Reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010

What the duty actually is

The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on every employer in Great Britain, whatever its size, to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. The idea is simple even where the detail is not: where something about the way work is arranged puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared with people who are not disabled, the employer must take reasonable steps to remove that disadvantage. The duty is owed to employees, to workers in many arrangements, and to job applicants during recruitment.

Section 20 of the Act breaks the duty into three requirements. The first covers provisions, criteria and practices: the rules and habits of the workplace, from fixed start times and rota patterns to performance targets and sickness absence triggers. The second covers physical features of premises, from steps and doors to lighting and noise. The third covers auxiliary aids and services: equipment, software, interpreters and support that would remove the disadvantage. Most workplace adjustments fall under the first requirement, which is also the cheapest to meet; changing a practice usually costs nothing but flexibility.

Who is protected

The duty is owed to people who meet the Act's definition of disability: a physical or mental impairment with a substantial, long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Long-term generally means twelve months or more, or likely to last that long. The definition covers far more people than most managers assume. It includes many neurodivergent people, people with long-term mental health conditions, people managing chronic pain or fatigue, and people with progressive or fluctuating conditions, some of which are covered from the point of diagnosis. No formal diagnosis is required to ask for support, and an employee does not need to use the words reasonable adjustment or disability for the duty to be engaged.

When the duty arises

The duty arises when the employer knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, that a person is disabled and likely to be placed at a substantial disadvantage. That knowledge does not have to arrive through a formal declaration. A pattern of absence, a conversation with a manager, an occupational health report or a struggling probation period can each be enough to put a reasonable employer on notice. This is why the request process matters so much: an employer that makes asking easy finds out early, while an employer that makes asking hard finds out in a grievance.

What reasonable means

The Act does not define reasonable with a list, and that is deliberate. What is reasonable depends on the circumstances: how effective the step would be in removing the disadvantage, how practicable it is, the cost against the employer's resources, and the size and nature of the organisation. A rota change that is trivial for a supermarket chain may be genuinely difficult for a four-person shop; specialist software that is a rounding error for a bank may be a real cost for a charity. But the direction of travel in practice is clear: most adjustments cost little or nothing, because most are changes to how work is arranged rather than purchases. Where cost is a factor, Access to Work, the government scheme, can fund equipment, support workers and assessments beyond what is reasonable for the employer alone.

The employer pays, and the record protects everyone

An employer can never pass the cost of a reasonable adjustment to the employee. And because a failure to make reasonable adjustments is a form of disability discrimination that an employment tribunal can hear, the record of what was requested, considered, agreed, refused and implemented matters from the first conversation. The employer that engaged seriously and recorded its reasoning is in a strong position even where it refused a specific request; the employer that decided well but recorded nothing has little to point to. That is not a reason to fear the process. It is a reason to run it properly.

How this guide is organised

This page is the top of the topic. Below it, the guidance splits into focused pages, each answering one question properly: the legal articles cover rights, entitlement, timing, refusals and who pays; the managing adjustments guide covers running the process as infrastructure, with software evaluation and working templates; the tribunal cases hub covers what happens when it goes wrong and what the evidence shows; and the adjustments by role hub covers what good looks like in warehouses, shops, vehicles, wards, kitchens and sites, not just at desks; and the neurodivergence hub covers how the duty applies to conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia. Every page carries its own references and review dates.

This guide is general guidance, not legal advice. For advice on a specific situation, speak to an employment law specialist, ACAS or the EHRC.