30
Oktober
2025

Reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities ECtHR and CJEU case-Law

This factsheet summarises key Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) cases on reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. Building on Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the courts address employment, physical accessibility, and education. In collaboration, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and the European Court of Human Rights produced this short publication. It is designed to aid lawyers and policymakers in understanding and applying the jurisprudence in this area.
Overview

Reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities has been defined in Article 2 of the UNCRPD as “necessary and appropriate modifications and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field”. 

Both the CJEU and the ECtHR have adopted that definition and have considered that a failure to fulfil the obligation to take appropriate measures for the reasonable accommodation of persons with disabilities amounts to discriminatory treatment. 

The fulfilment of this obligation can take several forms. Both European courts have held that it is not their task to define the measures to be implemented, the resources to be allocated nor the form which the reasonable accommodation should take. It is considered that national courts are better placed to do so. 

The applicability of this obligation depends on the field of application and the scope of the texts on which it is based. Therefore, the case-law has developed in different areas in EU law and in ECHR law. While the CJEU has only examined cases in the field of employment, the ECtHR has rather had to deal with cases related to accessibility of the physical environment and education.