After generations of being overlooked and sidelined in the job market, Americans with disabilities are enjoying an unprecedented employment boom — thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Television writer David Radcliff navigates his wheelchair over an electric cable channel at The Bloc shopping complex after rolling out of Metro’s 7th Street Station in Los Angeles, on Sept. 26, 2019.
Experts see a struggle coming with consequences not only for the disabled, but also for the whole U.S. economy. And the resolution may only come through legal battles and a fresh look at the nation’s landmark antidiscrimination law, the Americans With Disabilities Act. Up until the pandemic, Russell Rawlings, 45, who lives in Sacramento with cerebral palsy, was going into the office Monday through Friday working at a nonprofit independent living center.
Now — thanks largely to the widespread acceptance of remote working — he’s not only eliminated that difficult commute, but is also working in a position that gives him a greater sense of self-worth and accomplishment. After almost three years in which telework has been the norm, lawyers say it may be harder for an employer to justify refusing to let disabled employees work from home.
And even then, employees may have to live with an alternative arrangement other than regular telework, as Joseph Mobley learned. “Before the pandemic, a lot of employers were saying, ‘Hey, remote work for managers, uh-uh — it’s just not doable,’” said Ong. But “if somebody has been doing remote management, and doing it successfully, to then say it’s not reasonable is kind of a dangerous thing to say.”During the pandemic, millions of people stayed home from work because of underlying health conditions that made them more at risk of serious harm from contracting the virus.
Certainly, he said, “employers should not be able to simply say, ‘My personal taste is that you come into the office.’”reflecting workplace changes during the pandemic. But there are few hard and fast rules, underscoring how each request may differ from job to job and the specific circumstances of the worker and employer.
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