How long do I have to file a disability discrimination claim?

Pin down the date of the act, not the date you gave up

Disability cases rarely feel like a single event. A request goes in, nothing happens, a manager says he will look into it, weeks pass, the schedule never changes. Then one day the job is gone. Workers often date their claim to the last of those moments, and that is where windows get lost.

The EEOC's rule is that you generally file "within 180 calendar days from the day the discrimination took place." Harassment is the one situation the agency calls out as different, where the clock runs from the last incident of harassment even though earlier incidents still get investigated.

So write down the specific dates: when you asked, in what form, who answered, what they said, and when the refusal or the demotion or the termination actually landed. If you are unsure which of those dates started your clock, treat the earliest one as the real deadline and get advice quickly. That is the conservative reading, and it is the one that protects you.

Sources [1]

180 or 300 days with the EEOC?

The federal window opens at 180 days and stretches to 300 "if a state or local agency enforces a law that prohibits employment discrimination on the same basis." Disability is a listed basis in all four of the states this firm practices in, and each has an enforcing agency, so the 300-day figure is the one that normally applies here.

The ADA reaches private employers with 15 or more employees. Below that line there is no federal claim, and the state statute is the whole case. That changes which deadline you are really working against, which is why the state windows below are not a footnote.

Before you rely on either number, check who signs your paycheck. Neither 180 nor 300 days belongs to someone employed by a federal agency, or to someone who applied for a federal job. The EEOC puts that group on a separate track and says they generally must contact an agency EEO Counselor within 45 days, with an extension possible in certain circumstances. It is easy to lose 45 days while you are counting toward 300. If a federal agency is your employer, find your agency EEO office now rather than after you finish reading.

Sources [1] · [2] · [3] · [4] · [5] · [6]

State windows, and the smaller employers they reach

California: three years to file with the Civil Rights Department. California also covers employers with five or more employees, well below the ADA's fifteen, so a small-employer accommodation case can be a state case only.

Texas: 180 days, and the statute directs the commission to dismiss an untimely complaint. Texas covers employers with 15 or more employees for the general discrimination provisions.

Washington: six months to file with the Human Rights Commission, but understand what filing means there. The commission's process begins with an intake questionnaire, then commission staff draft a perfected charge that you sign and return, and the commission says all of that must happen inside the limitations period to protect your filing rights. It also warns of an eight-to-ten-week backlog before a new complaint reaches an intake investigator. Treat the signature date, not the questionnaire date, as the one that has to land inside six months. Washington's definition of employer reaches anyone employing eight or more persons, and the commission says the same. Washington also allows an injured person to bring a civil action directly.

Nevada: 300 days to file with the Equal Rights Commission. Nevada defines employer as a person with 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year.

Colorado: 300 days to file with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, extended from six months by a 2022 law. CADA covers employers of all sizes, so a small-employer accommodation case the ADA's fifteen-employee minimum cannot reach can still be a Colorado case.

Sources [7] · [8] · [4] · [9] · [10] · [11] · [12] · [6] · [13] · [14] · [15]

What the accommodation duty actually requires

Most of these states put the duty in the statute in terms you can hold an employer to, and Colorado's CADA adds an accommodation duty that reaches employers of all sizes.

California makes it unlawful to fail to make reasonable accommodation for a known disability, and separately unlawful to "fail to engage in a timely, good faith, interactive process" once accommodation is requested. California also makes it unlawful to retaliate against someone for requesting an accommodation "regardless of whether the request was granted."

Texas makes it unlawful to fail or refuse to make a reasonable workplace accommodation to a known physical or mental limitation of an otherwise qualified individual, unless the employer shows undue hardship.

Washington's chapter prohibits unfair practices by employers on the basis of disability, and Nevada defines disability to include a record of an impairment and being regarded as having one, so a claim does not depend on a current diagnosis alone.

The practical point for deadlines: a refusal you can date is worth more than a vague sense that nothing ever happened. Ask in writing, and keep the answer.

One thing a fresh request will not reliably do is buy you more time. If your employer already gave you a clear no, asking again later may produce a second dated denial without reviving a window that has already closed on the first one. Do not assume that a renewed request, the fact that you are still affected today, a period of medical leave, or a long back-and-forth with HR moves your deadline. The EEOC says outright that its time limits generally will not be extended while you try to resolve the dispute in another forum such as an internal grievance procedure, a union grievance, arbitration, or mediation.

So calculate from the earliest refusal you can identify, not the most recent one, and treat that as the real date until a lawyer who has seen your paperwork tells you otherwise. Renewing the request in writing is still worth doing. Do it because it may create a new act you can also challenge and because it forces a clear answer, not because you believe it resets anything.

Sources [1] · [3] · [4] · [6]