HHS’ Office for Civil Rights resolved a complaint filed against Staten Island University Hospital by a bearded medical student who requested to use alternate PPE instead of shaving his beard, due to religious observation. In this case, the student was able to utilize a power air-purifying respirator—PAPR—instead of an N95 mask, the use of which would have required him to shave his beard. The OCR found that the request for PAPR use fit as a reasonable accommodation under employment law for a protected right (religious).