Employers can’t fail or refuse to make reasonable accommodations for employees and applicants with physical or mental disabilities who can perform their essential job functions. Reasonable accommodations are accommodations that don’t:

• unduly disrupt or interfere with employers’ normal operations;
• threaten the health or safety of employees and applicants with disabilities or other persons;
• contradict employers’ business needs; or
• impose undue hardship on employers based on their business size, business type, and financial resources, and the estimated cost and extent of these accommodations.

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Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers, including state and local governments, with 15 or more employees, are prohibited from discriminating against people with disabilities. Title I protects qualified individuals with disabilities in several areas, including job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation and job training. It is also unlawful to retaliate against someone for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on disability, or for filing an ADA discrimination charge. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) shares enforcement authority for Title I of the ADA with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has primary responsibility for enforcing the employment provisions of the law. (Note: Federal employees and job applicants are covered by Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 instead of the ADA.