Accommodation Denied, Now Fired? The ADA Interactive Process Failure Claim

Bywarreng24

A pattern I see often: an employee with a disability or a serious medical condition requests a reasonable accommodation — a modified schedule, remote work, a piece of equipment, additional leave, a reduced lifting requirement. The employer either flatly refuses, drags the process out for weeks with paperwork demands that go beyond what the law allows, or agrees verbally and then never follows through. Then, within weeks or a few months, the employee is terminated for some unrelated-sounding reason.

That fact pattern is often a winning interactive process failure claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Here’s what the law actually requires — and what most employers get wrong.

What the ADA requires from your employer

The ADA requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees with disabilities, unless the accommodation would cause the employer undue hardship. A reasonable accommodation is any change to a job, the work environment, or the way things are customarily done that allows a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of the job or enjoy the same benefits and privileges of employment as everyone else.

Common reasonable accommodations include:

  • Modified work schedules
  • Remote or hybrid work arrangements
  • Additional leave beyond what company policy normally allows
  • Reassignment to a vacant position
  • Ergonomic or assistive equipment
  • Physical modifications to a workspace
  • Modified performance standards related to non-essential functions

The employee generally has to ask for an accommodation. The employer doesn’t have to guess. But once the employee asks — even informally — the employer’s obligations kick in.

The “interactive process” — where most employers fail

When you request an accommodation, your employer is required to engage in an interactive process with you — a good-faith dialogue to identify an accommodation that works. The interactive process has four recognized steps:

  1. Analyze the position. What are the essential functions of the job? What are the non-essential functions that could be modified or reassigned?
  2. Consult with you. What are the specific job-related limitations your condition creates? How might those limitations be overcome?
  3. Identify potential accommodations. What options exist? How effective would each one be?
  4. Consider your preferences. The employer doesn’t have to give you your first choice, but it has to consider what you want.

Both sides have to participate in good faith. If you refuse to engage, withhold relevant information, or refuse reasonable alternatives, you may weaken your case. If the employer refuses to engage, demands excessive documentation, makes no counter-proposal, ends the process unilaterally, or terminates you during the process for pretextual reasons — that’s an interactive-process failure, and it’s often a winning claim.

Common employer failures I see

Based on the cases I’ve handled, the most common employer failures in the interactive process are:

  • Ignoring the request. You sent an email to HR. No one responded for weeks. You followed up. Still no response. Then a termination.
  • Demanding excessive medical documentation. The employer asked for your complete medical history, records from years ago, second opinions, or medical evaluations by the employer’s chosen provider — when a basic note from your treating physician would suffice.
  • Dragging out the process. The employer engaged just enough to avoid saying “no” but never actually proposed anything, meeting, or making a decision. The employee’s condition continued affecting their work, and eventually the employer terminated for “performance.”
  • Offering an accommodation that doesn’t work. The employer suggested something that doesn’t address the limitation — then treated the suggestion as a completed good-faith offer and terminated when the employee couldn’t perform.
  • Forcing unpaid leave. The employer’s “accommodation” was “take unpaid leave until you’re better.” Unpaid leave can be a reasonable accommodation in some cases, but only when other reasonable accommodations wouldn’t work — forced unpaid leave when alternatives exist is often unlawful.
  • Terminating during the interactive process. The employer fired the employee mid-dialogue for an “unrelated” pretextual reason. The timing is typically case-dispositive.

Who is a “qualified individual with a disability”?

To be entitled to an accommodation, you need to be a “qualified individual with a disability.” That means:

  • You meet the legitimate skill, experience, education, or other requirements of the position
  • You can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without a reasonable accommodation

Essential functions are the core, must-do parts of the job. A pre-existing written job description is the best evidence of what those functions are. A job description the employer created after learning of your disability — and that suddenly includes requirements you can’t meet — is a red flag courts treat with appropriate skepticism.

Michigan adds more coverage

The federal ADA applies to employers with 15 or more employees. Michigan’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act (PDCRA) applies to employers with one or more employees. If your employer is too small for the federal ADA, the PDCRA likely still applies.

What to document

If you’ve requested an accommodation and the process went sideways, gather:

  • Your accommodation request itself (email, HR portal submission, letter, form)
  • Your employer’s response (or non-response)
  • The employer’s questions, demands, or counter-offers
  • Any medical documentation you provided
  • Notes from meetings, phone calls, or discussions about the request
  • Other accommodations the employer has granted to other employees for similar or different conditions
  • Your performance record before the accommodation request
  • Your termination paperwork and the stated reason

Preserve all of this — including emails from your work account forwarded to your personal account — before you lose access to company systems.

What damages might you recover?

Under the ADA, you can typically recover:

  • Back pay and front pay
  • Compensatory damages for pain and suffering, anxiety, humiliation, and related harms
  • Punitive damages for willful or reckless conduct (subject to federal statutory caps)
  • Attorney’s fees and costs

Michigan’s PDCRA allows compensatory damages without the federal caps but doesn’t allow punitive damages. Most cases are brought under both statutes to preserve maximum recovery.

What to do next

Three steps:

  1. Preserve the evidence listed above. Do it today.
  2. Don’t sign a severance agreement without first having a lawyer review it. Severance agreements typically include a release of claims that, if signed, generally binds you.
  3. Call for a free case evaluation. 15–30 minutes will tell you whether the interactive-process failure claim is worth pursuing.

Call 814-821-1140 or request a free case evaluation →.

For a detailed walkthrough of ADA accommodation rights and interactive-process failure claims, see the ADA Accommodation & Disability Discrimination practice area page →.

Warren Astbury is a Harvard Law graduate (2009) with 15 years of experience and 50+ trials to verdict. He represents Michigan employees — only employees, never employers — at Astbury Law, PLLC in Detroit. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. The information on this page is for general educational purposes and is not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this page.

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