The New Shape of Mental Health Accommodation: How ADA Obligations Are Expanding

Mental health is no longer a peripheral workplace issue. Anxiety disorders, depression, PTSD, ADHD, and other mental health conditions increasingly surface in accommodation requests, and employers are being asked to respond with greater care, flexibility, and legal precision. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), mental health conditions can qualify as disabilities, and recent enforcement trends and guidance through the end of 2025 signal a broader, more nuanced view of employer obligations.

This shift does not require employers to lower performance standards or ignore operational realities. But it does demand a more thoughtful, individualized approach to accommodation requests — one that recognizes mental health as an integral part of workplace compliance.

The ADA Framework Applied to Mental Health

The ADA requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities, unless doing so would cause undue hardship. Mental impairments have always been covered when they substantially limit one or more major life activities.

That baseline has not changed.

What has evolved is how mental health conditions are raised, evaluated, and documented in the workplace. The  Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) continues to recognize that conditions such as anxiety disorders, major depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and certain neurodivergent conditions may substantially limit activities like concentrating, thinking, communicating, or working.

At the same time, recent developments highlighted by commentary on the EEOC’s restored quorum and shifting enforcement posture underscore an important reality: coverage under the ADA is settled, but enforcement emphasis is not static. Employers should avoid assuming either expansion or contraction of obligations based solely on headlines.

What’s Expanding—and Why It Matters

Several developments have contributed to the expanding scope of mental health accommodations:

• EEOC Enforcement Priorities increasingly emphasize mental health, particularly where employers dismiss requests as “personal issues” rather than potential disabilities.

• Post-pandemic workplace norms, including remote work, flexible schedules, and hybrid arrangements, have reshaped what courts and agencies view as “reasonable.”

• Updated guidance through 2024–2025 reinforces that accommodations once considered exceptional may now be expected, depending on the role and the employer’s resources.

Together, these trends raise expectations for employer responsiveness, documentation, and consistency.

What These Requests Look Like in Practice

Mental health accommodations are often subtle and highly individualized. Common examples include:

• Modified work schedules to accommodate therapy appointments or medication side effects

• Remote or hybrid work arrangements where in-person presence is not essential

• Adjusted deadlines or modified task sequencing during periods of acute symptoms

• Reduced sensory stimulation (quiet workspaces, limited interruptions)

• Temporary reassignment of marginal job duties

These requests do not automatically have to be granted, but they must be meaningfully considered. Blanket denials or rigid adherence to “how things have always been done” can expose employers to liability.

The Interactive Process: Where Risk Accumulates

At the center of ADA compliance is the interactive process: a good-faith dialogue between employer and employee to explore effective accommodations.

For mental health requests, this process often requires extra care. Employers may request medical documentation when the disability or need for accommodation is not obvious, but they should avoid overly intrusive inquiries. The focus should remain on functional limitations and workplace solutions—not diagnoses or personal details.

Failure to engage in this process, even when an accommodation is ultimately denied, is one of the most common ADA pitfalls.

Undue Hardship: Still a Limiting Principle

The ADA does not require employers to accommodate every request. Accommodations that impose significant difficulty or expense — considering the size, resources, and operations of the business — may be denied.

That said, as remote work and flexibility have become more common, employers may face greater scrutiny when claiming hardship. If an accommodation was successfully implemented during the pandemic or is widely used elsewhere in the organization, denying it now may require a clearer justification.

Undue hardship is still a defense. It is simply one that now requires clearer support.

Signals Without Statutes and What They Mean

Not every shift in ADA enforcement arrives neatly packaged in a new statute or regulation. Some changes emerge through agency guidance, enforcement posture, and even seemingly small administrative decisions that reflect how accessibility is being interpreted more broadly.

One example is the federal government’s recent move away from default fonts like Calibri in favor of more traditional fonts such as Times New Roman. Calibri became the federal government's official font in 2023 and is considered to be a more readable typeface. While font selection is not explicitly dictated by the ADA and this recent change does not impose new legal requirements on private employers, readability and accessibility have long been core principles of compliance. 

For employers, the lesson is not about typography alone. It is about awareness. Policies, instructions, and workplace communications are increasingly evaluated through an accessibility lens, particularly where mental health and cognitive conditions are involved. These shifts do not create new legal obligations overnight, but they do shape expectations.

What Employers Should Be Doing Now

As mental health accommodation requests continue to rise, employers should:

• Review ADA policies to ensure mental health conditions are explicitly addressed

• Train managers to recognize accommodation requests and escalate them appropriately

• Avoid reflexive denials or assumptions about what is “reasonable”

• Document each step of the interactive process carefully

• Evaluate undue hardship claims carefully and consistently

A Final Word

Mental health accommodations are no longer the exception; they are an increasingly common part of workplace compliance. The ADA has not changed its core requirements, but how those requirements are applied has evolved. Employers who approach mental health requests with flexibility, documentation, and legal awareness will be better positioned to remain compliant and reduce risk.

If your organization is navigating mental health accommodation requests or reassessing ADA obligations, our employment law firm can help you evaluate your practices and respond with confidence.