Guide to reasonable adjustments for disabled employees
Making reasonable adjustments for employees isn’t just a legal duty – it’s about doing the right thing and creating a workplace where everyone has what they need to thrive. This duty also applies (to a slightly more limited extent) to job applicants. In this guide, we’ll walk you through what counts as a disability, when adjustments for employees are needed and how to approach these conversations.
What does disability mean under the Equality Act 2010?
Disability is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. A health condition is classed as a disability if it’s a long-term condition (i.e. has lasted or is likely to last 12 months or more) and has a significant impact on the day-to-day activities of the employee – think things like cooking, walking or driving, for example. The law looks at the condition without the help of any medication or aids which improve its effects on the employee’s day-to-day activities. And remember, the employee’s health condition could be mental or physical.
What is the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees?
You’re required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ if a disabled employee is at a substantial disadvantage because of their disability, compared to their colleagues because of a ‘relevant matter’. A ‘relevant matter’ could be:
- The application of a ‘provision, criterion or practice’. This covers a wide range of workplace policies, rules and arrangements/expectations on how things are generally done. For example, an expectation that employees will work late might need adjusting if someone’s condition makes that difficult.
- A ‘physical feature’ – for example it may be a reasonable adjustment to install a ramp for an employee in a wheelchair.
- Providing an ‘auxiliary aid’ (i.e. extra support or equipment) where reasonably needed – for example it may be a reasonable adjustment to provide a magnifying computer tool for a partially sighted employee.
If I’m applying the same rules equally across my workforce, doesn’t that make them fair?
In short, no. Treating everyone identically might sound fair, but it can overlook the extra support someone might need to be on a level playing field, and you might be breaching your duty to make reasonable adjustments.
Reasonable adjustments can sometimes mean putting a disabled employee in what looks like a more favourable position – for example, adjusting a sales target for a disabled employee who suffers from serious depression could be seen as a reasonable adjustment.
How do I know if an employee is ‘disabled’?
It can be a tricky to approach conversations with employees about health issues. On the one hand, they may have a medical condition which doesn’t affect them in work and therefore, which you don’t need to know about. On the other hand, employers have a duty of care to employees and must ensure they can work safely.
If you know or should reasonably know that an employee is disabled and is likely to be put at a substantial disadvantage by a ‘relevant matter’, then you (as an employer) have a duty to make any reasonable adjustments.
Often an employee will tell their manager about a disability which could affect them at work and you should encourage openness about such issues. And even if they haven’t told you directly, if information is revealed about their medical condition that could reasonably lead you to question whether they have a medical condition that affects their work, you would be under a duty to reasonably explore this. You’re also able to ask the employee if you can obtain information from a third party (such as the employee’s doctor).
Once you have this information, you need to ask reasonable questions to understand whether they have a medical condition that affects their work and whether this is a disability. What counts as ‘reasonable questions’ will change in each case, but this process is all about balancing the need to help with respect for their privacy.
How do I find out if reasonable adjustments are needed?
Encourage honest conversations and be proactive by trying to make sure that employees feel comfortable raising issues that affect their work.
If you know or should reasonably know about an employee’s disability, start a supportive dialogue, proactively discuss reasonable adjustments with the employee and try and agree any reasonable adjustments with them.
How do I assess what adjustments are needed?
Start with a conversation with the employee to understand:
- How their disability interacts with workplace policies or features
- The nature and extent of their disadvantage compared to non-disabled colleagues. This is important because if there is only a minor disadvantage for the disabled employee, then there won’t be a requirement to ‘reasonably adjust’.
- What adjustment is needed to eliminate the ‘substantial disadvantage’ – i.e. it doesn’t need to get rid of any disadvantage at all.
You might need to get some medical evidence or advice to help assess how a particular adjustment would help the employee. Then, you’ll need to consider whether the adjustment is ‘reasonable’.
How is it decided if an adjustment is ‘reasonable’?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to reasonable adjustments. Here are a few things you need to consider:
- How effective the adjustment would be – essentially if the adjustment has a real prospect of preventing a disadvantage in the ‘relevant matter’.
- How practical the step is to take.
- The costs of making the adjustment and the impact of any disruption caused.
- Your organisation’s finances and resources.
- Whether external help is available – for example from Access to Work, which is a specialist disability service from Jobcentre Plus.
- Your organisation’s type and size.
You can also consider the following when assessing whether the cost is ‘reasonable’:
- The size of any budget you’ve got dedicated to reasonable adjustments.
- How much you’ve spent on reasonable adjustments in similar situations.
- What other employers are prepared to spend.
- If there are any collective agreement that show appropriate expenditure.
Who pays the cost of the ‘reasonable adjustment’?
You as an employer are responsible for covering reasonable adjustment costs. But support is available – Access to Work for example may be able to help with some funding.
What happens if I can’t make reasonable adjustments for a disabled employee?
Obviously, a prime concern is that your employee is safe at work and sometimes adjustments are needed to make sure they are. You can’t allow an employee to work in a job that’s a risk to your duty of care.
Sometimes though, even after exploring options, there might be no adjustments that make the role safe or suitable for the employee, or there are adjustments but you’ve deemed them to be ‘unreasonable’ – for example because they’re too expensive compared to the benefit.
If you say there aren’t any reasonable adjustments you could make, and it’s not safe or appropriate for the employee to continue in their role, you would have to try and find the employee an alternative role that they can do, or that they can do with other reasonable adjustments. As a last resort, dismissal might need to be considered – but this carries high legal risk, so always seek expert advice first. If you refuse to make adjustments that could have been reasonably made, the employee could claim disability discrimination.
These cases can be tricky to navigate, and you should always contact our Employment Law Team for tailored advice on 0345 844 4848*. If you’d like to add HR & Employment Law to your package, please call 0345 844 1111 to chat about how we can support your business.
*Applicable for all clients who’ve purchased Citation’s HR & Employment Law and/or Health & Safety core service, including H&S and HR Workplace Expert. Please note that our H&S and HR Virtual Assistance clients have access to our advice line Mo
