Many feds are asking how to deal with backlogs in their agencies’ reasonable accommodation (RA) processes. Many agencies’ EEO offices were already backlogged in 2024. Then came Elon Musk and DOGE. Since 2025, many agencies’ RA processes have been backlogged by months.
The RA that has caused the most controversy is telework. That’s because (1) so many employees with disabilities and discretionary telework agreements* were doing fine without requesting telework as an RA, until they weren’t; (2) agencies RIFfed the people who understood the Rehabilitation Act; and (3) even managers who knew the law were afraid to follow it.
* Telework agreements under the Telework Enhancement Act were a discretionary workplace flexibility. Telework as an RA for a disability is a legal right. I wish we’d use separate terms for those distinct legal concepts.
Amid the waste and chaos that Musk and DOGE caused, many agencies didn’t have room in their buildings for all their returning employees anyway, so they paused enforcement against employees with telework RAs for a few months. That pause may be ending.
The big idea of this post is that it’s rarely in an employee’s interest to complain about an interim RA that’s effective, meaning that the employee can perform the essential functions of the job with the RA. A long, effective interim RA is an opportunity for the employee to document that she can do the job well with the RA. Employees with that documentation are likely to win their cases if the agency denies their “permanent” RAs later.
Even if an RA is “permanent,” the agency may reevaluate it as the employee’s health, job performance, and job functions evolve. The RA process should be an ongoing interactive process, after all. When you look at it that way, few RAs are really permanent. If an interim RA is effective, the smart choice may be to let sleeping dogs lie.
On the flip side, an employee who is offered an ineffective RA should document the specific ways in which it has hurt her job performance, harmed her employee’s health, or caused her significant pain, anxiety, or embarrassment.
Employees in that situation should keep the interactive process open with their supervisors and document their supervisor’s responses. If that doesn’t work soon (and increasingly, it doesn’t) the employee should file an informal EEO complaint ASAP. Otherwise, the agency might cite the employee’s delayed report to argue that the RA isn’t really necessary.
I’m also seeing evidence that agencies are cracking down on telework as an RA in a way that’s arbitrary rather than individualized. Employees in those agencies are going to need lawyers, and in many cases, the agency will eventually pay them.
[This is general legal information, not legal advice. Getting good legal advice requires you to speak confidentially with a lawyer who represents you after you share your facts in a confidential setting. If you’re about to make an important legal decision, get good legal advice.]