making copies, filing documents, preparing materials for
meetings, ordering supplies, and maintaining an orderly and
organized office space. The employer determines that the
majority of the employee’s job functions require that he be
present in the office and that it would be a financial undue
hardship to hire additional staff to cover those responsibilities,
given the size of the business. The employer memorializes his
determination in writing and provides it to the employee to
conclude the cooperative dialogue.
An employee who works at a small real estate office requests an
accommodation of specialized equipment and a license to use a
service that will cost approximately $5,000 per year. The
employer determines that they do not have the financial
resources to pay for an accommodation at that expense and
would have to take out a loan to cover the cost. They explore
other alternative accommodations but none adequately provide
the services the employee needs. The employer informs the
employee that the full cost would pose an undue hardship but
offers to split the cost with the employee instead. The employee
agrees to the arrangement, and the employer sends an email to
the employee memorializing the agreement and concluding the
cooperative dialogue.
A tenant who, due to a mobility limitation, can no longer regularly
use the stairs in his building, requests to be relocated from his
third-floor apartment to a first-floor apartment in a building with
four floors and eight total units. His landlord denies the request
because the first-floor apartments rent for several hundred
dollars more per month than the tenant’s third-floor apartment
and the landlord cannot afford to offer the apartment at the
tenant’s current rent, because he would lose several thousand
dollars per year in rental income, and the tenant cannot afford
the higher rent. The landlord has an available apartment at a