ADA in Texas: Accommodations, Service Animals, and Filing

The Americans with Disabilities Act in Texas works alongside two state statutes, the Texas Human Resources Code Chapter 121 and the Texas Labor Code Chapter 21, giving residents overlapping rights in employment, public access, housing, and government services.¹ Which law you rely on changes your filing deadline, your damages, and which agency hears your complaint, so the practical question is usually not whether you have a right but how to use it before the clock runs out.

What the Laws Actually Protect

Chapter 121 gives people with disabilities a broad right to use any public facility in the state on equal terms. That includes transportation of every kind, so a bus, train, airline, or other carrier operating in Texas cannot refuse a passenger because of a disability or charge extra for a service animal, wheelchair, or other assistive device.² It also reaches housing, where landlords cannot deny a rental or charge pet deposits for service animals, though tenants remain responsible for damage the animal causes beyond normal wear.

The statute specifically names “ruses or subterfuges” designed to discourage a person with a disability from entering a facility, and it requires reasonable adjustments to policies plus auxiliary aids like sign language interpreters or large-print materials when those are needed for full participation.² Service animals in training, accompanied by an approved trainer, are also protected.

Reasonable Accommodations at Work

Texas Labor Code Chapter 21 is the main state employment discrimination statute, enforced by the Texas Workforce Commission rather than the EEOC. It covers private employers with 15 or more employees working each day for at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or preceding year.³ Covered employers may not refuse a reasonable accommodation for an employee or applicant with a known physical or mental limitation unless they can show the accommodation would create an undue hardship.⁴

Accommodations take many forms: modified schedules, ergonomic equipment, reassignment to a vacant position, or adjustments to training. The point is to let the employee perform the essential functions of the job. An employer that makes a documented good-faith effort to work with the employee on a workable solution can shield itself from damages even if the process did not land on the employee’s first choice.⁴ The federal ADA imposes a parallel requirement on covered employers.⁵

Medical Questions During Hiring

Before a job offer, an employer may only ask whether you can perform the specific functions of the job, with or without accommodation. Broader questions about your medical history or disability status are off-limits at that stage.⁶

After a conditional offer, an employer may require a medical exam, but only if every person entering the same job category faces the same requirement. If the results are used to withdraw the offer, the employer must show the exclusion criteria are job-related and that the essential functions cannot be performed with reasonable accommodation. Medical information gathered this way must be kept in a separate confidential file, apart from the regular personnel records.⁶

What You Can Recover

Texas caps the combined compensatory and punitive damages in employment discrimination cases on a sliding scale tied to employer size: $50,000 for employers with fewer than 101 employees, $100,000 up to 200, $200,000 up to 500, and $300,000 above 500. Those caps cover items like emotional distress and punitive damages, not back pay or front pay, which are calculated separately.⁷

Service Animals in Public Places

Under the federal ADA, a service animal is a dog individually trained to perform work or tasks for a person with a disability. When it isn’t obvious the animal is a service animal, staff may ask only two questions: whether the animal is required because of a disability, and what task it has been trained to perform. They cannot demand certification, ask about the nature of the disability, or require the animal to demonstrate its task.

A business may ask that a service animal be removed only if the animal is out of control and the handler isn’t correcting it, or if the animal isn’t housebroken. Even then, the business must still serve the person without the animal. Breed-based restrictions do not apply to service animals, so municipalities with breed bans must make exceptions unless a specific animal poses a direct threat.

Chapter 121 protects both service animals and assistance animals in public facilities, transportation, and housing, and bars landlords from charging extra deposits for them.² Texas also criminalizes misrepresenting a pet as a service or assistance animal. The offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and 30 hours of community service, typically for an organization serving people with disabilities.⁸

Housing and Assistance Animals

The Fair Housing Act works alongside Chapter 121 for tenants. Housing providers must make reasonable accommodations in rules and policies, and the most common accommodation request is a waiver of no-pet rules and pet deposits for an assistance animal, including an emotional support animal, when there is a disability-related need.⁹ The Fair Housing Act’s definition of assistance animal is broader than the ADA’s service animal definition and can include animals other than dogs.

A housing provider may deny an assistance animal request only in narrow circumstances: a direct threat to others’ health or safety, significant property damage, a fundamental alteration to operations, or an undue financial burden.⁹ Tenants may also request physical modifications like grab bars or wider doorways. In private housing, the tenant usually pays. In federally assisted housing, the cost generally falls on the landlord.

Buildings, Parking, and Websites

Texas Government Code Chapter 469 requires buildings and facilities to meet the Texas Accessibility Standards, administered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.¹⁰ The rules cover publicly funded buildings built or renovated after January 1, 1970, state-leased buildings after January 1, 1972, and privately funded public accommodations and commercial facilities built or renovated after the early 1990s.¹¹ Buildings used primarily for religious rituals within a religious organization’s facility are exempt.

Accessible parking counts scale with lot size. A lot with 1 to 25 spaces needs 1 accessible space; 26 to 50 needs 2; 51 to 75 needs 3; 76 to 100 needs 4. From 101 up to 500 spaces, the required count climbs by one for each 100-space tier. Lots of 501 to 1,000 spaces must dedicate 2 percent to accessible parking, and lots over 1,000 need 20 plus one more for every 100 beyond 1,000. At least one of every six accessible spaces must be van-accessible, with wider access aisles.¹²

Government Websites

A Department of Justice final rule published in April 2024 requires state and local government websites and mobile apps to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.1, Level AA. Governments serving 50,000 or more people must comply by April 24, 2026; smaller governments and special district governments have until April 26, 2027. Limited exceptions apply for archived content created before the compliance date, password-protected individualized documents, third-party content, and preexisting social media posts, plus a general exception where compliance would cause a fundamental alteration or undue burden.¹³ Private businesses face no specific federal technical standard for their websites yet, though ADA Title III lawsuits over website accessibility are common and courts often look to WCAG as a benchmark.

Deadlines Decide Most Cases

This is where most disability discrimination claims die. Under Texas Labor Code Chapter 21, you have 180 days from the discriminatory act to file with the Texas Workforce Commission. Miss that window and the TWC will dismiss outright.¹⁴

Because Texas has a state enforcement agency, the EEOC deadline extends to 300 calendar days from the discriminatory act.¹⁵ That longer window applies only to the federal filing. It does not extend the Texas 180-day deadline. Filing with either agency generally preserves your rights under both laws through worksharing agreements.¹⁶

How to File

A written complaint must include your name and contact information, the identity of the employer or entity, and enough detail that the investigator can determine jurisdiction, timeliness, and whether the facts describe discrimination.¹⁷ Build a chronological timeline, because the 180-day deadline runs from each specific incident. Medical records confirming your disability and witness statements make a complaint considerably stronger.

For employment discrimination, file with the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division by mail or electronically.¹⁸ The mailing address is P.O. Box 13006, Austin, Texas 78711-3006. If your complaint is about architectural barriers in a building, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation handles those separately.¹⁰

You can dual-file with the EEOC at the same time. Under the worksharing agreement, a charge filed with one agency is automatically shared with the other, and one takes the lead on investigation. There is no need to physically file in two places.¹⁶

What Happens Next

The agency assigns a charge number for tracking. You may be invited to voluntary mediation. The EEOC’s mediation is free and confidential, often wraps up in a single session, and keeps nothing said during the process from reaching investigators or attorneys if the parties do not settle.¹⁹ The EEOC reports that 96 percent of participants would use mediation again.

If mediation is declined or fails, the case moves to formal investigation. The agency then issues a determination on whether there is reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred. If the agency declines to act or does not resolve the charge, you receive a Notice of Right to Sue. That gives you 90 days to file suit, and courts enforce the deadline strictly.

Retaliation Is a Separate Claim

Federal law prohibits anyone from retaliating against a person who files a disability discrimination charge, testifies in an investigation, or otherwise takes part in ADA proceedings.²⁰ Retaliation reaches well beyond firing. Demotions, suspensions, negative reviews, heightened scrutiny, or reassignment to less desirable work can all qualify. Asking for a reasonable accommodation is itself protected activity, so an employer who punishes you for the request has a separate legal problem.

You generally need to show that the employer knew about your protected activity and that the negative action followed because of it. Suspicious timing is the usual evidence. A retaliation charge must be filed within 300 days of the retaliatory act with the EEOC, or within 180 days with the TWC.¹⁴

Tax Credits for Businesses Improving Access

Two federal tax provisions help Texas businesses offset accessibility costs. The Disabled Access Credit under IRC Section 44 lets eligible small businesses claim a credit equal to 50 percent of eligible access expenditures between $250 and $10,250 per year, for a maximum annual credit of $5,000. To qualify, the business must have had gross receipts under $1 million in the prior year or no more than 30 full-time employees.²¹

IRC Section 190 separately allows any business, regardless of size, to deduct up to $15,000 per year for removing architectural and transportation barriers at existing facilities.²² A qualifying small business can combine them, using the Section 44 credit for the first $10,250 and the Section 190 deduction for costs above that.

1
ADA.gov. Introduction to the Americans with Disabilities Act
2
State of Texas. Texas Human Resources Code HUM RES 121.003
3
Texas Workforce Commission. Thresholds for Coverage Under Employment-Related Laws
4
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Section 21.128 – Reasonable Accommodation; Good Faith Effort
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12112 – Discrimination
6
eCFR. 29 CFR 1630.14 – Medical Examinations and Inquiries Specifically Permitted
7
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Section 21.2585 – Compensatory and Punitive Damages
8
State of Texas. Texas Human Resources Code HUM RES 121.006
9
HUD.gov. Assistance Animals
10
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Elimination of Architectural Barriers
11
Justia Law. Texas Government Code Chapter 469 – Elimination of Architectural Barriers
12
ADA.gov. Accessible Parking Spaces
13
ADA.gov. Fact Sheet – New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps
14
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Section 21.202 – Statute of Limitations
15
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
16
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fair Employment Practices Agencies (FEPAs) and Dual Filing
17
Texas Workforce Commission. Discrimination Complaint Procedures
18
Texas Workforce Commission. Civil Rights Division
19
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 10 Reasons to Mediate
20
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12203 – Prohibition Against Retaliation and Coercion
21
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 44 – Expenditures to Provide Access to Disabled Individuals
22
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 190 – Expenditures to Remove Architectural and Transportation Barriers to the Handicapped and Elderly