Before you Handle a Request for a Reasonable Accommodation:
The "Creative" Reasonable Accommodation Process
Step 1: Determine if the employee is a "qualified" individual with a disability.
A "qualified" individual with a disability is one who meets the essential eligibility requirements for the position.
The "essential eligibility requirements" will depend on the specific position.  
An individual with a disability is a person who:
Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a 
"major life activity," has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.
"Major life activities" include functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, *thinking, *concentrating and *interaction with others.  (*An identified mental impairment.)
Step 2: Identify all the employee's potential accommodations by: 
Involving the participant who has the disability in every step of the process;
Employing confidentiality principles while exploring ways to provide accommodations;
Consult with rehabilitation professionals, if needed;
Step 3: Select and provide the accommodations that are most appropriate for the employee and employer by:
Remember:
Involving the employee who has the disability.
Accommodations selected should be effective, reliable, easy to use and readily available for the employee needing the accommodation.
If it is a product the employee should try the product prior to purchase.
Step 4: Check results by:
Monitoring the accommodation to see if the adaptation enables the employee to complete the necessary task(s);
Periodically evaluating the accommodation(s) to ensure effectiveness.
Step 5: Provide follow-up, if needed, by:
Repeating these steps, if appropriate.
Examples of Reasonable Accommodations: 
Remember that these are only ideas.  
Each situation calls for an individual assessment.
For individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired:
1. Ensure the availability of TTYs or other appropriate assistive listening devices.
2. Use state telecommunication relay services.
3. Consider E-mail for intra and interoffice communication.
4. Provide tactile pagers as an alerting system.
5. Share information via networked computers.
6. Use computer note taking.
7. Provide visual and auditory alerting devices on telephones and fire alarm systems.
8. Ensure that all rooms used for meetings or training are adequately lighted.
9. Utilize assistive listening devices such as FM, infrared, loop systems, and/or closed captioning decoders in meeting and training sessions.
10. Use professional interpreters (oral and/or sign) when needed.
11. Use note takers in meetings and groups.
12. Consider "communication cops" at meetings (one person who monitors the meeting to ensure that only one person speaks at a time).
For individuals who are blind or visually impaired:
1. Mail the application to the candidate.
2. Offer a walk-in applicant an opportunity to take the form, have someone help complete it and return it by mail or in person.
3. Offer the services of someone in the office to assist in completing the form.
4. If the candidate is taking public transportation, indicate which stop is closest, then give directions from the stop.
5. Dot of silicon on a knob, switch, or button permits a person to align controls.
6. Wide felt-tip marker may make file folder labels readable.
7. Different size strips of masking tape identify parts bins for production employees.
8. Screen text enlargers use software to enlarge print on a computer screen.
9. Screen reading software (example: Jaws for Windows). 
10. Speech synthesizer (example: DECtalk).
11. Braille display (example: Power Braille 80 keyboard).
For individuals who have cognitive disabilities:
1. Clarification and assistance in completing information needed on the job application.
2. Conducting a verbal interview to obtain job application information.
3. Describing job requirements clearly, concisely and simply.
4. Adjusting length of interview to maximize applicants' ability to remain attentive.
5. Interviewing in a quiet, informal, distraction-free environment.
6. Spend additional time in training the new employee.
7. Break job tasks down into smaller steps, which are more clearly defined.
8. Use very clear and basic language to provide job instructions.
9. Develop a set routine in a job.
10. Allow the employee to use alarm watches or timers.
11. Develop pictures or diagrams showing job sequence to assist in learning tasks.
For individuals with psychiatric disabilities:
1. Flexible scheduling.
2. Allow longer or more frequent work breaks (but still require an 8-hour workday).
3. Provide backup coverage for when the employee needs to take breaks.
4. Provide additional time to learn new responsibilities.
5. Provide self-paced workload.
6. Allow time off for counseling.
7. Allow for use of supportive employment and job coaches.
8. Allow employee to work from home during part of the day.
9. Provide for job sharing opportunities.
10. Reduce distractions in the work area.
11. Provide space enclosures or a private office.
12. Allow for use of white noise or environmental sound machines.
13. Increase natural lighting or provide full spectrum lighting.
14. Plan for uninterrupted work time.
15. Divide large assignments into small task steps.
16. Make daily TO DO lists and check items off as they are completed.
17. Use several calendars to mark meetings and deadlines.
18. Remind employee of important deadlines.
19. Use electronic organizers.
20. Provide positive praise and reinforcement.
21. Provide written job instructions.
22. Write clear expectations of responsibilities and the consequences of not meeting them.
23. Establish written long term and short term goals.
24. Develop strategies to deal with problems before they arise.
25. Allow telephone calls during work hours to doctors and others for needed support.
26. Provide sensitivity training to coworkers.
27. Recognize that a change in the office environment or of supervisors may be difficult for a person with a psychiatric disability.
28. Maintain open channels of communications between the employee and the new and old supervisor in order to ensure an effective transition.
29. Provide weekly or monthly meetings with the employee to discuss workplace issues and production levels.
For individuals in recovery from a drug or alcohol impairment:
1. A modified work schedule to permit an employee to pick up their daily methadone dosage or to attend and outpatient relapse prevention counseling session.
2. Job restructuring to relieve an employee of particular marginal tasks that may compromise recovery or be inappropriate in the early stages of recovery.
3. Temporary reassignment of an employee in a safety-related position to a vacant non-safety sensitive position while he or she completes treatment.
4. Unpaid leave to permit an individual with a current alcohol impairment to attend an in-patient treatment program.
For individuals with attention deficit disorder:
1. Reducing distraction in the work place.
2. Giving instructions clearly - both orally and in writing.
3. Breaking large tasks down into more manageable parts.
4. Providing structure in long term tasks (checklists, deadlines for each stage, periodic meetings with supervisors).
5. Frequent and specific feedback on meeting performance expectations.
6. Accommodations in examinations (extra time, quiet room, alternative format where appropriate) and in training programs (tape recorder, repetition, time for questions).
7. Modified work schedules and job restructuring.
For individuals who have physical disabilities:
1. Move clutter in hallways to give room for people who use mobility aids.
2. Install doorknobs with levers rather than round knobs.
3. Build or use portable ramps to ramp stairs.
4. Provide reserved parking near the entrance/exit that the employee uses.
5. Check lunchroom and make changes to ensure access.
6. Make sure work area is large enough for wheelchair, including turnaround space.
7. Plan training events and company social events in an accessible location.
8. Install grab bars in the restroom and, if necessary, enlarge stalls.
For individuals who have chemical sensitivity:
1. Encourage a "fragrance free" work environment.
2. An office with a window that opens.
3. A well-ventilated work environment free of pollutants such as tobacco smoke, pesticides, fragrance-laden cleaning products, deodorizers, and exhaust fumes.
4. Selection of least toxic/allergenic building furnishings and supplies.
5. Pre-notification of building events such as painting or pesticide applications with provisions for alternative work arrangements.
6. Allowing the option of working at home or off site.
7. Minimizing exposure to electromagnetic fields from computers, fluorescent light ballasts, and other equipment.
General notes:
Reassignment is the reasonable accommodation of last resort - However, if both the employer and the employee voluntarily agree that transfer is preferable to remaining in the current position with some form of reasonable accommodation, then the employer may transfer the employee.
A supervisor does not have to eliminate an essential function of a position or lower productivity standards that are applied uniformly.
Remember that each situation calls for an individual assessment.
Some of these accommodations are excerpts from the publication: 
The ADA and Reasonable Accommodations.  Arizona Center for Disability Law (2-27-96).
November 4, 1999
Version 1.1