you offer no leave benefit, and a fixed maximum-leave rule cannot be applied without an individual assessment. The attendance policy should point here.
Sources
42 U.S.C. 12112, ADA discrimination defined (Cornell LII)29 CFR 1630.2, ADA definitions including the interactive process (Cornell LII)29 CFR 1636.3, PWFA definitions (Cornell LII)Groff v. DeJoy, 600 U.S. 447 (2023) (Cornell LII)EEOC, Employer-Provided Leave and the ADA (May 9, 2016)EEOC Table E8a, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act charge receipts, FY 2024 and FY 2025EEOC Table E1a, Charge Receipts by Basis or Statute, FY 1997 to FY 2025Table C-2, U.S. District Courts civil cases commenced by nature of suit, 12 months ending September 30, 2025 (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts)