In California, employers of five or more are subject to reasonable accommodation rules. If you need an adjustment to your job or workplace in order for you to fulfill the essential duties of your current job, you should request that adjustment of your employer. The ensuing discussion is usually not adversarial; both you and your employer have an interest in your success.

You are never required to disclose the existence of a disabling condition in the workplace, except when requesting a reasonable accommodation. Even then, your employer can only request the documentation that is needed to establish the existence of a disability and the need for reasonable accommodation. In most situations this means they cannot request your entire medical record.

Workplace personal assistance may or may not qualify as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA or California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). In general, workplace personal assistance services may be considered a reasonable accommodation if the assistance is job-related and not primarily for your personal benefit.

Workplace personal assistance services may be:

If you are enrolled in Medi-Cal's IHSS program, you need to continue to meet income and asset requirements. Working additional hours, because you are able to transfer IHSS hours to the workplace, could cause your income to increase thereby putting you above income and/or asset requirements. If this occurs, you may want to consider enrollment in the 250% California Working Disabled Program (250% CWD); this program allows you to earn up to $27,075 annually (in some cases, even more) and maintain Medi-Cal.

Under AB 925, if you utilize California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, you can use some of your IHSS hours in the workplace, under certain circumstances.

Though AB 925 authorizes the use of IHSS hours to provide personal assistance services in the workplace, it explicitly does not increase the number of such hours available to any individual. The current maximum allowable number of service hours per month remains 283.

Current rules allow IHSS hours to be used for personal assistance accompaniment under some circumstances, but not others.