Fact sheets

Reasonable Adjustments

It is an employer's duty to provide reasonable adjustments when a physical feature of premises occupied by the employer, or a provision, criteria or practice, places a disabled employee at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled employee

What is a "provision, criteria or practice"?

Policies & practices relating to:

What is a physical feature?

The aim of a reasonable adjustment is to remove the substantial disadvantage.

How to make a "reasonable adjustment"

  1. Is the employee disabled or might you reasonably be expected to know that employee is disabled? (Uncharacteristic behaviour, accidents, unexplained absence, poor judgement, reduced productivity etc)
  2. Are they at a substantial disadvantage compared with a non-disabled worker?
  3. Is it caused either by a physical feature of premises, or policies, procedures or practices?
  4. What does the employee want to be done as a reasonable adjustment? Consult them. What they want may or may not be reasonable. It is your decision.
  5. What steps could prevent the disadvantage? Some ideas...
    • Making adjustments to premises including furniture, fittings and equipment
    • Allocating some of the disabled person's duties to another person
    • Transferring him/her to fill an existing vacancy or altering his/her hours of work or training
    • Assigning him/her to a different place of work or training, including home
    • Allowing him/her to be absent during working or training hours for rehabilitation assessment or treatment
    • Acquiring or modifying equipment, or assistive technology
    • Modifying procedures for testing or assessment
    • Giving, or arranging for, training or mentoring, whether for the disabled person or any other person
    • Providing a reader or interpreter
    • Providing supervision or other support
  6. Having identified what steps would be needed to remove the "substantial disadvantage" - now decide if those steps are "reasonable".
  7. Are they effective? If there is very little benefit - they are probably not reasonable.
  8. Are they practical? They are more likely to be reasonable if they are easy. But - if you have extensive resources, more effort, and more complex steps are expected. More is expected of a supermarket than a corner shop.
  9. What's the cost? If the adjustment costs little and is not disruptive, it is more likely to be reasonable. Access to Work funds should be taken into account.

    Factors to take into account when looking at cost should be - length of service, level of pay, resources invested in employee so far, level of skill, knowledge and value to the business, replacement and training costs etc.
  10. Effect on other employees? Is there substantial discomfort or inconvenience? This may make the adjustments unreasonable.
  11. Consider the extent to which the disabled person is willing to cooperate? If your employee refuses the only reasonable adjustments and all other options are exhausted, you do not have a duty to do any more.
  12. If there are unacceptable risks to the health and safety of any person (including the disabled employee), risk assessments should be used to evaluate the severity of the risks.