How to request an accommodation at Walmart, and what the form decides

An accommodation request at Walmart is a defined process with a defined route, and most of the worry comes from not knowing either one. You have a diagnosis, or a restriction from your provider. Something at work has to change: the schedule, the lifting, a stool at the register, a different task for a while.

This is the accommodation route, not the leave route. If what you need is time away, that paperwork runs through Sedgwick and is covered in what the Sedgwick certification must say.

What counts as an accommodation at Walmart?

Under the ADA, a reasonable accommodation is a change to how a job is done, or to the workplace, so that a person with a disability can do the job. The rules come from the EEOC's enforcement guidance on reasonable accommodation, and they apply at Walmart the same way they apply at any covered employer.

The public language around Walmart's own policy is a little different. Its June 2018 announcement, summarised by A Better Balance, was about pregnant associates, and it named three things they may ask for: "job adjustments, reasonable accommodations, and now, Temporary Alternative Duty." The first two are ordinary accommodation vocabulary; the third was, at that point, being opened to pregnancy. Three terms. They overlap, but they aren't the same thing.

Certicare is a telehealth service where a state-licensed provider completes and signs the medical paperwork an accommodation request may call for, after an evaluation.

A job adjustment

Walmart's announcement lists job adjustments first and doesn't define them publicly. On the floor, the term usually means the small change a manager can make without a case: a stool, a swapped task, a different register for the shift.

Nothing is written down, so an adjustment can disappear with the next schedule. That's the argument for a formal request whenever the need is going to last.

A reasonable accommodation

This is the ADA term, and the formal one. The examples the EEOC gives across its ADA and PWFA materials include extra breaks, schedule changes, equipment changes, temporary reassignment, light duty, and leave.

The employer chooses among the options that actually work for your limitation. It doesn't have to pick the one you'd prefer, but an alternative only counts if it's effective. Leave taken as an accommodation is its own analysis, with no length-of-service test, so someone in their first month can ask.

Temporary Alternative Duty

Temporary Alternative Duty, or TAD, is Walmart's name for temporary light-duty work. A Better Balance describes it as "a program that, in most states, Walmart has previously reserved only for workers with on-the-job injuries," and the 2018 change opened it to pregnant associates. The examples named were "Light duty or a temporary transfer to a less physically demanding position" and "Breaks to drink water."

Whether temporary light duty reaches a restriction that comes from neither a work injury nor a pregnancy is covered in Walmart restrictions and light duty.

Where does the request go?

The EEOC's position is that a request doesn't have to mention the ADA, use the words "reasonable accommodation," or be in writing. Its own example is an employee telling her supervisor she's having trouble getting to work on time. Telling your manager that a condition means you can't lift the way the job needs you to can be the request.

That's the legal answer. The practical one is that a conversation on the floor leaves no record and doesn't route anywhere. Walmart's own public pages name who to tell. The terms page on its careers site says a current associate may "notify your manager or People Partner," and its ethics page says that if a manager refuses an accommodation, "You should report the incident to management, your People Lead or Ethics & Compliance." Opening a case puts a date on the request and sends it to the people who decide it.

The formal decision isn't made in the store. Federal court records from cases decided in 2020, 2023 and 2025 describe Walmart's process the same way. A 2025 order from the District of Kansas says managers can make a job adjustment on the spot, and if more is needed, Walmart's policy "instructs managers to direct the employee to Walmart's Accommodation Service Center to formally request an accommodation." That center, which Walmart's own pages spell both Accommodation and Accommodations Service Center, and associates call the ASC, "first requests information from the employee by mailing him or her an accommodation packet that includes, among other things, a medical questionnaire," and once it has what it needs, "it will decide how to process and/or address the request."

The EEOC put the same point more bluntly in a 2023 appellate brief, drawing on Walmart's own testimony: "No accommodation request can be denied at the store level; instead, only Walmart's Accommodations Service Center can deny a requested accommodation." A manager saying no is not the decision. It's the point where the formal route begins.

In practice the case often opens through Sedgwick. A 2025 federal order in California describes Sedgwick as the vendor that "processes the majority of" Walmart associates' "requests for accommodations and personal leaves." Whichever letterhead your packet arrives on, that letter is the route your case is on, and its instructions govern.

Say it plainly, and say it once more in writing. A short message to your People Lead that names the limitation and the change you're asking for is enough to start. Keep a copy.

Certicare is not affiliated with Walmart. Walmart makes the final decision on leave and accommodation requests. This page is general information about the leave process, not legal advice.

What does your provider have to fill out?

