SHRM25 Session Sneak Peek: Demystifying ADA Accommodations

Ensuring compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is an essential responsibility for U.S. employers, yet the process of managing reasonable accommodations often has complexities. At SHRM25, the session “You Get an Accommodation and You Get an Accommodation! It’s 2025 But Should the “Oprah” Approach Apply? ” will explore these challenges and provide attendees with strategies to address common issues.  

This session, to be held Wednesday, July 2, from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. PT at the San Diego Convention Center, will be led by LaKisha M. Kinsey-Sallis, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Tampa, Fla.  

Kinsey-Sallis recently spoke with SHRM about her upcoming session and the ADA’s accommodation obligation.

SHRM: What, briefly, is the ADA’s reasonable accommodation requirement? 

Kinsey-Sallis: In a nutshell, the ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities that will allow those workers to perform their job’s essential functions, unless doing so would pose an undue hardship. Key components to the ADA accommodations process are: 1) recognizing when an employee may need an accommodation, 2) engaging in the interactive process when a need for an accommodation is known, 3) understanding the do’s and don’ts in handling accommodation requests, 4) documenting actions taken and decisions made during the process, and 5) knowing when to partner with legal counsel when presented with complex requests or when you believe an undue hardship question exists.

How-To Guide: How to Handle ADA Accommodation Requests

SHRM: What are common misconceptions about the ADA’s reasonable accommodation obligation?

Kinsey-Sallis: Common misconceptions about the ADA reasonable accommodation obligation include, to name a few: 

1. Misguided beliefs that in all cases, an employee must specifically ask for an accommodation and use “magic words” like “reasonable accommodation.”

2. That any accommodation that poses some form of inconvenience to a manager, department, etc., poses an undue hardship. 

3. That leave cannot be considered a reasonable accommodation. 

4. Once you agree to a particular accommodation, you can’t take a different position regarding the reasonableness of that accommodation later. 

SHRM: Should employers be providing ADA training to managers and employees? If so, why, and what should be in it?

Kinsey-Sallis: Absolutely. The biggest pitfall to an ADA claim is having untrained managers trying to navigate an employee’s request for an accommodation. Managers should be trained at least annually on how to recognize where a need for accommodation might be obvious, what to do if an employee requests a reasonable accommodation — which should be to contact HR immediately — and to understand what happens after a request is made so they understand it’s a process. Managers also need to know what to do when an accommodation has been granted. 

SHRM: Could you please tell me a little about yourself, as well as your interest in the ADA?

Kinsey-Sallis: Sure! I am a 20-plus-year employment lawyer who partners with HR professionals daily on simple to complex workplace issues. I became particularly interested in becoming a resource on all things ADA after litigating a number of cases, mostly ADA accommodation cases, where liability could have been avoided had there been training, buffers, and a better working knowledge of ADA accommodation issues. Also, with the increase in the challenges associated with navigating accommodation issues involving mental health concerns, unusual requests, and undue hardship considerations, I found it helpful to arm my HR contacts with real-world information and scenarios to help demystify handling those requests.

SHRM: What can attendees expect to take away from your session?

Kinsey-Sallis: Attendees can expect to hear the top 10 tools to put in their ADA accommodation toolbox, ripped straight from recent headlines and/or taken from recent cases to aid in making them more proficient in handling reasonable accommodation issues. The session will be interactive, informative, and fun!