This workshop examines the latest information surrounding chronic, episodic, and dynamic disabilities and what it means for workplace accommodation in practice. Participants will explore practical strategies for navigating complex accommodation requests and evolving medical information requirements and practices. Specifically, the workshop will address:

Part I – Understanding the science
1. What is an episodic disability? What is a dynamic disability, and how do they differ? How do these contrast with disabilities with more stable or non-fluctuating limitations?

2. What does medical science tell us about fluctuating mental health disabilities such as bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder? What does medical science tell us about physical disabilities that can involve significant fluctuations in symptoms and functioning such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA)?

Part II – Rethinking accommodation
3. Do traditional accommodation models adequately address disabilities where an employee’s functional capacity changes over time? How can workplaces build flexibility into their workplace practices so that they can better adapt to changing needs?

4. What happens when an employee discloses an episodic or dynamic disability only after attendance, performance, or conduct concerns have arisen? How should the employer respond?

5. What information can employers legitimately request about an employee’s condition and anticipated absences?

6. What happens when medical information is incomplete, inconsistent, or keeps changing? How should employers respond when medical documentation evolves, different health-care providers provide different information, or an employee’s condition does not follow the expected trajectory?

Part III – Practical Accommodation
7. When does flexibility become an accommodation and when does it become unworkable? How should employers approach flexible scheduling, remote work, modified duties, intermittent leave, reduced hours, attendance flexibility, and other arrangements for employees with dynamic, chronic, and episodic disabilities?

8. How should employers and unions monitor an accommodation to determine whether it is working, and when should the accommodation plan be revisited?
9. What happens when an accommodation plan stops working? When circumstances change, can an employer revisit or modify an existing accommodation, and what does a proper reassessment process look like?

10. How can employers design attendance-management policies that appropriately account for episodic and dynamic disabilities? What input should unions have?

11. How do employers distinguish disability-related limitations from performance, attendance, or conduct issues? What should employers do when the two overlap?

Part IV – Legal boundaries and difficult cases
12. How should employers approach concerns about safety, reliability, or workplace behaviour when they intersect with a disability?

13. When should employers seek additional medical, occupational, or other expert input when accommodation, safety, or functional capacity is unclear?

14. When does accommodation reach the point of undue hardship, and what evidence is actually required to establish it?

15. What does a genuinely collaborative accommodation process look like in difficult cases? How should employers, employees, unions, medical professionals, and counsel work together when there is disagreement about restrictions, proposed accommodations, or whether further accommodation is possible?