The paperwork is what the decision gets made from, so it's worth knowing what it has to say. An accommodation form is mostly about function. The employer may ask for enough to establish that a disability exists, but the working content is what you can and can't do. It ties your limitation to the tasks of your job: how much you can lift, how long you can stand, whether you need a break at set intervals, which tasks are affected.

It also has to say how long. Temporary or permanent, and if temporary, roughly until when. A restriction with no end date and no task attached to it is the kind that comes back with questions.

The EEOC sets the limits on what Walmart can ask for. When the disability or the need isn't obvious, the employer may request documentation. It may not ask for documentation unrelated to whether you have a disability and whether the accommodation is necessary. Your full chart isn't the ask; a provider's statement about what you can and can't do is.

Your manager doesn't get your diagnosis. The 2025 California order describes Sedgwick notifying the store that a request was made and passing along only the work restrictions that were approved, not the condition behind them. What reaches the floor is the restriction, which is one more reason the restriction has to be written in terms the floor can act on.

This is the part Certicare handles. A state-licensed provider reviews your situation, then completes and signs Certicare's workplace accommodation paperwork, tying each restriction to the job task it affects. Court records name the form. The same 2025 California order says the associate receives "an accommodation packet containing a medical questionnaire and medical release," and a 2020 Wisconsin order calls it the "Accommodation Medical Questionnaire," handed over for the associate's physician to complete. That questionnaire is what people mean when they search for the Walmart medical questionnaire.

One thing this section is not. If you're requesting a leave of absence rather than a change at work, Sedgwick sends a different certification with its own rules, and those are covered in what the Sedgwick certification must say.

How long does it take?

There is no public Walmart timeline for an accommodation decision, and this page won't invent one. Anyone quoting a number is quoting a case they remember.

What exists is the federal expectation. The EEOC's guidance says an employer "should respond expeditiously to a request for reasonable accommodation," that the interactive process "should proceed as quickly as possible," and that "unnecessary delays can result in a violation of the ADA." That's a standard, not a date, and it gets judged on the record.

So build the record. Note the date you first asked, the date you opened the case, the date the paperwork went in, and every message back. If the case sends you a letter with a due date in it, that date is real and overrides anything here.

While it's pending, keep working to the last confirmed instruction, inside your provider's restrictions. A pending request doesn't make unsafe work safe: if a task falls outside your restriction, say so and ask, in writing, what you should do in the meantime.

What if it's denied?

A denial isn't always a flat no. What the letter actually says matters more than the word, and the three common shapes call for different responses.

Filing a discrimination charge with the EEOC is a different step entirely, with its own filing deadline, and it sits outside Walmart's process. Whether to take it is a legal question, and this page isn't legal advice.

They offered something different

The EEOC's guidance says an employer need not provide your preferred accommodation as long as it provides an effective one. The test is whether the alternative works for the limitation on your form.

If it does, that's an approval in different clothes. If it doesn't, say so in writing, in terms of the tasks: "it still requires lifting" is more useful than "I don't like it."

They said undue hardship

Undue hardship means significant difficulty or expense, and it's decided case by case. It's a judgment about this store, this role, and this request, not a blanket rule.

Ask in writing what change would be approved. A specific answer is something your provider can respond to.

What you need is time off

Leave is a recognised reasonable accommodation under the ADA, with no length-of-service test. It's a separate ask from a schedule change or a stool, and it goes through a different set of paperwork.

If the accommodation route ends and what you actually need is time away, start with leave at Walmart when you're not FMLA-eligible.

Can you be written up while it's pending?

The honest answer: it depends, and no form makes a job untouchable. The ADA requires employers to consider reasonable accommodation for a qualifying disability, and pregnancy-related restrictions fall under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, in effect since 2023. Whether those protections cover your situation is a legal question, and this page is not legal advice.

The ADA prohibits retaliating against you for requesting an accommodation. The EEOC's retaliation guidance puts it directly: "A request for reasonable accommodation of a disability constitutes protected activity under the ADA, and therefore retaliation for such requests is unlawful." Whether a particular write-up counts as retaliation is a question of facts, timing, and record, and nobody can answer it from a forum thread.

Attendance and accommodation are different systems. An open accommodation case doesn't pause the attendance policy; that policy is on One Walmart, and your attendance record is what it's applied to. If the accommodation is a schedule change and the write-up is for attendance, you're in the pattern described in leave approved but still getting points.

Keep a dated record: the request, the case number, every letter, every write-up. If a request and a write-up land close together, the dates are the evidence.

Certicare's part in this is narrow. A state-licensed provider completes and signs the form that describes your limitation and ties it to your job. Walmart decides the rest.