Americans With Disabilities Act Requirements for Employers

The Americans with Disabilities Act sets requirements for employers with 15 or more employees: don’t discriminate against qualified workers or applicants because of disability, provide reasonable accommodations unless doing so would impose undue hardship, follow tight rules about when you can ask medical questions or require exams, keep any medical information you obtain in separate confidential files, and don’t retaliate against anyone who asserts their rights under the law. These duties run through every stage of employment, from the job posting to the exit paperwork. State disability laws often reach smaller employers, so falling under the ADA’s headcount doesn’t automatically mean you’re clear.

When Your Business Is Covered

Title I applies to any employer with 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks during the current or preceding calendar year.¹ The count uses a payroll method: anyone on the payroll for a given working day is counted whether or not they actually worked that day, and part-time workers count the same as full-time.

A few employers sit outside the statute. The federal government and corporations wholly owned by it aren’t “employers” under the ADA, though federal workers get equivalent protection under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Indian tribes are excluded, as are bona fide private membership clubs that are tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c).¹ The rules also reach employment agencies, labor organizations, and joint labor-management committees.

Who Counts as a Person With a Disability

An employer’s duties are triggered by a “qualified individual with a disability.” The statute defines disability three ways: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one.² That third category can catch employers off guard. If you take an adverse action because you believe someone has a disability, they’re protected even if you’re wrong, unless the perceived impairment is both transitory and minor.

The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 pushed courts to read “disability” broadly.³ Major life activities now expressly include concentrating, thinking, reading, communicating, and the operation of major bodily functions such as immune, neurological, and endocrine systems, alongside walking, seeing, and hearing. Conditions that come and go, like epilepsy or multiple sclerosis, still qualify when they would substantially limit a major life activity while active. And the “substantially limits” analysis ignores mitigating measures such as medication, hearing aids, or prosthetics.²

A “qualified individual” is someone who can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.¹ Essential functions are the fundamental duties of the role, not marginal tasks. Your judgment about what’s essential carries weight, and a written job description prepared before advertising the position is treated as evidence. Careful job descriptions matter here. If “daily in-person client meetings” appears in the posting as an essential function, it’s harder for an employee to later argue the role can be done entirely from home.

The Nondiscrimination Duty

The core rule: no covered entity may discriminate against a qualified individual on the basis of disability in any aspect of employment. The statute lists application procedures, hiring, advancement, discharge, compensation, job training, and other terms and privileges of employment.⁴ The “other terms and privileges” language is deliberately broad, reaching office assignments, break policies, social events, and benefit plans.

Discrimination isn’t limited to intentional bias. Facially neutral policies that disproportionately screen out people with disabilities also violate the ADA unless the employer can show they’re job-related and consistent with business necessity. A physical agility test that tends to exclude applicants with disabilities has to clear that bar.⁴ The focus stays on whether a person can actually perform the core duties, not on assumptions about what someone with a particular condition can or can’t do.

The statute also prohibits penalizing someone because of their known relationship or association with a person who has a disability. Denying a promotion because you assume the employee will miss work caring for a spouse with cancer is unlawful under the association provision.⁴

Providing Reasonable Accommodations

Employers must provide reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified individual with a disability, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship.⁴ The word “known” carries weight. You generally have no obligation to accommodate a limitation you don’t know about, which is why the process usually starts with the employee saying something.

The statute gives a non-exhaustive list of what accommodations can look like:¹

Making existing facilities physically accessible, such as ramps, wider doorways, or adjusted desk heights
Restructuring jobs by redistributing non-essential tasks while preserving the core duties
Modifying schedules with part-time hours, shifted start times, or additional breaks
Reassigning the employee to a vacant position they’re qualified for when the current role can’t be modified enough
Providing equipment such as screen readers, speech-to-text software, or ergonomic furniture
Adjusting workplace policies, such as allowing a service animal or modifying a no-telecommuting rule
Modifying exams or training materials to work around the disability

The Interactive Process

When a worker requests an accommodation or you become aware one may be needed, EEOC regulations call for an informal back-and-forth to identify the specific limitations and find something that works.⁵ In simple cases the right answer is obvious and little formal process is needed. When the disability, the limitation, or the solution is less clear, the employer should analyze the specific job and its essential functions, talk with the employee about how the impairment affects their work, and identify possible modifications.

Failing to engage in this process in good faith is where many employers create liability. Stonewalling the conversation or ignoring a request can produce a claim even when a workable accommodation existed. The employee doesn’t have to use the words “reasonable accommodation” to trigger the duty. “I’m having trouble getting to work on time because of my medication” is enough to put you on notice.

