Your migraine log already reads like an ADA accommodation request.

The FMLA form is approved. The overhead lights are still on.

The FMLA certification came back approved. Intermittent leave, signed by your neurologist, filed with HR. Then Tuesday arrives. You're at your desk at 9 a.m. under the same overhead panels, one day after an attack, and your brain is still buffering.

The leave covered the day you couldn't come in. Nothing covers the day after.

That day is postdrome, and for plenty of employed migraineurs it's where the job actually gets hard: word retrieval that lags, light that still stings, a neck that won't turn, fatigue that doesn't care about the standup. FMLA was never designed to fix any of that. A different law was.

FMLA protects your job. The ADA changes how you do it.

FMLA and the ADA are separate federal instruments, and you can hold both at the same time. FMLA gives eligible workers unpaid, job-protected time away. Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations: changes to when, where, or how the work gets done, so a qualified employee can keep doing it.

Call your evidence for the second one the function file. It's the record of what a migraine stops you from doing, and when, including the hours after the pain has gone. An accommodation request runs on exactly that. And a log that tracks the after-phase has most of it written already.

The two laws also reach different workplaces and different workers, so check which apply to you before drafting anything.

Why a diagnosis letter alone stalls

The usual move is to hand HR a clinician's note that says 'chronic migraine' and wait. It rarely goes anywhere fast. A diagnosis confirms a condition exists, but it says nothing about what should change on Monday, so the conversation stalls while someone in HR guesses.

Then there's the objection you've probably heard in some form: you seem fine most days. Congress addressed that directly. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 says an impairment that's episodic counts as a disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active. Migraine is about as episodic as conditions get.

So the limitation lives inside the episodes. Your evidence has to live there too, including the tail end most trackers never record.

What does HR actually need for a migraine accommodation?

Less than you'd think, and more specific than you'd guess. Under EEOC guidance, a request doesn't have to be in writing or use the words 'ADA' or 'reasonable accommodation.' Telling your employer you need a change at work for a reason related to a medical condition is enough to start what the EEOC calls the interactive process.

When the need isn't obvious, the employer can ask for documentation. But the EEOC limits that to what establishes the disability and the need for accommodation. They aren't entitled to your complete medical record, and whatever they receive has to be kept confidential and separate from your personnel file.

For the accommodation itself, the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), funded by the Department of Labor, publishes migraine-specific options: lighting changes, flexible scheduling, telework, rest breaks, noise and fragrance reduction. Useful list. It still takes your own log to say which of them fit you.

Turning log entries into limitation language

Picture a month in a postdrome-inclusive log. Three attacks. After each one, a day or two of residual photophobia and brain fog that's worst in the morning, plus neck stiffness that makes a long commute miserable.

Read as a headache diary, that's three entries. Read as a function file, it's four separate requests, each tied to something specific the log already shows.

What to put in the request, and what to leave out

1. Summarize the pattern, not the pile. A few months of attack frequency and after-phase duration beats a raw export. Don't hand HR your whole log. 2. Name limitations in functional terms. 'Reduced tolerance for overhead fluorescent light for a day after an attack' gives HR something to act on. 'Migraines' doesn't. 3. Pair each limitation with one specific change. Propose it yourself. A concrete ask is easier to approve than a blank one. 4. Show the summary to your clinician first, so their documentation matches what you're requesting. 5. Put it in writing anyway. It isn't required, but a dated email records when the interactive process started. 6. Bring a second choice. The employer can pick among effective options, so have a fallback for each limitation.

Why the after-phase has to be in the record

A tracker that stops when the headache stops produces a record that says 'attack, Tuesday' and goes quiet. That silence is where an accommodation request lives: the slow Wednesday morning, the screen you had to dim, the commute you couldn't face.

Postdrome logs migraine as one continuous timeline, from prodrome through the after-phase, with residual photophobia, brain fog, and neck stiffness captured as they happen. Aura Mode keeps logging usable when you can't see straight. Your data stays on your device and exports only when you decide to share it, which matters when the reader is someone in HR.

Your employer doesn't need to believe you're sick. They need to see what the day after looks like. Write it down while it's happening.