Reasonable Adjustments at Work: How to Ask and What Your Employer Must Do

Reasonable Adjustments at Work: How to Ask and What Your Employer Must Do

This article applies to England, Wales and Scotland.

Last updated: November 2026

In brief: If you are disabled under the Equality Act 2010, your employer must take reasonable steps to remove a substantial disadvantage caused by how it does things, by a physical feature of the workplace, or by the lack of an auxiliary aid. The duty only arises once the employer knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, about your disability and the disadvantage. A failure is disability discrimination, claimable at tribunal within six months less one day.

You do not have to use the words "reasonable adjustment" to trigger the duty, and your employer does not have to agree to what you ask for. What the law requires is a reasonable step to remove a disadvantage, decided on the facts, and most of the disputes that reach a tribunal turn on whether the employer knew, whether the disadvantage was real, and whether the step asked for was reasonable. This guide takes those in the order you will meet them.

Does the duty apply to me?

The duty is owed to disabled people, which has a specific meaning. Under section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 you are disabled if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. "Substantial" means more than minor or trivial (s.212(1)); "long-term" means it has lasted or is likely to last at least 12 months. Some conditions are covered automatically (cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis), and the effect is judged as if you were not taking medication or using aids, subject to limited exceptions such as ordinary correction of eyesight with glasses or contact lenses. Our guides on mental health as a disability and how a tribunal decides a disability discrimination claim cover the definition in detail.

The duty applies to employees, workers, job applicants, contract workers and others in Part 5 of the Act, and it applies from recruitment onward, including to the interview process.

What exactly does my employer have to do?

Your employer has to take reasonable steps to remove a disadvantage that its way of doing things puts you at because of your disability. That covers three kinds of thing: a rule, policy or practice (an attendance policy, fixed hours, a sales target, having to work from the office, how a disciplinary process is run); a physical feature of the building; and the lack of equipment or support you need. It does not have to do what you ask. It has to do what is reasonable to remove the disadvantage, and it cannot charge you for it.

The wording that matters is in section 20:

"The first requirement is a requirement, where a provision, criterion or practice of A's puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage in relation to a relevant matter in comparison with persons who are not disabled, to take such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage." — s.20(3)

Subsections (4) and (5) say the same for physical features and auxiliary aids, (7) stops the employer passing on the cost, and section 21 makes a failure to do any of it discrimination.

A tribunal takes that wording in four steps, and it helps to think in the same four before you ask:

1. What is the rule, practice, feature or missing aid? Be specific: "the requirement to be in the office five days a week", not "the way I'm managed".
2. Who is the relevant comparison group? Usually this means looking at how the same rule or practice affects people who are not disabled.
3. What is the disadvantage it puts you at, and is it more than minor? This has to be shown, not assumed. A recent appeal overturned a finding against an employer because the tribunal had never identified what the disadvantage actually was (The Scottish Ministers v Blair [2025] EAT 74).
4. What step would remove it, and is it reasonable to expect the employer to take it?

Writing those four things down before you ask is a good way of communicating the request, not a legal requirement. You do not have to identify the perfect adjustment before the duty arises; the courts have been clear that an adjustment can be identified later, even during a claim, so long as by the hearing there is a sufficiently identified step that might reasonably have been taken. An employer presented with the four points has much less room to say it did not understand the request, and a tribunal will go through them in that order.

Does my employer have to know about my disability?

Yes. The duty does not start until your employer knows, or should reasonably have worked out, two things: that you have a disability, and that it is likely to put you at a disadvantage. That is Schedule 8, paragraph 20.

"Should have worked out" does a lot of work. Fit notes, a diagnosis you have shared, an occupational health referral or a pattern of absence can all put an employer on notice, though a diagnosis alone is not the same as knowing that you meet the legal definition of disability, and an employer can have the knowledge without any formal diagnosis at all. What it cannot do is hand the question to occupational health and adopt a report saying you are not disabled without forming its own view. If you have said nothing and nothing about your work would have made a reasonable employer ask, the duty has not started.

The second half matters as much as the first. An employer can know you have a condition and still not be under a duty about a particular practice if it had no reason to think that practice affected you. That is the main reason to put requests in writing: it gives clear evidence of what your employer was told and when.

