This is general information rather than legal advice. Deadlines and rules vary by state and by employer type, and an employment attorney or your regional ADA Center can tell you how they apply to your situation.
If something has happened to you at work, the clock is already running, and it’s shorter than almost anyone expects.
You have 180 calendar days from the date of the discriminatory act to file a charge with the EEOC; in most states, that extends to 300 because a state or local agency also enforces anti-discrimination law. Calendar days, so weekends and holidays count.
That’s the single most important thing on this page. People spend four months hoping it resolves internally, then another two working out whether they’re overreacting, and by the time they’re ready to act, the option is gone. The merits never get examined.
So: the deadline first, then what actually counts.
Each Event Has Its Own Clock
This is the part that catches people, and the EEOC’s own guidance uses a clean example.
Say you were demoted, and then fired a year later, and you believe both were because of your disability. You file the day after the firing. Only the firing is timely. The demotion needed its own charge within 180 or 300 days of the day it happened, and that window closed while the second thing was still unfolding.
Which means you can’t wait for a pattern to become undeniable. By the time it’s obvious, the early parts of it are out of reach.
There’s one exception, and it matters. For ongoing harassment, you file within 180 or 300 days of the most recent incident, and the EEOC will look at everything that came before it, even incidents from years earlier. Harassment is treated as a continuing violation rather than a series of separate ones.
And federal employees have a completely different process. If you work for the federal government, you must contact an agency EEO counselor within 45 days. Not 180. That’s a rule people miss constantly because every article about this describes the private sector version.
What Actually Counts as Disability Discrimination
Four things, and the second one surprises people.
Being treated differently because of your disability. Not hired, not promoted, paid less, given worse assignments, fired. The straightforward version, and the hardest to prove, because employers rarely say why.
Failure to accommodate. If you request a reasonable accommodation and your employer refuses without showing undue hardship, that is itself discrimination. It isn’t merely unhelpful; it’s a violation of the law in its own right. A lot of people experience this and never recognize it as anything actionable, because nothing dramatic happened. Nobody shouted. They just said no.
Harassment. Comments, mockery, or being made a subject of discussion because of your disability. The legal test is that it has to be severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile environment, which means one-off rudeness usually doesn’t qualify, and a steady drip over months might.
Retaliation. Being punished for requesting an accommodation, complaining, or supporting somebody else’s complaint. This is separately illegal, and it’s frequently easier to prove than the discrimination underneath it, because the timing does the work. If you asked for something in March and your reviews collapsed in April, that sequence speaks for itself.
What Doesn’t Count
Worth being honest about, because a claim that goes nowhere still costs you months.
An employer with fewer than fifteen employees. Title I doesn’t reach them. Some state laws set lower thresholds, so check yours, but federally there’s nothing.
Being treated badly generally. A hostile manager who is hostile to everyone isn’t discriminating. The unfairness has to be because of your disability.
Not being qualified for the job. The ADA protects qualified individuals, meaning people who can perform the essential functions with or without accommodation. If you can’t do the core of the job even with reasonable accommodation, the protection doesn’t apply.
An accommodation that genuinely creates undue hardship. Employers can refuse if the cost or disruption is significant relative to their size and resources. That bar is higher than most employers pretend, but it exists.
What to Document, Starting Today
Whether or not you ever file, contemporaneous records are worth more than anything you reconstruct afterward.
Put things in writing where you can. If a conversation happened verbally, follow it up with an email summarising it. “Just to confirm what we discussed” creates a dated record and gives them a chance to correct it, which is useful either way.
Note dates, names, and exact words. Not your interpretation. What was actually said, and who heard it.
Keep your performance history. Reviews, commendations, metrics. If the story later becomes that you were underperforming, a file full of positive reviews up to the month you requested an accommodation is powerful.
Keep copies somewhere that isn’t work. People lose access to their email the day they’re let go, and everything in it goes with them.
Track the accommodation conversation specifically. When you asked, what you asked for, what was said, what happened. Failure-to-accommodate cases are won and lost on that record.
How Filing Actually Works
You file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. It’s free, you don’t need a lawyer to do it, and you can file online through their public portal, by mail, or in person at a field office. Somebody else can also file on your behalf.
You can file while still employed. Plenty of people assume you have to leave first. You don’t, and retaliating against you for filing is itself illegal.
You can also file after you’ve left, as long as you’re within the deadline from the act itself.
Once filed, the EEOC notifies your employer within about ten days and asks for a written response. They may offer mediation. If that doesn’t resolve it, they investigate to decide whether there’s reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred.
Then the part people don’t expect. The EEOC litigates only a small fraction of the charges it receives. For most people, the outcome is a Notice of Right to Sue, which is not a finding against you. It’s permission to take it to federal court yourself.
And that comes with its own deadline. Ninety days from receiving the notice to file a lawsuit. That one is unforgiving.
You can also request a Right to Sue after 180 days if you’d rather not wait for the investigation to finish. Under the ADA, you must have that notice before you can sue in federal court, so the EEOC step isn’t optional.
If It’s a Business Rather Than an Employer
Different law, different process. A shop, restaurant, or doctor’s office that won’t accommodate you is Title III rather than Title I, and that goes to the Department of Justice rather than the EEOC.
The remedies differ too. Under Title III federally, you can get an order requiring the barrier to be fixed, plus legal costs, but not money damages. Several states allow damages under their own laws, which is why outcomes vary so much geographically.
Which title applies to your situation is worth settling before you do anything, and that’s covered in more detail in the piece on what the ADA actually is and what it doesn’t cover.
Should You Get a Lawyer
Not to file a charge. The EEOC process is designed to be used without one.
Worth talking to someone if the situation involves termination, if there’s money at stake, if you’ve received a Right to Sue notice, or if the facts are complicated. Many employment lawyers offer a free consultation and work on contingency, so an initial conversation usually costs nothing.
Your regional ADA Center is also free and will talk through whether you have something before you spend anything.
The Honest Part
Most charges don’t end in a finding of discrimination. The process is slow, it’s draining, and it happens while you’re still going to work or still looking for work.
Which is worth knowing before you start, and it isn’t a reason not to. Filing preserves options that expire otherwise, retaliation claims frequently outperform the original complaint, and a documented record changes how an employer behaves even when nothing formal comes of it.
What isn’t survivable is the deadline. Everything else can be worked out later.
And if this is grinding you down while you’re already managing a condition, that’s a reasonable response rather than weakness. The connection between disability and mental health runs in both directions, and a long fight with an employer is its own weight.
