The Hiring-Step Accommodation Request, From Invite to Written Confirmation

This is a procedure for asking an employer to change a timed assessment, AI-scored interview, or live round because a disability or condition will make that step harder for you than it is for other candidates. It's for candidates who have an invite in hand right now. It gives you a map of the hiring loop, a named menu of adjustments, a low-disclosure request and documentation reply you can paste, and a dated log that ends in one of two places before the step starts: written confirmation, or a recorded escalation.

I'm describing what the cited sources say, not giving legal advice. Where a rule wasn't verified, I say so and tell you how to check it yourself.

What legal footing does an applicant's accommodation request rest on?

In the US, the ADA lets an applicant ask for a reasonable accommodation at any point in the hiring process, out loud or in writing. That right doesn't depend on any AI-specific guidance. In the UK, making reasonable adjustments is a legal duty under the Equality Act.

A reasonable accommodation is, in the EEOC's words, "some sort of change or adjustment to the application/interviewing process because of your medical condition." The EEOC says an individual with a disability "may request a reasonable accommodation at any time during the application process." The request doesn't have to be in writing. The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), the federally funded advisory service on workplace accommodations, says a request "can be made verbally or in writing but the employer, or testing company, may ask the applicant to complete an accommodation request form."

Nothing in the law makes the written confirmation in this guide a requirement. It's this procedure's own safeguard, and it matters because hiring platforms enforce deadlines automatically.

What changed with AI hiring guidance

On January 27, 2025, the EEOC removed its May 2022 technical assistance document on the ADA and AI in hiring (EEOC-NVTA-2022-2), the Tips for Workers summary that went with it, and a May 2023 Title VII document. Archived captures show the page loading normally through January 26 and returning a 404 from January 27.

The statute didn't change. The Department of Justice page at ada.gov/resources/ai-guidance was still live at the time of research. It states that "employers also violate the ADA if their hiring technologies unfairly screen out a qualified individual with a disability." If you cite authority in a request, point to that page. Load it first: one secondary source reports that the broader DOJ AI and Civil Rights page has been archived, so confirm the hiring page still resolves before you quote it.

Local and UK rules

• NYC Local Law 144 covers an automated employment decision tool (AEDT), meaning software that scores or ranks candidates. Employers must give notice at least 10 business days before using one, including how to request an alternative process. The adopted rule says "nothing in it requires an employer or employment agency to provide an alternative selection process."
• Colorado, Illinois and California rules weren't verified for this guide. Check your state agency's site before relying on them.
• UK Equality Act. The adjustments duty is statutory. I didn't retrieve the primary text of section 20 (the adjustments duty) or section 60 (limits on health questions before an offer), so treat any paraphrase of their wording as unverified.
• Disability Confident is a separate scheme, and "the scheme is not legally binding." Participating employers commit to offer disabled people an interview "if they meet the minimum criteria for the job vacancy, subject to some exceptions." You have to opt in, and opting in means disclosing.

Which hiring steps need their own request, and what adjustment fits each?

Treat every step with its own format, timer, or scorer as needing its own named adjustment. Each one runs on a different platform or with different people, and a vague "I need accommodations" leaves the coordinator to guess. Map the loop on the day the invite arrives.

Build the loop map

Make one row per step with six fields:

• Step and format: timed test, one-way video, AI voice screen, live coding, panel.
• Time limit: per question and in total.
• Link expiry: the date and time the invite stops working, with time zone.
• Platform: the tool named in the invite or the link's domain.
• Scorer: a person, an AI, or both.
• Barrier: what your condition makes harder in this format, described by function.

If you applied through Refolk, the posting your resume was tailored to is already on file, so you can copy the exact role title and requisition into the map and the request subject line rather than digging through old emails.

Match the barrier to JAN's menu

JAN names a specific set of hiring-process adjustments. Pick from it wherever you can, because a coordinator with no specialist background can approve a named, common request faster than a novel one. JAN calls extended time "one of the more common requests for testing accommodations."

The middle column is illustrative. Write your own barrier in functional terms. A candidate with ADHD facing a live coding interview might write "sustaining focus on a timed problem while being observed" and ask for extended time at a specific time of day. That describes the effect and leaves out the label.

Two limits apply here:

• A human reviewer instead of an AI score isn't a named item on JAN's list, and I verified no rule that requires a non-automated path. You can still ask under the ADA. Pair it with a JAN-named alternative, such as written answers, so the employer has something effective it can approve.
• Questions in advance can change what a step measures. Refolk's fit score reads a posting's requirements against your history, and doing the same exercise yourself shows what a round is actually testing. Use that to pick an adjustment that changes the conditions of the step without moving the bar.

