A more reasonable view of workplace adjustments

The word reasonable does a lot of heavy lifting in law. Negligence depends to some extent on how a reasonable person would approach a situation. Reasonable doubt means a jury should not convict a defendant. And reasonable adjustments should be made in the workplace to accommodate employees and job applicants with disabilities.

Exactly what counts as reasonable is difficult to define, in part because it is so specific to the particular situation involved. So grey areas naturally arise (sometimes only to be resolved after lengthy legal battles). It is deemed reasonable that disabled employees should receive whatever they need to not be disadvantaged compared with their non-disabled colleagues; but at the same time, those changes are deemed unreasonable if they’re too expensive. (We’ll have to leave the definition of expensive for another time.)

Many reasonable adjustments requested by employees are inexpensive; the Business Disability Forum reported in 2022 that the average cost is £75 per person. Some, like allowing flexible working hours, don’t cost anything. But the stigma of having to ask for them or the fear of appearing to seek special treatment – of appearing unreasonable – means that not everyone asks for the support they need.