Obtaining reasonable accommodations is often a messy, frustrating process for both employees and their managers. But there are solutions.
The lack of an item like a keyboard tray may seem like a minor inconvenience to some, but not to Ms. Macfarlane and millions of other people living with disabilities. The Americans With Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990, bans discrimination against workers with disabilities and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations that don’t pose an “undue hardship” — a tricky term.
In reality, experts say, the process for obtaining accommodations at work is often filled with countless obstacles that dissuade disabled people from requesting them in the first place.
“There’s a huge gap between what the law was intended to do and what the experience of employees with disabilities really are,” said Ms. Macfarlane, who is the incoming director of the disability law and policy program at Syracuse University College of Law.
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