A new article in Law360 analyzes how new Q&As from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) address telework as a reasonable accommodation for federal employees with disabilities.
The article explains that while the agencies “have now made one point unmistakably clear: Telework remains a possible reasonable accommodation for federal employees with disabilities,” the updated Q&As also create significant uncertainty about how that right will be applied in practice.
Issued in February 2026, the Q&As come amid broader return-to-office policies across the federal government. This context is critical. Although telework remains legally available, agencies have been given “substantial room to argue that other arrangements should suffice,” creating a framework that may make telework “harder to obtain, easier to reconsider once granted and more vulnerable to replacement by in-office alternatives.”
The Q&As may lead to disputes in several areas. Agencies may require employees to test in-office accommodations before telework is approved and may revisit previously granted telework arrangements through the ongoing interactive process. The Q&As discuss that agencies may treat employees as absent without leave if they decline in-office accommodations deemed “reasonable and effective,” raising the stakes for employees navigating accommodation requests.
The article further examines how the Q&As address situational telework and symptom mitigation, noting potential tension with existing EEOC case law. In particular, requiring employees to take leave instead of allowing telework if an employee’s disability involves flare-ups or intermittent periods of elevated symptoms “appears difficult to square with longstanding EEOC reasoning that leave is not an effective accommodation where another accommodation would allow the employee to remain on the job.”
The Q&As leave federal employees with a challenging reality: “Telework remains available in principle, yet increasingly vulnerable in practice.”
The article underscores the importance of careful, individualized analysis of accommodation requests and highlights the potential for increased litigation as agencies implement the new framework.
Read the full Law360 article.