Colorado employers have to work with you, not around you. If you asked for a change that would let you keep doing your job and got silence, a demotion, or a termination instead, that is what the Americans with Disabilities Act was written to reach.
Most disability cases do not turn on whether someone had a disability. They turn on what the employer did after they found out. The meeting that got cancelled twice. The accommodation request that went to HR and never came back. The performance plan that appeared three weeks after a diagnosis. We build cases out of that sequence, in writing, with dates.
Disability discrimination claims we handle
- Denied reasonable accommodations. Schedule changes, remote work, equipment, reassignment, leave as an accommodation, and modified duties the employer refused without looking at the cost.
- Failure to engage in the interactive process. The law requires an actual back and forth conversation. Ignoring a request, or answering it once and closing the file, is its own violation.
- Termination after a medical leave request. Firings that follow an FMLA request, a short-term disability claim, or a return-to-work note.
- Discrimination after disclosure. Discipline, exclusion, or lost advancement that starts once a condition, a diagnosis, or a treatment schedule becomes known.
- Perceived disability and record of disability claims. The ADA protects you if your employer treats you as impaired, even where you are not.
- Harassment based on disability. Comments, mockery, or hostility tied to a condition, a device, or an accommodation.
- Retaliation for asserting your rights. Adverse action after you request an accommodation, file a charge, or support a coworker's complaint.
- Medical inquiries and confidentiality violations. Improper exams, questions the employer had no right to ask, and disclosure of your medical information to coworkers.
- Disability discrimination in public services and custody. Accommodation failures in jails, public programs, and public facilities, which our Civil Rights practice covers under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act.
The law that applies in Colorado
The Americans with Disabilities Act covers employers with 15 or more employees and requires reasonable accommodation, with an exception only for an employer that can show undue hardship. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 broadened who counts as disabled, and it reaches conditions that are episodic or in remission, including diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, PTSD, depression, and long COVID.
The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act goes further than the ADA on the question of size. It applies to employers with as few as one employee, so a small Colorado business is covered where federal law would let it walk.
The Rehabilitation Act applies to federal contractors and recipients of federal funding. The Family and Medical Leave Act can run alongside an ADA claim, and leave that has run out under the FMLA may still be owed as an ADA accommodation. Colorado's FAMLI program adds paid leave rights on top.
Cases are usually strongest where state and federal claims are filed together.
What to do now
- Put your accommodation request in writing, even if you already asked out loud. A dated email is the single most useful document in these cases.
- Keep your medical records and your employer's responses in a personal account, off any work device.
- Write down the timeline now, before the details fade: who you told, what date, what happened next.
- Do not sign a severance agreement before an attorney reads it.
- Contact us early. A charge with the EEOC usually has to be filed within 300 days, and the Colorado Civil Rights Division deadline is six months.
No fee if we do not recover
Your case review is free and confidential. We take employment cases on contingency, so you pay no attorney fee if we do not obtain a recovery. The ADA and CADA both let a court order the employer to pay your attorney fees on top of your damages.
If your situation also involves broader workplace conduct, our Employment Discrimination practice may apply, and you can always reach us through our Contact page.
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