Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington

Re: employment law: disability

How many people work for your employer? If less than eight (including you), then you may be out of luck. If eight or more, the Washington Law Against Discrimination should apply. (The ADA, the analogous federal law, won't apply in this case, as your disability must be much more severe under federal law.)

Assuming the WLAD applies, your employer has to make "reasonable accommodation". That does not have to be the accomodation that you want, necessarily, though the courts encourage employers and employees to work together to hammer out solutions. In order to determine whether what you and what your employer propose is reasonable, an attorney would need to know more information about what kind of work you do, what is normal practice in your line of work, and so forth.

Assuming your proposal is reasonable and the employer's is not, you have several legal options open. Under the law, your employer cannot retaliate against you for insisting on your statutory rights. However, in practice, bringing a Washington Human Rights Commission complaint against your boss will likely sour the working relationship for a long while, if not permanently. You may want to talk to an employment law attorney about the relative reasonableness of the two proposals in the context of your particular situation, and what approach might have the best chance of getting a resolution for you without permanently spoiling your working environment.

Good luck.