ACCESS Rochester
Workplace Accommodations: Confidentiality
It is imperative that supervisors and others involved (i.e., Disability Resources, Human Resources) in the reasonable accommodations process maintain confidentiality of information that they come into possession of concerning an employee’s medical conditions (whether a disability or not), including information about diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. As a general rule, confidential medical information should not be shared with others in the workplace. When making arrangements to implement reasonable accommodations, the supervisor may share, on a need to know basis, the existence of a disabling condition, but not specific information about the condition.
In addition, to the extent actual documentation is received, all requests for accommodation and medical documentation pertaining to an employee should be maintained in a separate, confidential file kept under separate lock and key.
Introduction and Disabling Conditions
Requesting Reasonable Accommodations
Guidelines for Determining if a Requested Accommodation is Reasonable