ADA Accommodation Requests

Flexible Schedule for Trauma Therapy

A fully-written letter you can copy or download. Below the letter we explain why it is written the way it is, the mistakes most people make, and the legal authorities the language invokes.

The letter

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To: HR at [Employer Name]
From: [Your Full Name]
Date: [Today's Date]
Subject: Request for a Flexible Schedule as a Reasonable Accommodation

Dear [HR Contact Name],

I am writing to request a flexible schedule as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I can perform all essential functions of my position as [Your Job Title] and am not requesting leave. My request is for a schedule modification to protect a recurring clinical appointment. I am formally asking that we engage in the interactive process.

I have a qualifying condition and receive ongoing treatment from a licensed clinician. My treatment includes a standing appointment on [Day of Week] from [Start Time] to [End Time]. Missing or moving this appointment on short notice is not clinically advisable and would disrupt the continuity of care my condition requires.

The specific accommodations I am requesting are:

1. Permission to leave for, attend, and return from the standing appointment each week, with the time off the clock made up either earlier or later the same day, or during the rest of the workweek.
2. Exclusion of the standing appointment window from routine internal meeting scheduling. If a one-time urgent meeting must fall in that window, I will join remotely where possible, or reschedule the appointment with my clinician's prior agreement, and make up any affected time.
3. Written confirmation that using this accommodation will not count against attendance, punctuality, or reliability in any performance review.

This is not a request for FMLA leave and does not require me to use PTO. It is a schedule modification, which is a recognized form of reasonable accommodation.

I am happy to provide a letter from my clinician describing the medical need for consistent appointment timing. I am not required to disclose my specific diagnosis, and any documentation should be kept confidentially in a file separate from my personnel file.

The employer has the right to choose among effective accommodations. If a different structure produces the same outcome (one consistent, uninterrupted weekly appointment), I am open to discussing it.

Please confirm receipt and propose a meeting within ten business days.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

[Your Full Name]
[Your Work Email]
[Your Phone Number]

Replace every bracketed prompt with your own information before sending. Everything in brackets is for you. Everything outside brackets is the letter.

Before you send this

Many employers do not handle FMLA paperwork themselves. They hand it off to a third-party administrator, usually called a TPA. A TPA is a leave-management vendor, like Sedgwick, Unum, Lincoln, or The Hartford, that your employer pays to process claims. TPAs have an incentive to close claims quickly, and they use a predictable set of tactics to push employees into giving up more than the law actually requires. Watch for these:

Blanket HIPAA authorization forms. These are not required for FMLA. The WH-380-E certification is. A broad HIPAA release can pull therapy notes, substance use records, and unrelated medical history into a corporate vendor's database.
Demands for records beyond the WH-380-E. The law limits what your employer or its TPA can require to what is necessary to determine FMLA eligibility. You are not obligated to provide a full chart.
Artificial delays that trip deadlines. If the TPA says your certification is incomplete, they must tell you in writing exactly what is missing and give you seven calendar days to fix it. Silence is not a legal denial.
Direct calls to your healthcare provider. TPA claim examiners cannot call your provider for general information. Contact for clarification must be routed through a healthcare professional designated by the employer.
Pressure to use an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) instead of accommodations. An EAP is a short-term counseling benefit your employer funds, usually limited to three to eight sessions. An EAP referral is not a response to an ADA accommodation request, and engaging with the EAP can muddy your record.

Watch out for the sign-up process. HR typically sends you to a TPA website to register and "start your claim." Those sign-up flows are where most of the traps live: pre-checked HIPAA authorization boxes, fields asking you to enter your diagnosis, current medications, symptoms, or the contact information for your treating providers. None of that is required to open an FMLA claim. Fill in only the administrative fields (name, employee ID, employer, dates) and leave clinical fields blank.

If the portal will not let you proceed without medical entries, or if anything about the process feels coercive, raise the concern in writing. A short email to HR and the TPA is enough: say that the portal appears to be asking for information that goes beyond what the FMLA certification requires, that you understand the employer's information rights are limited to what is necessary to determine FMLA eligibility, and that you would like to submit your certification through an alternative channel (email or fax to the TPA directly, with your provider sending the completed WH-380-E to that address). Wait for a written response. Only use the alternative if HR or the TPA agrees. Putting the concern in writing either gets you the alternative or creates a paper trail that protects you if the claim is later denied or delayed.

