ADA hiring basics for recruiters, from interview questions to job offers

ADA hiring basics for recruiters start with one rule. Do not ask about disabilities or medical history before a job offer. Beyond that, provide reasonable accommodation during the hiring process when a candidate needs it, and judge people on whether they can do the essential functions of the job. Those principles shape everything from how you write a job post to how you set up a video interview.

This guide covers the federal Americans with Disabilities Act in plain terms. It is general guidance, not legal advice. Many states and cities have their own disability laws, and some reach smaller employers or add extra rules, so check with your legal team before you change a process. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces the employment side of the ADA and publishes free guidance for employers.

What does the ADA cover in hiring?

The federal ADA generally applies to employers with 15 or more employees. It protects qualified people with disabilities from discrimination at every stage of employment, including recruiting, screening, interviewing, testing, and offers.

A "qualified" candidate meets the legitimate requirements of the job, such as a required license or years of experience. That person must also be able to perform the essential functions of the role, with or without reasonable accommodation. Essential functions are the core duties the job exists to do, not tasks someone happens to pick up now and then.

For a recruiter, the law touches four parts of the daily work:

• What you write in job posts and requirements
• What you ask in screens and interviews
• How you run the application, assessment, and interview steps
• What happens between the offer and the start date

If you work at a staffing agency, both the agency and the client can carry responsibility. Agree with each client ahead of time on who handles accommodation requests for the candidates you submit.

What can you ask candidates before a job offer?

Before an offer, you can ask about a person's ability to do the job. You cannot ask whether they have a disability or what it is. For any question, a quick check is whether it is about the work or about the person's body and medical history.

Attendance is a gray area. You can ask whether a candidate can meet your schedule and whether they met the attendance policy at their last job. Asking about sick leave or why someone missed days crosses the line.

Visible or disclosed disabilities are the other gray area. If a candidate has an obvious disability, or tells you about one, and you reasonably think they may need an accommodation to do the job, you can generally ask how they would perform a specific job function. Keep the question on that function. Do not ask about the condition itself.

If you are building a screening question bank, run every question through the table above. Our list of pre-screening interview questions and what each one tells you gives you a starting set to check.

When are medical exams and health questions allowed?

The ADA splits hiring into stages, and the rules change at each one.

A conditional offer is a real offer that depends on the result of the exam or questions. If you pull an offer after a medical exam, the reason has to be job-related and consistent with business necessity, and you should consider whether an accommodation would let the person do the job. That decision belongs with HR and legal, not with the recruiter alone.

Any medical information you collect must be kept confidential and stored separately from the general personnel file. Do not paste it into ATS notes or email threads with hiring managers.

Tests for illegal drug use are generally not treated as medical exams under the ADA. State rules on drug testing vary a lot, especially around cannabis, so check with your legal team before you add or change a drug test.

How should you handle accommodation requests during hiring?

Reasonable accommodation applies to the hiring process itself, not only to the job. A candidate who is deaf may need captions or an interpreter for a live interview. A candidate with a motor disability may need more time on a timed assessment. If the change is reasonable, make it, and do not ask the candidate to prove more than necessary.

Step 1: tell candidates how to ask

Put a short accommodation statement in every job post and in each interview or assessment invitation. Here is one you can adapt:

Send requests to a real inbox that someone checks every business day. If candidates write in and hear nothing back, the statement has done more harm than good.

Step 2: respond quickly and ask only what you need

Reply within one business day if you can, and ask what change would help. In most cases the candidate's description is enough to act on. If the disability and the need are not obvious, your HR or legal team may be able to ask for limited documentation. Do not ask for a diagnosis in an email reply.

Step 3: make the change and keep it private

Pause or extend any deadline while you sort out the request. Log that an accommodation was given and what it was, but keep the details out of the scorecard and away from interviewers who do not need them. Evaluate the candidate on the same criteria as everyone else.

Common accommodations at each hiring stage

Most requests in hiring are simple changes to how or when a step happens. These are examples recruiters see often.

How do video interviews and online assessments fit in?

One-way video interviews and timed assessments help at volume, but each step is a place where a candidate could get stuck. Walk through your own setup as if you were applying.

Timers cause the most trouble. A 60-second answer limit can be unfair to someone who stutters or uses assistive technology. Offer a way to get more time, and say so in the invitation. In DeepHire, recruiters set the time limit and the number of takes for each question, so giving one candidate a longer limit or extra takes is a settings change rather than a new process.

Candidates who rely on a particular phone or tablet setup should be able to use it. Our mobile friendly job application checklist covers many of the same access points, such as buttons big enough to tap and forms that work on small screens.

Scoring needs the same attention. Rate the content of each answer against job criteria, not eye contact, speaking pace, facial expressions, or background. Those traits can reflect a disability and usually say nothing about job skill. A written hourly candidate scorecard with set criteria for each question keeps reviewers focused on what the person said.

If a vendor uses automated scoring or AI analysis of video or voice, ask how it works and how a candidate can request an alternative. Some states and cities have their own rules on automated hiring tools, so check with your legal team.

How to write job posts that do not screen people out

A requirement that sounds harmless can exclude qualified people with disabilities if it does not reflect the actual work. Check each line of a post against what the job really involves.

• Describe the outcome, not the method. "Move inventory between stations" is better than "must walk the warehouse floor all day" if a person could do it another way.
• Drop default lines such as "must be able to lift 50 pounds" from desk jobs where nobody lifts anything.
• List a driver's license only if driving is part of the job, not just a way to get to work.
• Separate essential functions from nice-to-have tasks. Ask the hiring manager which duties the job could not exist without.
• Include your accommodation statement and a working contact.

Keep a copy of the essential functions for each role. If a hiring decision is ever questioned, a written list made before the search started is much better evidence than one written afterward.

A quick ADA checklist for your hiring process

Run through this list once a quarter, or any time you add a new tool or stage.

1. Every job post lists essential functions and an accommodation contact.
2. Screening and interview questions ask about job abilities, not health or disability.
3. Interviewers and hiring managers know which questions to avoid, including small talk about visible conditions.
4. Timed steps have a clear way to request more time.
5. Every online step, video interviews included, works with screen readers and on mobile devices.
6. Accommodation requests get a reply within one business day and pause any deadline.
7. Medical exams and health questions happen only after a conditional offer and are given to everyone in the job category.
8. Medical information is stored separately and never appears in ATS notes or scorecards.
9. Staffing agencies have agreed with each client on who handles accommodation requests.
10. Your legal team has reviewed the state and local rules that apply where you hire.