A reasonable accommodation is any administrative, environmental or procedural changes enabling persons with disabilities to fully participate in economic activities and education and enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment or fully access services and livelihood interventions.
Reasonable accommodation may be provided for persons with disabilities, whether the disability is an existing or an acquired condition, or of a temporary or permanent nature.
How do you determine what requested accommodation is reasonable?
Consider the following;
- What is the nature and cost of the adjustment? Can it be met by the budget available?
- Will it enable the individual to perform to his/her best ability or compete at an equal level as others in the programme?
- How many people could benefit from the adjustment? (consider both current and future interactions)
- What additional benefits could result from the adjustment both for the partners and the participats with with disabilities?
PLEASE NOTE:
- Most accommodations cost little or no money at all. Just effort, consideration, support and creativity.
- It will not always be possible to provide an accommodation if it would cause an undue financial or administrative hardship. However, explore other options available keeping effective participation of the individual in mind. Most importantly, consult the individual in question and involve them in the decision process.
- Investing in a few costly reasonable accommodations such as (modification of a building for accessibility, purchasing assistive technology) could go a long way in supporting efforts on disability inclusion, allowing an organization to offer more opportunities to other participants with disabilities.