Often, ALJs will limit a morbidly obese claimant to sedentary jobs. You may be thinking, “Yeah, so what George? What’s wrong with that?”

The problem is that per BIFMA the standard office chair is tested to 275 pounds. So, a special chair is needed for a worker weighing 275 pounds or more. Modifying a job to enable a person with a disability to perform it, such as providing a special chair, is an ADA accommodation, and SSA cannot consider it. See SSR 11-2p § II(D)(1)(e)

“When we determine whether a person can do other work that exists in significant numbers in the national economy, we do not consider whether he or she could do so with accommodations, even if an employer would be required to provide reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.”

So, how would you deal with a limitation to sedentary jobs for a claimant who weigh over 275 pounds?

Ask the VE (or tell if they don’t know) if they aware that, per the CDC, the average weight of an adult male in the US is 197.9 pounds and the average weight of an adult female in the US is 170.6 pounds.

Ask, “What is the maximum weight a standard office chair must support without damage?” (If VE disputes, demand the precise source be provided, and a supplemental hearing if needed.)

Ask the VE, “Wouldn’t you agree that businesses don’t provide chairs for the maximum possible weight due to the great expense of bariatric chairs?”

And then finally ask, “Wouldn’t you agree that a bariatric chair is an ADA accommodation?”

You will also want to ask the VE to describe how the sedentary job(s) is/are actually performed.

And then ask, can’t morbid obesity interfere with the ability to reach a desk or workbench? Depending on the job, changing or rearranging the desk/workbench may be an ADA accommodation. (Remember the word “accommodate” and the concept of “accommodation” should only be used in the narrow technical ADA context.)

If necessary, post-hearing, get pictures of the work area(s) (as my wife says, Google is a wonderful thing), submit those as rebuttal evidence, and request a supplemental hearing.

For the morbidly obese even sedentary jobs can be impossible to perform. You want to make that clear in cross-examination.