Requesting Medical Documentation

When the disability or need for accommodation isn’t obvious, you can ask for medical documentation, but the request has to be focused. Appropriate documentation describes the nature, severity, and duration of the impairment; the activities it limits; and why the requested accommodation would help.⁶ Don’t demand complete medical records. Documentation can come from any qualified health professional, including psychologists, nurses, physical therapists, or licensed mental health counselors. If what you receive is thin, explain what’s missing and ask targeted follow-up questions rather than denying the request outright.

Undue Hardship

You can decline an accommodation that would impose significant difficulty or expense. The statute directs decision-makers to weigh:

The nature and net cost of the specific accommodation
The financial resources of the facility where the accommodation would be provided, including its number of employees
The overall financial resources of the organization, including total employees and the number and types of facilities operated
The type of operations run, including workforce structure and the relationship between the specific facility and the broader organization

Because the analysis considers the whole organization’s resources, a large company with a profitable parent will have a harder time invoking undue hardship than a small independent business.¹

Direct Threat

You may also refuse to hire or retain a worker who poses a direct threat, defined as a significant risk to the health or safety of others that cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation.¹ The defense has to rest on an individualized assessment using objective evidence, not generalized fears or stereotypes about a condition. The risk must be current and significant, and you have to consider whether an accommodation could reduce it to an acceptable level before invoking the defense.

Rules on Medical Questions and Exams

The ADA sets different limits depending on where the person sits in the hiring and employment timeline.

Before a Job Offer

You cannot ask applicants whether they have a disability or inquire about the nature or severity of any condition. You can ask whether the applicant can perform specific job-related functions, but the question has to focus on ability, not diagnosis.⁴

After a Conditional Offer

Once you’ve extended an offer, you may require a medical exam and condition the offer on the results, provided two things: all entering employees in the same job category go through the same exam, and results are kept confidential in separate medical files.⁴ At this stage the inquiries don’t have to be job-related. Withdrawing the offer based on what turns up still requires showing the condition prevents the individual from performing essential functions or creates a direct threat.

During Employment

For current employees, the standard tightens. You cannot require a medical exam or make disability-related inquiries unless the exam or question is job-related and consistent with business necessity.⁴ That’s met when you have a reasonable belief, based on objective evidence, that the employee’s condition impairs their ability to perform essential functions or creates a direct safety threat. Vague concerns, coworker complaints, or assumptions based on a known diagnosis don’t clear the bar. Voluntary wellness exams offered as part of an employee health program are permitted, and the operative word is voluntary.

Keeping Medical Records Confidential

Any medical information you obtain, whether from a post-offer exam, an accommodation request, or a voluntary wellness program, must be collected on separate forms and kept in files apart from ordinary personnel records.⁴ Access is sharply limited. Only three categories of people may see the information:

Supervisors and managers, only to the extent they need to know about necessary work restrictions or accommodations
First aid and safety personnel, only when the disability might require emergency treatment
Government officials investigating compliance with the ADA or other applicable laws

An HR coordinator processing an accommodation cannot pass the employee’s diagnosis to the department head as a matter of curiosity. The information travels only as far as a specific operational need requires.

No Retaliation

The ADA separately prohibits retaliation against anyone who exercises their rights under the law. You cannot punish someone for filing a discrimination charge, testifying in an ADA proceeding, requesting an accommodation, or otherwise opposing conduct they reasonably believe violates the ADA.⁷ The statute also makes it unlawful to coerce, intimidate, or threaten anyone for exercising or encouraging others to exercise ADA-protected rights.

A retaliation claim doesn’t require the underlying discrimination complaint to succeed. If an employee filed an accommodation request in good faith and you responded by cutting their hours or moving them to a less desirable shift, that’s potentially actionable regardless of whether the original accommodation was ultimately required.⁸

What Happens if a Charge Is Filed

An employee has to file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before suing. The standard deadline is 180 calendar days from the date of the discriminatory act, extended to 300 days in states with a parallel anti-discrimination agency, which covers most of the country.⁹ For ongoing harassment, the clock runs from the last incident, and the EEOC will look at earlier incidents as part of the same pattern even if they individually fell outside the window. Once a charge is filed, the EEOC will notify you as the employer.

If a violation is found, remedies can include back pay, hiring or reinstatement, and injunctive relief requiring changes to your practices. Compensatory and punitive damages are available for intentional discrimination, but federal law caps the combined total based on employer size:¹⁰

15 to 100 employees: $50,000
101 to 200 employees: $100,000
201 to 500 employees: $200,000
More than 500 employees: $300,000

Those caps apply per complaining party and cover emotional distress, pain and suffering, and punitive damages combined. They don’t cap back pay or attorney’s fees, which are awarded separately.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12111 – Definitions
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12102 – Definition of Disability
3
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. ADA Amendments Act of 2008
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12112 – Discrimination
5
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1630 – Regulations to Implement the Equal Employment Provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the ADA
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12203 – Prohibition Against Retaliation and Coercion
8
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Questions and Answers: Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment