Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act, widely known as the ADA, is a U.S. federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities across many areas of public life, including employment. In the workplace context, the ADA requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees or applicants with disabilities, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the business. Reasonable accommodations can take many forms depending on the individual's needs and the nature of the job, ranging from physical modifications to a workspace, to adjusted work schedules, to providing assistive technology. The ADA also prohibits employers from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in hiring, firing, promotion, compensation, and other employment decisions, and it restricts the kinds of medical inquiries an employer can make during the hiring process. Compliance with the ADA requires employers to engage in an interactive process with employees who request accommodations, working collaboratively to identify solutions that allow the employee to perform the essential functions of their job. Employers with 15 or more employees are generally covered by the ADA's employment provisions, and many companies maintain formal accommodation request processes to ensure consistent and compliant handling of these situations.