ADA List of Do's and Don'ts for Employers

Overview
This checklist summarizes practical steps a Tennessee municipal employer should follow—and practices it should avoid—when applying ADA Title I in daily HR work. Use it with the city’s personnel policies, FMLA procedures, PWFA procedures, collective-bargaining obligations, risk-management guidance, and advice from the city attorney when appropriate.

The central rule is straightforward: apply legitimate job standards consistently, recognize possible accommodation needs, involve HR promptly, and make decisions based on documented facts rather than assumptions about a medical condition or disability.

Do

Job descriptions and selection

• Maintain current written job descriptions that identify essential functions separately from marginal duties.
• Review job descriptions periodically, especially after changes in staffing, technology, equipment, work location, organizational structure, or service-delivery methods.
• Describe essential functions in objective, functional terms. For example, use “operates a refuse truck,” “responds to emergency calls,” “conducts on-site utility inspections,” or “lifts and carries equipment weighing up to 50 pounds,” rather than vague statements such as “must be physically fit.”
• Require applicants to meet job-related qualifications and to be able to perform essential job functions with or without reasonable accommodation.
• Ask applicants whether they can perform identified job functions, with or without reasonable accommodation. Do not ask whether they have a disability or medical condition before a conditional job offer.
• Review application forms, interview questions, physical requirements, employment tests, and selection procedures to ensure they are job-related, consistently administered, and do not unnecessarily screen out qualified applicants with disabilities.
• Provide reasonable accommodation during application, testing, interview, and selection processes when requested or when the need is obvious.

Accommodation process

• Train supervisors to recognize possible accommodation requests made in plain language. Employees do not have to say “ADA,” “disability,” or “reasonable accommodation.”
• Treat a statement such as, “My medical treatment is affecting my schedule,” “I need a chair because of a medical condition,” or “My doctor has placed restrictions on me,” as a possible request for accommodation.
• Promptly refer accommodation requests, medical restrictions, fitness-for-duty issues, and disability-related leave questions to HR, the ADA coordinator, or the designated leave administrator.
• Engage in an individualized, interactive process. Identify the employee’s work-related limitation, the workplace barrier, the essential functions of the job, possible effective accommodations, and whether any option would create undue hardship.
• Focus on functional limitations and job-related needs rather than demanding a diagnosis or complete medical history.
• Request medical documentation only when it is job-related and necessary to evaluate the existence of a disability, the functional limitation, or the need for accommodation.
• Use the city’s approved GINA safe-harbor notice whenever requesting medical information from an employee or health-care provider.
• Consider a range of accommodations, including modified work equipment, assistive technology, interpreters, accessible work areas, schedule adjustments, additional breaks, telework where feasible, modification of marginal duties, modified leave rules, intermittent leave, finite additional leave, and reassignment to a vacant position.
• Remember that the city may choose among effective accommodations. The employee is not automatically entitled to the preferred accommodation, but the city’s selected alternative must effectively address the disability-related limitation.
• Follow up after implementation to confirm that the accommodation remains effective and to determine whether circumstances have changed.

Performance, conduct, and attendance

• Apply job-related performance, conduct, attendance, safety, and production standards consistently to all employees.
• Address misconduct that violates a lawful and consistently applied rule, even when a disability may be involved. Consult HR before taking action if the city knows or has reason to know that a disability, medical restriction, accommodation request, FMLA leave, PWFA issue, or other protected right may be involved.
• Base performance discussions on observed work results, conduct, attendance, deadlines, quality standards, and safety requirements—not assumptions about an employee’s medical condition.
• Continue normal performance management while an accommodation request is being evaluated, unless HR directs otherwise. An accommodation request does not automatically excuse past performance deficiencies, misconduct, or violations of conduct standards.
• Consider whether an accommodation would enable the employee to meet the required performance or attendance standard going forward.
• Evaluate whether regular and predictable attendance or in-person presence is essential for the particular job. Do not assume it is essential simply because it appears in every job description.
• Consider whether modified scheduling, intermittent leave, telework, temporary changes in work method, or finite additional leave would enable the employee to perform essential functions without undue hardship.
• Consult HR before disciplining, terminating, denying leave, or declaring an employee unable to perform essential functions when disability, medical restrictions, accommodation, FMLA, PWFA, workers’ compensation, or other protected leave may be implicated.

Medical and genetic information

• Keep all disability-related medical information, accommodation records, medical certifications, fitness-for-duty records, workers’ compensation medical records, and genetic information in separate confidential medical files—not in the general personnel file.
• Restrict access to medical information to individuals with a legitimate business need to know.
• Tell supervisors only what they need to know to implement an accommodation or manage work restrictions. For example, provide functional restrictions and approved work adjustments rather than diagnosis details.
• Use a designated HR official, ADA coordinator, or leave administrator to communicate with health-care providers. Supervisors should not independently contact an employee’s provider.
• Maintain written documentation of accommodation requests, interactive-process discussions, medical documentation received, options considered, decisions made, implementation dates, follow-up, and any undue-hardship analysis.

