Key Terms & Concepts — UPSC Mains
Reasonable Accommodation
"Necessary and appropriate modifications to enable persons with disabilities to enjoy rights on equal basis with others, without imposing a disproportionate burden"
Reasonable Accommodation is a legal and policy concept originating in disability rights law that requires institutions — employers, educational bodies, service providers, and governments — to make necessary modifications, adjustments, or exceptions to rules, practices, and environments to enable persons with disabilities (PwDs) to participate fully in employment, education, and public life on an equal basis with non-disabled persons. The key qualifier is 'reasonable' — accommodations must not impose a 'disproportionate or undue burden' on the institution. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 2006) defines the term in Article 2. India ratified the CRPD in 2007. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act) incorporates the concept, requiring establishments to provide reasonable accommodations and mandating that denial of reasonable accommodation constitutes discrimination. Examples include providing ramps and screen readers, adjusting work schedules, allowing assistive devices in examinations, or modifying job requirements that do not affect core functions.
Reasonable accommodation is the operational mechanism through which disability rights move from theory to practice. For UPSC, it is central to GS2 (social justice, vulnerable groups, welfare legislation) and GS1 (society, social inclusion). The RPwD Act 2016 replaced the outdated Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, expanding the number of recognised disabilities from 7 to 21. The concept is also relevant to employment law (private sector obligations), education policy (inclusive education under NEP 2020), and examination reforms (UPSC itself provides scribes and extra time to PwD candidates).
- 1 Defined in CRPD Article 2 (2006) — India ratified CRPD in October 2007
- 2 Codified in India under Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act)
- 3 RPwD Act expanded recognised disabilities from 7 (old 1995 Act) to 21 categories
- 4 Denial of reasonable accommodation = discrimination under RPwD Act 2016
- 5 Reasonable qualifier: accommodations should not impose disproportionate or undue burden
- 6 Examples: wheelchair ramps, screen readers, flexible work hours, examination scribes, modified job descriptions
- 7 Employers with 20+ staff must have an Equal Opportunity Policy for PwDs under RPwD Act
- 8 4% reservation in government jobs for PwDs (increased from 3% under old Act)
- 9 Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities enforces compliance
When a visually impaired candidate applied for a government post requiring driving skills, the employer could not reject the application outright — under reasonable accommodation principles, the employer must assess whether the driving requirement is essential to the core job function or can be adjusted without undue hardship.