Frequently, a federal employee will request a reasonable accommodation, and may even specify the accommodation he wants. The federal agency will respond by offering an accommodation that the employee may not desire. The employee then does not accept the offered reasonable accommodation from the agency. The employee does not continue the negotiations and instead files with the EEO office.

What to know about the ADA’s interactive process

If you find yourself in situations similar to this, there are three things that you should be aware of before going through the EEO office’s process.

• The agency is required to go through an interactive process with you. At the core of any request for a reasonable accommodation under the ADA is the interactive process between the employee in the employer. Both sides are responsible for interacting with each other to find a reasonable accommodation. That means that if one side or the other does not participate in trying to find a reasonable accommodation, that side can be blamed for failing to find an accommodation. That can subject a federal agency employer to liability under the ADA. For an employee, that can mean that even if no reasonable accommodation is provided, the EEOC will not fault the agency for failing to provide an accommodation.

• The Agency does not have to give you your preferred accommodation. This may sound counterintuitive at first, but the agency can offer you a different accommodation than the one you were hoping for. However, if that accommodation does not allow you to perform your job, as an accommodation should, then the agency is responsible for trying alternatives and must at least consider your proposal. Part of the interactive process under the ADA is for the employee and the agency to work together to see if an accommodation actually works, and if not to figure out what alternatives there might be.

• An accommodation must be possible. ADA accommodations are only required if there is some accommodation that would help the employee to be able to do his or her job. If no accommodation is feasible, then the ADA does not fault the employer for failing to provide an accommodation. This is because the ADA did not specifically make it unlawful to fail to participate in the interactive process – it is only unlawful if the process would have resulted in reasonable accommodation.

Federal agencies must provide qualified employees with accommodations

The ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled employees. However, if the employee cannot perform the essential functions of his or her job with any accommodation, the ADA does not require the employer to make an accommodation.

When it comes to accommodations, having a lawyer may be more important than having a doctor on your side. Doctors frequently do not understand the legal requirements of the ADA. A doctor may state that an employee is totally disabled and unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job under any conditions, believing that this will help the employee. However, when a doctor makes this kind of statement, it actually excuses the employer from providing any kind of reasonable accommodation because the employee is admitting that under no circumstances can he or she perform the job. Such an admission can be grounds for legal termination even under the ADA.

Employees need to be very careful when making requests for accommodations because it may imply that without an accommodation they cannot do the essential functions of their job. The ADA does not require employers to continue to employ employees who cannot perform the essential functions of their job even with an accommodation.

If you believe that you’re facing an issue with ADA accommodations at the federal agency where you work, you should seek out the advice of an attorney to avoid costly mistakes. In attorney can also help you develop the doctors record that you need in order to be able to qualify for reasonable accommodations at the agency.