Employees Are Entitled To Reasonable, Not Preferred, Accommodation

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), once an employer becomes aware of an employee's need for accommodation of a disability, the employer must engage in an interactive discussion with the employee to identify potential accommodations. This interactive discussion helps the employer determine which accommodation would: (1) be reasonable under the circumstances, (2) allow the employee to perform her or her essential job functions and (3) would not constitute an undue hardship on the employer. Occasionally, however, an employee will reject the employer's offered reasonable accommodation and demand an alternate one, simply based on preference. What does the ADA require of the employer in those situations?

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (with jurisdiction over Florida, Georgia and Alabama) answered that question in the recent case Mundt v Sheriff, Okaloosa County, No. 24-14130, October 23, 2025. The plaintiff in that case, Mr. Mundt, was promoted to an investigator position for the Sheriff's Office, a role that required him to be physically capable of responding to emergencies and physical confrontations, subduing individuals, etc. Soon after his promotion, however, Mr. Mundt began to experience severe back pain, for which he was forced to undergo back surgery. Following his surgery, he was granted leave from work under the Family and Medical Leave Act, but that leave ran out before he was medically cleared by his physicians to perform the physical demands of the investigator job.

Therefore, in an effort to assist Mr. Mundt's return to work, the Sheriff's Office offered to transfer Mr. Mundt to an open (but non-sworn) dispatcher position, a much less prestigious position but one without physical demands, which better fit with his then-current physical limitations. This transfer would come with the understanding that Mundt would have to reapply for his investigator's position once he was fully released by his physicians. Mundt, however, rejected this reasonable accommodation, advising that his preferred accommodation would be to extend his leave of absence until he was released by his doctors to occupy his investigator's position. The Sheriff's Office declined. When Mundt refused to accept the offered accommodation of a transfer to the dispatcher position, Mundt was terminated. He then sued the Sheriff's Office for disability discrimination.

Affirming the trial court's dismissal of Mundt's ADA claims, the Court noted that "the ADA does not require than an employer accommodate an employee in any manner in which the employee desires," and that "an employer meets it obligations under the ADA as long as it provides some reasonable accommodation, regardless of whether it is the accommodation of the employee's choice." The Court, therefore, held that the offer to transfer Mundt to the open dispatcher position, while not Mundt's preferred accommodation, was nevertheless a reasonable accommodation satisfying the Sheriff Office's obligations under the ADA. In a parting shot to Mundt, the Court also dismissed Mundt's concern that the dispatcher position was (in his opinion) a demotion and that he had no guaranty that he would be able to successfully re-apply for his investigator position stating, "the mere fact that a proposed accommodation may involve some cost to the employee does not make the accommodation unreasonable."

Takeaways

The ADA requires an employee to be provided only reasonable accommodation—not the employee's preferred accommodation. While additional time off, in addition to FMLA leave, might be a reasonable accommodation under certain circumstances, in Mundt's circumstances, it was only a preference, as he did not need additional time off from work since he could be transferred to an open position. That the employee did not "prefer" or "like" that position (to quote the Court) was "of no matter" under the ADA.

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