Accommodating Disabilities in Remote & Hybrid Work

Originally published in Forbes by Laurel Farrer

For the past half-century, national laws and innovative architectural design features have ensured that professionals of all physical ability levels are equipped to equally participate in workplace environments. But now that hybrid is the new normal, it means that at least half of workers’ time is spent outside of those carefully controlled environments. This leaves advocates to wonder: Are the needs of professionals with disabilities considered and cared for as much in a virtual or hybrid work environment as they were in the office?    

An estimated 1 in 5 people globally have a diagnosed disability. One of the many benefits of remote work is greater location and schedule flexibility to accommodate those with disabilities, including mobility challenges, sensory impairments, and the neurodiverse. This builds higher employment rates and supports a more inclusive and diverse workforce. We’ve even seen this in action recently — mass adoption of remote work since the pandemic has expanded employment opportunities for people with disabilities. However, as many companies return to the office with a new hybrid workplace model, it’s important to consider how these decisions affect team members with disabilities. It’s possible that current remote work policy decisions may not be supporting inclusivity and equal employee experience for all staff members. To prevent that risk, evaluate these three categories to prevent ableism in your distributed team:  

In-Person Requirements

Temperature Check: Does your remote work policy allow an employee with disabilities to qualify for higher workplace flexibility or an on-site mandate exemption?  

For people with disabilities, tasks like daily grooming and commuting can add strain and complexity to the day, contributing to increased personal stress and safety risks. If your hybrid model requires all team members to work from a shared office space one or more days per week, consider allowing a fully-remote reasonable accommodation for any team members with disabilities. It’s important to not assume that team members with disabilities don’t want to come to the office, so communicating that you’ll support this option if they’d like to exercise it, may be the most supportive offer, so you don’t unintentionally exclude people with disabilities. 

Additionally, remember that if you have only one team member working remotely full time, you are still a remote team. If this is the case, ensure that you’ve updated your rituals and cultural touch points to be remote-first, fully supported on virtual channels, enabling equal participation regardless where people work.

Digital Infrastructure

Temperature Check: Have all of the tools in your software infrastructure been audited for digital accessibility, and has all staff been trained on virtual inclusion guidelines?  

The tools you use are only as good as your team’s ability to utilize them to make their jobs easier. When it comes to creating equal access for team members with disabilities, it’s important to audit your software stack for things like closed captioning, recording capability, text-to-speech translation, and searchability. Once you’ve confirmed you have tools with the proper capabilities, train your team on how to use them and document the requirements in your flexibility policy and communication charter to help enforce proper usage. 

Your digital infrastructure creates the foundation for location-independent collaboration and asynchronous communication. Limit meetings as much as possible to allow for your entire team, including people with disabilities, to avoid the infamous “zoom fatigue” and attend to personal needs with more consistency and fluidity.

Home Office Setups

Temperature Check: Is your organization providing training, stipends, and/or supplies to support safety, productivity, and customization of home offices? 

Providing guidelines for home office safety and equipment setup is vital to support productivity, wellbeing, and reduce risk of injury for all team members. For those with disabilities — whether physical, sensory, or neurodiverse — needs are unique and should be attended to in a personalized manner to be most supportive. Proper lighting that creates a calm and productive environment can be helpful to those with sensory impairments and the neurodiverse. For people with physical disabilities, access in the home to dedicated office spaces with proper wheelchair accessibility or ergonomic support could be a logistical challenge or an expensive update. Check in with all staff members individually to confirm they have the equipment they need. 

As an employer, allocating budgets for home office stipends is quickly becoming a workforce expectation. It’s essential to invest in the occupational health and safety of your human capital, and even more important to ensure team members with disabilities have the foundation they need for equal performance potential.  

HR and Accommodation Resources

Temperature Check: Is the privacy and anonymity of your team members supported in the qualification and approval process for workplace flexibility programs?

People with disabilities are not required to disclose them, so it’s important to build supportive policies regardless of if you are aware of team members with disabilities. As companies return to the office, many executives are delegating the responsibility of flexibility scheduling and request approval to mid-level managers. If all requests are approved at this level, it could compromise the privacy of the affected employee, and unnecessarily disclose their condition to their peers. 

In addition to confirming that your remote work policy includes an outline of the process for requesting a fully-remote arrangement or changes to in-person requirements, how digital tools and usage practices supports those with disabilities, and how to request adaptive home office equipment, make sure it also has an option for discussing flexibility options with a HR representative instead of a direct supervisor. This will ensure their internal information security and reduce the burden of advocating and educating for individuals with disabilities. If individuals have disclosed their disability, ask if they could be a resource for reviewing policy decisions so their voice and experience is incorporated. 

Remote and hybrid organizations can expand equal employment for professionals with disabilities through intentional policies and disability inclusive culture. In addition to boosting overall Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion visions, organizations who incorporate disability inclusion in remote work policies and virtual operations also have the potential to broaden their talent pool and retaining top talent by encouraging the participation of an underrepresented — and often highly competent segment — of the global workforce. 

Have you updated your remote work policies for diversity, equity, and inclusion?

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