When it is Reasonable for Europeans to be Confused: Understanding when a Disability Accommodation is “Reasonable” from a Comparative Perspective

The Employment Equality Directive, adopted by the European Community in 2000, resulted in radical revisions and extensions to the employment non-discrimination laws of all twenty-seven Member States. The Directive required Member States to legislate to prohibit employment discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, age, sexual orientation, and disability, and one consequence of this process has been the introduction of the concept of a "reasonable accommodation" in favor of disabled individuals into the national legal systems. This chapter considers how the Member States of the European Union have responded to this challenge. It reflects on the steps taken by a number of Member States to incorporate the reasonable accommodation obligation into their national law and, specifically, focuses on how the concept of "reasonableness" has been understood and interpreted. The chapter also discusses the different meanings that the term &s;&s;reasonable" is capable of conveying and establishes how various Member States have chosen to transpose the provision.