Reasonable Adjustments For Disability – A Guide For Employers

Summary and acknowledgement

It is now 30 years since the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which was replaced by the Equality Act 2010 in Great Britain (GB), but this was not extended to Northern Ireland (NI).

A 'reasonable adjustment' in equality law is some kind of change that removes or reduces the effect of a person's disability and helps them to do their job or, in the case of applicants, apply for a job or meet certain criteria.

This guide to reasonable adjustments has been developed with employers in mind, to help bring guidance and resources for the making of adjustments for disabled applicants and employees into one user-friendly publication. An extensive review of cases before the NI and GB tribunals and courts which featured reasonable adjustments was undertaken to analyse what the various fora deemed to be 'reasonable' adjustments.

We also added in numerous other suggestions of reasonable adjustments to highlight that many of them are actually free or relatively inexpensive. Employers should not be scared of employing disabled people – as this guide shows, it generally doesn't take very many resources to support disabled employees so that they can work effectively and efficiently.

In Part 1 of the guide Adam Brett provides a short introduction to the legal position and some of the factors for consideration when considering what adjustments to make.

Part 2 of the guide is a case review of the many different types of adjustments, from acquiring or modifying equipment through to adjustment of procedures, e.g. discounting certain absences or varying start and finish times.

Part 3 of the guide contains two tables summarising various types of adjustments that could be made for both mental health conditions and physical conditions. These tables highlight adjustments that the tribunals/courts have deemed reasonable and also include some additional suggestions and supporting documents and sources of further information.

Part 4 of the guide contains a number of helpful appendices, including a sample Review Meeting Checklist which we hope you may find helpful in preparation for and during meetings. It also contains a list of useful publications and a directory of charities and other organisations in NI that can provide support for employers to enable them to make adjustments for applicants and employees. Appendix 2 has a couple of exercises that are designed to help you get the most out of this guide.

Years of updates and teamwork have shaped this guide. We're grateful to the following contributors:

• Orla Bingham (Lewis Silkin (NI LLP)
• Christine Quinn (Legal Island)
• James Mahood (Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP)
• Destiny Stephenson (Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP)
• Rolanda Markey (formerly of Legal Island)
• Adam Brett (Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP)
• Teresa O'Neill (HR Consultant)
• Clare Marley (formerly of Legal Island)
• Joanna Mackey (Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP)
• Nadine Horgan (formerly of Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP)
• Silvia Martins (QUB Law Student)
• Jack Morgan (UU Student)
• Marie Therese McCann (UU Student)

Finally, this guide is not fully comprehensive regarding disability and reasonable adjustments, including in relation to case law. There has been a real explosion in the number of cases brought to Tribunal involving disability-indeed it is now the most frequently cited protected characteristic. According to Acas, disability discrimination cases have increased by over 40% in a year since 2024, and 16% of workplace disputes were found to include disability discrimination, up from 9% two years previously. In any event, this area is particularly fact-sensitive involving consideration of "reasonableness", and appropriate advice should always be sought in specific cases.

This guide has been updated as at September 2025 to take account of more recent cases and developments. Although the definitions have not changed public and medical perceptions have developed. Originally much of the emphasis was on physical disabilities, whereas increasingly claims relate to mental health and neurodiversity. Possible new areas may include long covid, and the effects of the menopause.

This guide could doubtless be improved, despite our best efforts to make it as helpful as possible. If you have any thoughts on how it could be improved, please contact orla.bingham@lewissilkin.com or Christine@legal-island.com

Part 1 – Introduction and Legal Context

This Guide is intended to help, explain and demonstrate the sorts of reasonable adjustments that you may need to consider in your workplace. It also aims to help with examples of adjustments, and an explanation as to how to review them. Finally, there is a list of some organisations that may be able to help you.

Making reasonable adjustments is not just a legal duty as set out in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). Often it will help you save money and retain trained and dedicated staff.

1.1 The Legal Requirement for Employers to Consider Adjustments

Article 4A of the Disability Discrimination Act sets out the legislative requirement for employers to make reasonable adjustments to facilitate the employment of a disabled application or employee and states:

Unlike other forms of discrimination, the duty is a positive one with no need for a comparison with others, or for a detriment.

Article 4A (3) states that:

There is no duty if the employer does not know, and could not reasonably be expected to know, that the employee was disabled. However, this does not mean that because the employee has not told the employer formally of a disability there is no knowledge. Some managers may know, and in some cases behaviour/absence records may mean the employer should have enquired. Once an employer knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, the obligation to consider reasonable adjustments is triggered, and the employer should consider this even if it has not been raised by the employee. In practice, a Tribunal hearing may well be some years after the initial events, and Tribunals sometimes tend to view the question of knowledge with the benefit of hindsight.

Sometimes the employer proposes an adjustment and the employee does not agree with it. In most circumstances it will be harder for the employee to argue later that the adjustment should have been made.

1.2 What Is A Disability?

For the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act a disability is a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

There are several parts to this-

• Physical or mental impairment;
• A substantial effect;
• A long-term adverse effect;
• Adverse effect on ability to carry out day-to-day activities.

Many Tribunal decisions deal in detail with one or more parts of this definition, because a Tribunal has to consider all of these in order to decide if the person is disabled. However, in practice the position is not as straightforward as it can appear later with hindsight. An impairment which does not currently meet all the criteria can as it develops come to meet the criteria. If there is any doubt about the situation employers would be wise to explore further, or to operate on the assumption that the impairment is, or may shortly come to be, a disability. The definition of disability is contained within Sections 1 and 2, the Schedule to the Act and the Disability Discrimination Act (Meaning of Disability) Regulations 1996. Section 1 states that:

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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.