Retaliation Risks After Accommodation Requests: Lessons from an ADA Case

Denying a reasonable accommodation request can be risky—particularly if the employer provides little explanation or fails to meaningfully engage in the interactive process. But what’s even riskier? Terminating the employee just a few weeks later.

Cue the lawsuit.

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TL;DR: An associate general counsel at a public university alleged she was fired in retaliation for formally requesting workplace accommodations tied to physical and mental impairments. The court dismissed her ADA discrimination claim because she didn’t show she was meeting the university’s legitimate expectations at the time of her termination. But the retaliation claim? That lives on—because the timing and knowledge of her supervisors raised a plausible inference that her request was a factor in her firing.

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The Employee Wanted to Work Remotely—and a Bit More

After joining the university’s legal team in early 2022, the employee—who had various physical and mental health conditions—was informally allowed to work remotely three days a week and received other accommodations like ergonomic furniture and built-in breaks.

When the university shifted back to full-time in-office work, she submitted a formal accommodation request: four days of remote work, a second laptop, a note-taking assistant, and to formalize the arrangements she already had. A few days later, she also revealed that she had an “invisible disability” during a meeting with university officials. Although she did not explicitly name her diagnoses at that time, her formal accommodation request had identified clinical depression and anxiety among other conditions.

What Happened in the Weeks That Followed

Within weeks:

• She experienced a panic attack at a work event.
• Her request for short-term full-time remote work was denied without follow-up.
• She was verbally admonished for memory lapses related to contract work.
• Her formal request was denied again—with little to no explanation.
• She received a written warning.
• Then, she was fired.

Why Her ADA Discrimination Claim Flopped

To succeed on an ADA discrimination claim, an employee must show:

1. She had a disability,
2. She was qualified for the job,
3. She was meeting legitimate job expectations, and
4. Her disability was a factor in the termination.

Here, the court zeroed in on step three. The employee admitted to recent performance issues and discipline. She didn’t point to any evidence—like praise or recent positive reviews—that might support an inference that she was still doing her job effectively. That doomed the discrimination claim.

But the Retaliation Claim Stuck Around

Retaliation claims are different. An employee doesn’t need to be a star performer. Instead, she only has to show:

1. She engaged in protected activity (like requesting an accommodation),
2. She suffered an adverse employment action (termination), and
3. The two were connected.

The court found that the short timing and the fact that key decision-makers knew about her request and disability were enough to suggest retaliation—at least at the pleading stage.

Takeaways for Employers

✍️ Document performance issues before the accommodation request—and continue documenting them after. A consistent, well-supported record is your best defense.

📍 Engage in the interactive process in good faith. Request medical documentation if needed, stay open to reasonable alternatives if the original request isn’t workable, and explain any denial clearly and promptly.

🚨 Proceed with caution if you’re considering discipline or termination shortly after an accommodation request. If the timing can’t be helped, mitigate the risk: thoroughly document the reasons, ensure prior documentation supports the decision, and ask a second set of eyes—like HR or another manager—to review for fairness and consistency. Otherwise, you might hand the employee a textbook retaliation claim. Better to build your defense before you need one.