ADA Checklist and FAQs for Small Businesses

This page turns the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into a short self-review. Numbers are on the rules and numbers page.

The Doorway-to-Desk Access Check

1. Walk your entrance, parking, restroom and service counter as a customer using a wheelchair would. List fixes that are easy to do for a business your size.
2. Check how your staff would handle a service dog under a no-pets rule. A dog trained to do work or tasks tied to a disability is allowed.
3. Decide how a deaf or low-vision customer can reach you: written notes, captions, an interpreter or large print.
4. Test your online forms, booking and payment tools with a keyboard only, and offer another way to do business if they fail.
5. Remove disability and medical questions from job applications and interviews. Entry exams are allowed only after an offer, and only if all entering employees get one.
6. Set a simple accommodation routine: treat a plain-English request as a request, talk it through, ask for documentation only when the need is not obvious, and keep notes.
7. Move medical information into separate, confidential files. EEOC rules call for keeping accommodation and personnel records for one year.
8. Post the EEOC notice in an accessible format, and keep invoices for access work for your tax preparer.

Common mistakes

• Asking about medical conditions, or requesting an exam, before a job offer.
• Waiting for the words "reasonable accommodation" instead of treating a plain request as one.
• Denying leave or a schedule change without analyzing it as an accommodation.
• Demanding more medical paperwork than needed to show the disability and the need.
• Keeping medical records in the general personnel file.
• Enforcing a no-pets policy against a service dog.
• Skipping easy barrier removal (entrance, parking, signs, counter height) because the building is old.
• Assuming a small headcount means no ADA duty; Title III has no size test.

When to talk to an attorney

A CPA cannot answer these questions. An attorney can.

• A demand letter, complaint or lawsuit about physical access or a website.
• A request involving leave, a safety "direct threat" finding or possible undue hardship, before it is denied.
• A termination that follows an accommodation request, medical disclosure or workers' compensation claim.
• Plans for new construction or alterations.
• A charge from the EEOC or the Illinois Department of Human Rights.

Frequently asked questions