TL;DR

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in employment, public accommodations, and other areas. Title I covers employment specifically, applying to employers with 15 or more employees. The law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations unless doing so would cause undue hardship.

The Structure of ADA Employment Protections

The ADA's employment provisions rest on three concepts: disability, qualified individual, and [reasonable accommodation](/glossary/reasonable-accommodation). A disability under the ADA is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) deliberately broadened the definition after courts had narrowed it significantly in the 1990s and early 2000s.

A "qualified individual" is someone who can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without accommodation. Essential functions are the core duties of the role, not peripheral tasks. An employer cannot define every task as essential to screen out candidates with disabilities. Job descriptions matter here: if a task appears in a job posting but is rarely performed, it may not survive scrutiny as an essential function.

Reasonable accommodation is the interactive process between the employer and the employee or candidate to identify modifications that enable the person to perform the job. Common accommodations include modified schedules, remote work arrangements, assistive technology, modified physical workspace, and adjusted application or interview processes. The employer does not have to provide the specific accommodation the employee requests; it must provide an effective one. Undue hardship is a high bar, assessed by the size and resources of the employer relative to the cost of the accommodation.

Why It Matters for Recruitment

The ADA's protections begin at the application stage, before any employment relationship exists. Staffing agencies must ensure that their application processes are accessible to candidates with disabilities. This means accessible online application platforms (WCAG 2.1 AA compliance is the practical standard), alternative formats for written assessments, and interview accommodations available on request without requiring the candidate to disclose a specific diagnosis.

The pre-offer/post-offer distinction is critical for staffing agencies. Before a conditional offer of employment, employers cannot ask about disability status or require medical examinations. Agencies cannot ask, "Do you have any medical conditions we should know about?" or require candidates to complete a health questionnaire. After a conditional offer, medical inquiries and examinations are permitted, but only if required of all candidates in the same job category.

Third-party assessment vendors create compliance risk that agencies often underestimate. Personality assessments, cognitive tests, and video interview AI tools have all been challenged as potentially screening out candidates with certain disabilities. The EEOC has issued guidance specifically on AI hiring tools and ADA compliance, signaling that agencies using automated screening are responsible for validating that those tools do not create disparate impact against candidates with disabilities.

In Practice

A [staffing agency](/glossary/staffing-agency) that places candidates in call center roles uses an online application with a timed typing test as the first screen. A candidate with a repetitive stress injury contacts the agency to ask if the test can be administered without the time limit, as they can type accurately but cannot sustain the speed required by the timer over an extended period.

The agency's recruiter escalates to HR. HR reviews the role's essential functions: the job requires sustained data entry throughout the shift, but the typing test is a screening tool, not the job itself. The agency removes the timer for this candidate, administers the accuracy-only version, and the candidate passes. She is placed in the role, where she performs within the acceptable range for accuracy on the actual job.

The accommodation cost: 15 minutes of HR time to review the request and modify the test format. The candidate completes a 6-month contract successfully. The agency avoids an EEOC ADA charge and retains a productive worker. The agency subsequently updates its testing protocol to make the timed version opt-in after the accuracy baseline, removing the systemic barrier for future candidates.

Key Facts