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Disability Accommodation

Reasonable adjustments that allow qualified workers to perform essential job functions.

In plain terms

If you can perform the essential parts of your job with a reasonable adjustment—modified schedule, equipment, light duty, or reassignment to an open role—the employer generally must provide it unless doing so would impose serious hardship on the business. These disputes center on medical limits, what parts of the job are truly essential, and whether proposed fixes were workable or dismissed without real discussion.

Snapshot: “Known” disabilities and accommodation duties

Accommodation rules hinge on whether your limitation is—or should reasonably be—a known disability to decision-makers at work. In Husband v. Target Corporation (), an employee did not disclose a mental-health diagnosis until after discipline and termination; the court held the employer was not legally charged with knowing about that condition from difficult behavior alone, so accommodation and interactive-process duties did not attach on those facts. If you may need a medical leave or job tweak, timely, appropriate notice to the employer (often coupled with paperwork from a clinician) helps document what they knew and when. Court of Appeal opinion (PDF).

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