What counts as a reasonable adjustment?

The Act does not list adjustments, and the EHRC Employment Statutory Code of Practice (chapter 6) gives the factors a tribunal weighs: whether the step would be effective in removing the disadvantage, how practicable it is, the cost and disruption, the employer's size and resources, and the availability of external help such as Access to Work. Common adjustments in published judgments include changes to hours or start times, working from home, a phased return, reallocating duties, adjusting absence or performance triggers, extra time or a quiet room for assessments, equipment and software, and redeployment.

Three things that surprise people, all settled in the courts:

• The duty can mean treating you better than colleagues, not just the same. Moving you into a vacant role without making you compete for it can be a reasonable adjustment.
• It can mean protecting your pay if the adjustment is a move to a lower-paid job, at least for a time, though the courts have said that long-term pay protection will not be an everyday requirement and it depends heavily on the facts.
• Absence and sickness triggers are a practice like any other. Relaxing them for someone whose absences are disability-related can be a reasonable step, though it is not automatic and depends on what the adjustment would achieve.

An adjustment does not have to be guaranteed to work. What the tribunal asks is whether there was a real prospect it would remove or reduce the disadvantage, and whether, given the factors above, it was reasonable to expect the employer to take it.

How do I ask?

In writing, to your line manager and HR, in the structure above: the practice, the disadvantage it causes you, the adjustment you are asking for, and anything that supports it (a fit note recommending the change, an occupational health report, a letter from a specialist). You may want to:

• Ask for a meeting and a written response by a date.
• Keep every reply. A refusal with reasons is evidence; silence is too.
• Ask for an occupational health referral if there has not been one. Medical evidence can help where the employer needs more information about the effect of your condition or what might work, but obtaining it is not itself the legal test, and an employer that makes the adjustment without an assessment has still complied.
• Raise a grievance if the request is refused or ignored. A grievance is not required before a claim, but where the Acas Code applies an unreasonable failure to follow it can lead to an adjustment of up to 25% to the relevant compensation, and the grievance record shows the tribunal what the employer knew and when. Our guide to raising a grievance at work covers this.

You do not need to name the Act or the section. You do need to make the disadvantage clear.

What if my employer refuses or does nothing?

A refusal is not automatically a breach. The employer can show that the step was not reasonable, or that it took a different reasonable step, or that it did not know of the disadvantage. Ignoring a request is not a breach in itself either, but it leaves an employer exposed if it means a reasonable step that should have been taken was never identified or made.

The time limit is the trap here. For a failure treated as occurring on or after 1 October 2026 the usual tribunal limit is six months less one day (three months for earlier ones), and notifying Acas early conciliation within the limit pauses the clock. But the clock can start before anyone says no. The law treats a failure to act as happening when the employer decided not to act or, if it never decided, when it could reasonably have been expected to have acted (s.123(3)–(4)). So a request that has sat unanswered for months may already have a clock running on it. If you are waiting for a formal refusal before doing anything, that is the point to stop waiting. A tribunal can extend time where it considers it just and equitable, but that is a discretion, and not something to rely on.

In published tribunal judgments, reasonable adjustments claims frequently appear alongside other disability discrimination or dismissal claims: discrimination arising from disability under s.15, direct discrimination, harassment, and unfair or constructive dismissal where the refusal led to resignation or dismissal. Tribunals decide each head on its own test, so a claim can succeed on adjustments and fail on dismissal, or the reverse. Our data-led guide to disability discrimination outcomes at tribunal shows what published decisions have awarded. The injury to feelings element is assessed in the Vento bands; across Yerty's wider dataset of disability discrimination injury to feelings awards the median was about £9,900, which is a figure for disability claims generally, not for reasonable adjustments claims specifically.

Can I be dismissed while I am asking?

Asking for an adjustment does not by itself make every later detriment unlawful. What the Act protects is a protected act under s.27: complaining, expressly or in substance, that your employer has breached the Equality Act, for example by failing to make adjustments it agreed to. Being dismissed or treated worse because of that complaint can be victimisation. A bare request for different hours, without any allegation of a breach, has been held not to be a protected act on its own.

