How to
Request an Accommodation?
Need to open or renew an accommodation request?
Has your accommodation been denied or is not effective?
Find a lawyer
File a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
File a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Connect, Organize, Volunteer, and Share your story
Open or renew an accommodation request
Expand the View all help categories section
Select Time, Leave of Absence and Accommodation
Select Accommodation
Continue answering the questions to create the accommodation request
In early 2025, the option to choose “Work From Home” as an accommodation was removed from the DLS accommodation tool. You may have to enter your request under “Other.”
You will submit medical documentation. DLS will most likely request additional information.
If you are not able to submit documentation within the timeframe DLS requests (usually about a week) they will most likely close the request. You will have to open a new ticket once you have the proper documentation.
Once your accommodation request and documents are submitted, you will most likely not hear from DLS again for months.
If you are requesting a Work From Home accommodation, it is usually acceptable to work from home while you have a pending accommodation request.
You should keep a record and timeline of all communications with and requests from DLS.
Eventually, DLS will either deny your accommodation request or “approve” your accommodation request with accommodations that are not effective and require you to be in the office 5 days a week.
If you and your medical provider(s) feel that the accommodations Amazon offers are not effective, skip down to: My accommodation was denied or offered accommodations are ineffective.
If you believe the accommodation request didn’t include all the relevant medical information, you can submit additional documentation and ask DLS to re-review.
In the United States, the employer can choose their preferred effective accommodation. So if they offer you effective accommodations but you prefer work from home, they don’t have to meet your preference. However, if they offer accommodations that are not effective and refuse to continue working with you to find an effective accommodation, they are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Amazon Internal Resources:
Official Accommodation Process Overview video created by the DLS department
Whitney Burian’s wiki - includes screenshots, a step-by-step video, and email content
My accommodation was denied or offered accommodations are ineffective
Recommended Actions:
Seek an employment lawyer
File a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (in the US)
File a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) (in the US)
Connect, Organize, Volunteer, and Share your story
Find a Lawyer
(See the list of lawyers )
In the United States, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you have a protected disability and Amazon tries to force you to accept ineffective accommodations or “voluntarily resign,” this is discrimination and it is illegal [ADA Guide].
Preparing to find a lawyer
Before you contact a lawyer, be ready to answer some key questions.
What are you able to do financially? Figure out for yourself what you would be able to afford. If you don’t have a budget for this, focus on finding a lawyer that can work on contingency. This means they don’t get paid unless a case is won. And in discrimination cases it is common for the employer to have to pay for your legal fees.
If you have a budget, at least to even start, you may be able to more quickly and easily find a lawyer. You may be able to negotiate a flat fee for them to draft a letter and send it to Amazon. Most likely, this will buy you several more months of your requested accommodation while Amazon’s lawyers take their time responding. This may be financially worth it for you. Eventually, Amazon will probably respond they did nothing wrong and try to force you to accept the accommodations they offered. At that point your lawyer may have additional advice on next steps. It can be challenging to get a lawyer to take on a single case, so it’s worth looking for lawyers that are gathering similar cases (see the list below).
How can the lawyer help you?
Be ready to explain how you think a lawyer can help you. If Amazon is refusing to find an effective accommodation, let the lawyer know that other Amazon employees have had their lawyer send a letter to Amazon explaining that they need to follow the ADA interactive process. This has been the typical next step after DLS stops trying to find a suitable accommodation.
Has Amazon done anything illegal?
If DLS has offered you ineffective accommodations and is pushing you to accept them, Yes. Refusing to help find an effective accommodation is discrimination and against the law in the US.
Gather and summarize your details so you can clearly explain your case.
Create a timeline of your accommodation request process (list the dates for when did you start, when did you receive additional requests, when did you submit them, when did you hear from DLS?)
Gather evidence of all communication you’ve had with DLS (export emails as PDFs, take screenshots)
Create a timeline of your employment at Amazon (list how long you’ve been in your current role/team, when did you start at Amazon, has your role previously been listed as virtual, how long have you been working remote/from home, when did you receive promotions?)
Other evidence that can be helpful:
Proof you are effective in your job (past Forte reviews, emails/comments/commendations from colleagues)
Proof your job doesn’t require you to be in the office (past job descriptions, current role guidelines for your role, comments from your manager if they agree you don’t need to be in the office to do your job)
Here are some key points to help you explain your case to a lawyer or intake paralegal.
Is Amazon trying to make you take accommodations that are not effective?
Tell them you are facing discrimination with a failure to accommodate your disability.
Have you been fired, been told you’ve “voluntarily resigned,” or quit because the work environment is intolerable?
This may be either a Constructive Discharge or Wrongful Termination. Read the following to understand which your case might fall under:
Constructive Discharge: This occurs when an employee resigns due to an employer creating a hostile or intolerable work environment, effectively forcing them to quit.
Wrongful Termination: If you’ve been fired under circumstances that violate employment laws or contractual agreements, you may have a claim for wrongful termination.