The duty to make reasonable adjustments

Reasonable adjustmentsChanges an employer must make under the Equality Act 2010 for a disabled employee, where without them the employee would be at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled colleagues. What coun... are not just ramps and screen readers. The duty is broader than most people expect, and it can require your employer to actively rethink how your role, your hours, or a process itself works, not just tolerate you doing things differently.

What triggers the duty

The duty only applies once your employer knows, or reasonably ought to know, that you have a disability and that it’s putting you at a disadvantage. Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT v Grey confirmed that ignorance is not automatically a defence. If a reasonable employer would have made enquiries, or if you’d already given them enough information to notice something was going on, the duty can still apply even if they say they didn’t know.

Knowledge held by any manager, HR contact, or occupational healthAn independent medical service that employers use to assess how a health condition is affecting your ability to work. A referral to occupational health is not a step toward dismissal, but the report p... referral counts as knowledge held by the organisation as a whole. Different parts of your employer not talking to each other is not your problem.

What counts as a reasonable adjustment

There’s no fixed list. What’s reasonable depends on your role, your disability, and what would actually remove the disadvantage.

Archibald v Fife Council found that where a disability means you can no longer do your original role, the duty can extend to redeploying you into a suitable vacancy without making you compete for it against other candidates. Williams v Royal Mail found that when an operational change affects a disabled employee, such as an altered start time, the employer has to genuinely explore alternatives, including trialling a different arrangement, rather than just imposing the change and relying on business need. Crisp v Iceland Frozen Foods found that even a standard company policy, such as who can accompany you at a disciplinary hearingA formal meeting at which your employer sets out the allegation against you and gives you the opportunity to respond before any decision is made. You have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or..., can have to flex if the usual options don’t meet what your disability actually requires.

What happens if your employer doesn’t adjust

A failure to make reasonable adjustments is a discrimination claim in its own right. But Nottingham CC v Meikle confirmed it can do more than that: it can also breach the implied termA term that forms part of your employment contract even though it is not written down. The duty of mutual trust and confidence is the most important implied term, but others include the duty to pay wa... of trust and confidence in your contract, giving you grounds to resign and claim constructive dismissalWhen your employer's behaviour is so serious that you feel you have no choice but to resign, the law may treat that resignation as a dismissal. The most common basis is a fundamental breach of the imp....

The two claims can run alongside each other. And your resignation doesn’t need to be caused solely by the failure to adjust. If it was a significant factor, alongside other things like the toll your condition was taking, the constructive dismissal claim can still stand.

What to do if you need an adjustment

Ask in writing. Be specific about what disadvantages you’re facing and what would help, rather than leaving your employer to guess.

Keep a record of the request and whatever response you get. If the answer amounts to “we haven’t looked into it,” that gap matters. Under Grey and Williams, an employer that never genuinely explored alternatives is on weak ground, regardless of what they knew or when.

If you’ve already been treated unfairly because your disability wasn’t recognised at all, our guide on what counts as a disability in law covers that threshold question first. If your employer failed to adjust and you’re now considering resigning, get advice before you do, since a constructive dismissal claim runs on a tighter clock than a straightforward discrimination claim.

If you’re stuck on what to ask for, our page of examples of reasonable adjustments people have actually asked for is a useful starting point.