Policy and training suggestions

• Adopt a written reasonable-accommodation policy that identifies the HR contact, describes how employees may make requests, states that no special form or legal language is required, and explains confidentiality protections.
• Consider using a voluntary ADA accommodation request form, but do not deny or delay a request merely because the employee did not use the form.
• Develop a standard supervisor referral form or email template for supervisors to send possible accommodation issues to HR promptly.
• Create standard medical-information request forms that ask only for job-related functional information and include the GINA safe-harbor notice.
• Review attendance policies, maximum-leave rules, return-to-work procedures, fitness-for-duty practices, and no-fault attendance systems to ensure they include an ADA accommodation review before adverse action.
• Review personnel policies for unintended barriers affecting employees with disabilities, including policies on leave, attendance, testing, driving, lifting, uniforms, remote work, drug and alcohol testing, performance standards, and benefits.
• Train supervisors annually on accommodation requests, medical confidentiality, GINA, performance-management issues, FMLA/PWFA overlap, and the requirement to refer requests to HR.

Do Not

Hiring and medical inquiries

• Do not ask applicants before a conditional job offer about disabilities, diagnoses, medications, medical treatment, workers’ compensation history, family medical history, genetic testing, inherited conditions, or the nature or severity of a medical condition.
• Do not require a medical examination before a conditional job offer, except in limited situations permitted by law, such as a voluntary pre-offer self-identification process or an accommodation-related inquiry.
• Do not ask an applicant whether the applicant is disabled. Instead, ask whether the applicant can perform specific job functions, with or without reasonable accommodation.
• Do not require post-offer medical examinations or disability-related inquiries unless the city applies the same examination or inquiry to all entering employees in the same job category.
• Do not use employment tests, physical requirements, qualification standards, or selection criteria that screen out applicants with disabilities unless they are job-related and consistent with business necessity.

Accommodation and medical information

• Do not ignore a request because it is informal, verbal, late in the process, raised after performance concerns, or does not mention the ADA.
• Do not allow supervisors to make final decisions about ADA coverage, medical documentation, reasonable accommodation, undue hardship, direct threat, or an employee’s legal entitlement to leave.
• Do not demand unnecessary medical records, a complete diagnosis, or information about conditions unrelated to the request.
• Do not permit supervisors to contact an employee’s health-care provider directly. HR should manage all provider communication through a lawful, documented, and appropriately authorized process.
• Do not request, collect, or use genetic information, including family medical history, unless a limited GINA exception clearly applies.
• Do not disclose an employee’s diagnosis, medical restrictions, accommodation request, medical certification, or other confidential medical information to coworkers or managers without a legitimate need to know.
• Do not deny an accommodation request before identifying the relevant limitation, essential functions, workplace barrier, possible effective accommodations, and actual undue hardship.
• Do not reject an accommodation because it is inconvenient, unpopular with coworkers, administratively burdensome, or contrary to a supervisor’s preference. Those factors alone do not establish undue hardship.
• Do not require an employee to accept the city’s preferred accommodation if it is not effective. The city may choose an effective alternative, but it should discuss the alternative with the employee.

Performance and leave

• Do not assume that performance, attendance, conduct, safety concerns, unusual behavior, or appearance are caused by a disability.
• Do not ask an employee whether the employee has a disability simply because performance declines, attendance becomes irregular, or the employee appears to be struggling. Address observed work issues neutrally. If the employee discloses a medical condition or requests a work-related change, refer the matter to HR.
• Do not automatically discipline, terminate, or find an employee unqualified because the employee cannot currently perform an essential function. First determine whether reasonable accommodation, including finite leave, modified scheduling, telework where feasible, reassignment, or another adjustment may enable the employee to perform the job.
• Do not treat FMLA-protected absences as attendance violations, negative performance factors, or misconduct.
• Do not automatically count ADA-related leave or disability-related absences as attendance violations. Complete an individualized accommodation and undue-hardship review before applying an attendance policy.
• Do not require an employee to use FMLA leave, sick leave, vacation leave, workers’ compensation leave, or another leave category as the only response to a disability-related request without considering whether another reasonable accommodation would allow the employee to remain at work.
• Do not force an employee onto leave when another effective reasonable accommodation would enable the employee to continue working, absent undue hardship.
• Do not mention an employee’s diagnosis during a performance conversation. Discuss observable work expectations and results. If medical information is raised, acknowledge it, avoid requesting unnecessary details, and refer the matter to HR.

Retaliation

• Do not retaliate against an applicant or employee because the person requested accommodation, used approved accommodation or leave, disclosed a disability, filed an internal complaint, filed an EEOC charge, participated in an investigation, opposed disability discrimination, or helped another person exercise ADA rights.
• Do not allow a supervisor’s frustration with an accommodation request, leave use, medical restriction, or documentation process to influence assignment decisions, performance ratings, promotion opportunities, discipline, training access, or other employment decisions.

Suggested supervisor script
“Thank you for letting me know. I want to understand the work-related issue and what change might help you perform your job. I will refer this to HR so we can review the request with you. Please continue to let me know if your work restrictions or needs change.”

Suggested HR intake thought points

• What job task, schedule, workplace condition, or policy is creating a barrier?
• What work-related limitation is affecting the employee?
• What adjustment does the employee believe would help?
• Is the limitation temporary, intermittent, or ongoing?
• What essential functions are affected?
• What accommodations have been tried already?
• Is medical documentation necessary to evaluate the limitation or requested accommodation?
• Are FMLA, PWFA, workers’ compensation, military leave, or another leave or accommodation law potentially implicated?
• What alternative accommodations could be effective?
• What operational impact, cost, staffing concern, safety issue, or other potential undue-hardship consideration is supported by actual facts?

Statutory anchors

• ADA Title I, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12111–12117.
• EEOC ADA regulations, 29 C.F.R. Part 1630.
• ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-325.
• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000ff–2000ff-11.
• Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601 et seq.
• Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000gg–2000gg-6.