A dismissal connected to your disability can be unlawful on other grounds regardless. Dismissal because of something arising from your disability, such as disability-related absence, has to be objectively justified under s.15, and a tribunal will ask whether reasonable adjustments would have avoided it; direct discrimination and ordinary unfair dismissal may also be in play depending on the facts. If you have been dismissed, the time limit for the dismissal claims runs from the dismissal date and sits alongside the adjustments time limit above.

Frequently asked questions

What are reasonable adjustments at work?

Steps an employer must take under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 to remove a substantial disadvantage that its practices, its premises or the lack of an auxiliary aid cause a disabled worker compared with non-disabled workers. What is reasonable depends on effectiveness, practicability, cost, the employer's resources and available support such as Access to Work.

Do I have to tell my employer I am disabled?

No, but the duty only arises once the employer knows or could reasonably be expected to know about your disability and the disadvantage it causes. Telling them in writing gives clear evidence of what they knew and when. If you say nothing and nothing would have put them on notice, there is no duty.

Can my employer refuse a reasonable adjustment?

An employer can refuse a request that is not reasonable, or take a different reasonable step instead. Ignoring a request can leave it exposed if that means a reasonable step that should have been taken was never identified or made. The cost of an adjustment cannot be passed to you, and the employer's size and resources are part of what makes a step reasonable or not.

Is ADHD, autism or a mental health condition covered?

They can be, if the section 6 definition is met: a substantial, long-term adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities, judged as if untreated. A diagnosis alone does not settle it, but many neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions do meet the test. The duty then applies in the same way as for any other disability.

How long do I have to claim for a failure to make reasonable adjustments?

For a failure treated as occurring on or after 1 October 2026, six months less one day; three months less one day for earlier ones. Time runs from when the employer decided not to act, or from when it could reasonably have been expected to act if it never decided, so it can start before any explicit refusal. Notifying Acas early conciliation within the limit pauses the clock, and a tribunal has a discretion to extend time where just and equitable.

Can I claim if I have not raised a grievance?

Yes. A grievance is not a precondition to a tribunal claim. Raising one creates a record of what the employer knew and when, and where the Acas Code applies an unreasonable failure to follow it can lead to an adjustment of up to 25% to the relevant compensation.

What can I get if I win?

Compensation for financial loss and an award for injury to feelings, with no cap, plus a declaration and in some cases a recommendation that the employer take specified steps. Injury to feelings is assessed in the Vento bands; across published disability discrimination awards generally, the median is about £9,900.

Sources

• Equality Act 2010, s.6, s.15, s.20, s.21, s.27, s.123, s.212, Schedule 8
• EHRC Employment Statutory Code of Practice, chapter 6
• Access to Work, GOV.UK
• Employment Rights Act 2025, s.152 and Sch. 12 (tribunal time limits), in force 1 October 2026 by SI 2026/954
• Environment Agency v Rowan [2008] ICR 218 EAT (the four-step approach)
• Archibald v Fife Council [2004] UKHL 32 (redeployment without competition)
• Gallop v Newport City Council [2013] EWCA Civ 1583 (employer's own view on knowledge)
• Griffiths v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015] EWCA Civ 1265 (absence triggers)
• G4S Cash Solutions (UK) Ltd v Powell [2016] IRLR 820 EAT (pay protection)
• Kingston upon Hull City Council v Matuszowicz [2009] EWCA Civ 22 (when time starts on a failure to act)
• The Scottish Ministers v Blair [2025] EAT 74 (disadvantage must be evidenced); Cunningham v BBC [2026] EAT 92 (PCP, comparator and disadvantage must be identified before the adjustment)
• Project Management Institute v Latif [2007] IRLR 579 EAT (the adjustment need not be identified by the employee at the time; an assessment is not itself an adjustment)
• Thompson v The Pheasant Inn (ET) (a bare request for adjusted hours was not a protected act)
• Yerty tribunal data: injury to feelings awards in published Employment Tribunal judgments 2014–2026 (see the linked findings piece for method)

Yerty research team. Statutory references checked against legislation.gov.uk, November 2026.

Important: This guide provides information about employment law in England, Wales and Scotland. Yerty is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Every situation is different. If your case is complex or high-value, consider speaking to a solicitor for advice specific to your circumstances.