Who should receive the request?

Send it to the hiring company's named recruiter or accommodations contact, never to the platform's support desk. The platform owns the tool, but the employer owns the decision.

HireVue sends every accommodation except its self-serve extra time back to the hiring company. HackerRank support can't change an employer's workflow. A ticket to either can get a polite reply and still never reach anyone who can approve the change.

That last row matters. In a sample of 25 accommodation specialists from Refolk's index, 12 work at colleges or universities. Outside education, a dedicated specialist is rare. Write the request so that someone who schedules interviews for a living can act on it without asking a colleague what it means: name the step, name the adjustment, name the deadline.

US and UK look different

In Refolk's index, the NHS accounts for 6 of 25 sampled UK coordinators. No US employer appears more than once in its sample. My inference, and it's only an inference from a small sample, is that NHS processes shape what a large share of UK candidates experience. If you're applying to an NHS trust, look for its published recruitment adjustments page before you write. The Home Office runs a comparable page for its own hiring, which shows what a public-sector process typically asks for.

Finding the contact: check the invite email's sender and signature, the careers page for an accommodations address, and the platform landing page, which often names the employer contact. If none of these turns one up, reply to the invite email itself and say in the subject line that it's an accommodation request.

How much should I disclose, and how do I answer a documentation request?

Describe the functional limitation and the adjustment you need, not the diagnosis, and attach nothing until someone asks for it. CISA's process says this explicitly: send no attachments until asked.

The documentation rules work in your favour:

• If your disability and need for accommodation "are not obvious, the employer may ask you for reasonable documentation explaining the disability and why an accommodation is needed."
• The employer can't ask for documentation when the need is obvious, or when you have "already provided the employer with sufficient information to substantiate" the disability and the need.
• Under EEOC enforcement guidance, a doctor's note describing the impairment and the accommodation is sufficient, and "the employer cannot ask for additional documentation."

That gives you a ceiling. One note that covers the limitation and links it to the requested adjustment is the most you should ever need to send. A one-off clinician letter usually takes 1 to 7 days, but that's an estimate, not a verified figure, so ask your clinician's office for their turnaround the day you send the request.

Subject: Accommodation request - [Role title] [requisition number] - [step name] due [date]

Hi [Recruiter name],

Thank you for the invite to the [step name] for the [role title] role, currently due by [date, time, time zone].

I have a medical condition that affects [functional limitation, e.g. producing spoken answers against a countdown]. I am requesting a reasonable accommodation for the following steps:

- [Step 1 name, platform]: [specific adjustment, e.g. extended time on each timed section]
- [Step 2 name, platform]: [specific adjustment, e.g. written answers in place of recorded video answers]

I have not started the [platform] link and will not start it until the adjustment is in place. Could you please hold or extend the deadline while this is reviewed, and confirm the adjustment in writing or let me know when it appears on the test landing page?

If you need supporting information, please tell me what you require and I will provide it.

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Phone]

Cover email:
Hi [Name], as requested, attached is a note from my [clinician role] confirming the limitation and the accommodation I asked for on [date of original request]. Please confirm the adjustment in writing once it is approved.

Clinician note outline:
1. I am [clinician name, role] and I treat [candidate name].
2. [Candidate] has an impairment that limits [functional limitation].
3. In a [timed test / spoken interview / panel], this limitation means [concrete effect].
4. The accommodation requested, [specific adjustment], addresses this limitation.
5. [Signature, date, contact details]

The request procedure, step by step

Run these eight steps in order, starting the day the invite lands. Steps 1 to 4 fit in a single sitting of about an hour plus drafting time. Everything after that depends on how fast the employer replies.

On timing, the sources disagree. JAN advises disclosing "as early as possible." CISA accepts requests either at application or after the job announcement closes. In practice, the platform deadline decides it for you: send the request the same day the invite arrives, whatever the job ad says.

How much lead time does each platform need?

No general lead-time standard has been published. JAN says only "in advance." The platforms are stricter than that. On the two most common ones, the change has to be in place before you begin, and only the employer can make it.

Three points follow from this table:

• The expiry date is the real deadline. Whether a link pauses while a request is pending hasn't been established publicly. Assume it doesn't, and ask for a hold or extension in the first email.
• An expired link is the employer's to reopen. One secondary source says that once a HireVue deadline passes the link stops working and only the employer can extend it.
• NYC's 10 business days are a planning window. The notice tells you an AEDT is coming. Use those days to send the request, and frame it as an ADA accommodation, because any duty to provide an alternative comes from the ADA, not Local Law 144.