If any of this is happening, read Protecting Your Medical Records, FMLA and HIPAA Privacy Rights, or use the letter that limits records release to a TPA. If you need to talk to someone free of charge, see our list of free legal helplines and crisis lines.

When to use this letter

You are in ongoing therapy for trauma-related symptoms and need your clinician's consistent appointment time protected. You do not need leave. You need schedule flexibility so that a standing appointment can happen without your job being at risk every week.

Trauma therapy works best with a consistent clinician and a consistent appointment time. Rescheduling is often not clinically advisable and can destabilize the work you are doing in therapy. This letter reframes that clinical reality into a concrete schedule accommodation the employer can either approve or counter-propose.

Many survivors default to using PTO or burning through intermittent FMLA on therapy appointments. That works, but it depletes a finite resource. A flexible schedule as an ADA accommodation is a better structural fix because it does not consume leave.

Why the letter is written this way

Each paragraph is doing specific legal work.

01
Why distinguish this from FMLA leave
If this request is processed as intermittent FMLA instead of an accommodation, it consumes your 12-week allotment. Saying plainly 'I am not requesting leave' pushes HR to route it to the ADA track, where it costs you nothing.
02
Why emphasize clinical continuity
Generic 'therapy appointment' requests often get rescheduled. Explaining that clinical continuity is part of the treatment plan shifts the employer's decision frame from 'a preference' to 'a medical necessity.' Most HR departments will approve once the clinical reasoning is clear.
03
Why ask for written exclusion of the window from meeting scheduling
Without this, your team will routinely book over your appointment and you will have to decline. Declining a meeting to attend a medical appointment can quietly affect performance reviews. Getting the window formally excluded solves this structurally.
04
Why ask for confirmation that the accommodation will not affect ratings
Attendance, punctuality, and 'being a team player' are common informal criteria that can be used to downgrade a performance review for an accommodated employee. A written confirmation neutralizes this.
05
Why cite § 1630.2(o)(2)(ii) specifically
This provision explicitly identifies 'modified work schedules' as a reasonable accommodation. Citing it directly signals that you have read the regulation and forestalls an argument that schedule changes are not 'real' accommodations.

Don't do this

The mistakes that undo the letter.

01Describing the content of therapy (trauma processing, EMDR, IFS) in the letter. The employer has no right to know what happens in the appointment.
02Asking for 'flexibility in general.' Without a specific window, the employer has nothing to protect and no way to administer the accommodation.
03Using PTO for therapy when you could use an ADA accommodation. Once PTO is gone, so is your buffer for vacation, illness, and family needs.
04Submitting the request to your supervisor without a copy to HR. Supervisors often grant informal flexibility that evaporates when a new supervisor arrives.
05Not preserving the response. If approval comes by email, save it. If it comes verbally, follow up with a written confirmation within 24 hours.

Legal authorities cited

The language invokes real regulations.

42 U.S.C. § 12112: ADA Title I discrimination prohibition
29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(o)(2)(ii): Modified work schedule as reasonable accommodation
29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(o)(3): Interactive process
29 C.F.R. § 1630.9: Effective accommodations
29 C.F.R. § 1630.14(c): Medical documentation
EEOC Enforcement Guidance No. 915.002: Reasonable accommodation guidance

Keep reading

Where to go next.

LeaveRights es una herramienta educativa gratuita y no proporciona asesoramiento legal. No se recopilan ni almacenan datos. La información proporcionada es solo para orientación general. Consulte a un abogado laboral calificado para obtener asesoramiento específico a su situación.

Each paragraph is doing specific legal work.

Why distinguish this from FMLA leave

Why emphasize clinical continuity

Why ask for written exclusion of the window from meeting scheduling

Why ask for confirmation that the accommodation will not affect ratings

Why cite § 1630.2(o)(2)(ii) specifically

The mistakes that undo the letter.

The language invokes real regulations.

Where to go next.