CISA is a useful benchmark for what a well-run process looks like. Once it notifies you of an accommodation decision, it gives you at least 72 hours to complete the step. If a private employer approves an adjustment the night before a link expires, asking for a similar window is reasonable.

What should I do when the employer offers a different adjustment?

Test the alternative against the barrier it's supposed to remove, not against what you originally asked for. If it removes the barrier, accept it in writing. If it doesn't, reply in writing and name the barrier that's left.

The usual mismatch is time offered when time isn't the problem. HireVue's in-interview option gives only "more time during timed questions." If your barrier is producing spoken answers at all, extra time on a spoken answer leaves the barrier exactly where it was. In that case your reply should say so in a single sentence and restate the written-answer request.

I didn't retrieve the EEOC text on whether an employer may choose among several effective options, so I'm treating that rule as unverified. The practical position is the same either way: an alternative that works is a fair outcome, and one that doesn't work is worth a short written reply.

A short reply that works when the alternative falls short: "Thank you. Extra time would not address the limitation I described, which is producing spoken answers. Could the [step] accept written answers instead? Please hold the link while you check."

How accommodation requests go wrong

Most failed requests aren't refused. They lapse, because the request went to the wrong place, the candidate started too early, or a verbal yes never reached the platform. Each failure below comes with what it looks like when it misleads you and the check that catches it.

1. Starting the test to "see how it goes." It feels like a low-risk trial. On HackerRank, accommodation time no longer applies once you've started, so the trial is the test. Check: don't click start until the landing page shows the new time.
2. Taking HireVue's self-serve extra time as the whole accommodation. The option on the first page looks like the accommodation process, but it covers only timed questions. Questions in advance, written answers, or a non-AI path still need a request to the employer. Check: did the employer reply in writing?
3. Emailing platform support. The false positive is a courteous support reply that feels like progress while the request never reaches the recruiter. Check: send the request to the hiring company's contact and copy it to the invite sender.
4. Over-disclosure. Sending a diagnosis or full medical records unprompted. It feels thorough. In practice it spreads medical information further than needed and gives a generalist more to misread. CISA explicitly says not to attach anything until asked. Check: is every sentence in the request about function, not diagnosis?
5. Confusing NYC's "alternative process" notice with a right to one. The notice tells you how to ask. It doesn't oblige the employer to agree. Check: frame the ask as an ADA accommodation.
6. Ticking the Disability Confident box and assuming adjustments will follow. The scheme guarantees an interview, subject to exceptions, and it isn't legally binding. It doesn't arrange adjustments. Check: send a separate adjustments request for each step.
7. Waiting on internal escalation. Writing to HR or a hiring manager and waiting for a response can feel like the responsible next step. Internal processes don't extend the EEOC clock. Check: write the 180-day date in the log on the day of the event.
8. A coordinator says "fine" on a call. It feels settled, but nothing has changed on the platform. Check: get it in writing or see it on the platform before the step.

What do I do if no one replies before the link expires?

Don't start the test. Send a dated follow-up, keep screenshots, and write down your charge deadline the same day. No official step-by-step escalation procedure for applicants has been published, so the log is your procedure.

The deadlines, as published:

• Private-sector charge: "In general, you need to file a charge within 180 calendar days from the day the discrimination took place." That extends to 300 calendar days "if a state or local agency enforces a law that prohibits employment discrimination on the same basis."
• Federal applicants have a 45-day deadline to contact an EEO counselor instead.
• Internal complaints don't stop the clock.

Which of the 180 or 300 days applies depends on your state or city having its own enforcing agency. If you can't confirm that, use the 180-day date. Getting legal help is outside what this guide covers, but you'll get more from it if you arrive with the log already built.

Keeping this current

Three things in this guide can change. Recheck them before each new loop:

• The DOJ page. Load ada.gov/resources/ai-guidance before you quote it. If it's gone, cite the ADA itself and the EEOC's Job Applicants and the ADA page.
• Platform rules. HackerRank's extra-time article and HireVue's ADA Compliance & Steps page define when and where time can be added. Read both again when an invite names either tool.
• Local AI rules. Search your state or city agency for automated hiring tool rules. Colorado, Illinois and California weren't verified for this guide.

Keep your request and documentation templates in one file. Each new loop then needs only a new loop map and new dates, and that matters most when two invites arrive in the same week.