PHILADELPHIA — Since Rodney Whitmore suffered a gunshot wound in 1995, he has needed help getting around. Since then, he has experienced firsthand the difficulties of navigating a world that is not designed with wheelchair users in mind.
One of the challenges is holding down a job, even one in an office. For someone living with a physical disability, the morning commute itself can be an insurmountable challenge. An overcrowded bus or a broken elevator can be a nuisance for many travelers, but an impossibility for someone who needs help getting around.
Whitmore, who lives in South Philadelphia, works for Liberty Resources, a disability services and advocacy organization, where she has long seen the people she works with struggle to find a place in the job market. But since the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting increase in remote work, it has seen an increase in employment among members of the organization.
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“Remote work from home, hybrid work from home, gave them a greater sense of hope,” Whitmore said. “It is a change of attitude, a change of lifestyle. “Now you have something to look forward to, instead of just waiting for a monthly SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) check.”
Now, as some employers like Amazon and the city of Philadelphia return to fully in-person employment, Whitmore and other advocates hope the blessing of remote work for workers with disabilities is not forgotten. (Historically, help from the Americans with Disabilities Act has been limited in this regard, because companies won court cases before the pandemic that determined that employers are not required to adopt accommodations such as remote work.)
A new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research last month shows that Whitmore’s observation is part of a national trend. Researchers from California and Sweden found a dramatic increase in employment among Americans with disabilities since 2019 that is not reflected in any other demographic category of gender, race, age or education.
In 2020, people without disabilities had employment rates of almost 80%, while only 32% of people with disabilities were employed. Pre-pandemic employment trends between the two groups mirror each other, despite the wide chasm between them.
But after COVID, employment among people with disabilities increased by 12.4%, while employment among people without disabilities remained constant.
The researchers find that this increase in employment is largely correlated with the increase in remote work, and that the increase in employment among Americans with physical disabilities is primarily concentrated in occupations that enjoy high levels of work-from-home optionality.
“Around the pandemic, we’ve seen a huge, unprecedented increase in employment for Americans who report having a disability,” said Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University and one of the study’s authors. “If you have hearing problems, vision problems, back problems or find it very difficult to walk, it is potentially extremely difficult to get around and also much more difficult to spend all day in an office.”
Bloom says this increase in employment contrasts sharply with more standard recessionary periods, where people with disabilities often fall behind in employment.
“Working remotely really helps people with physical disabilities maintain employment,” said Whitmore, who notes that even if fully remote work is not an option, a hybrid schedule is easier for many people with disabilities than returning fully. to the office. Whitmore, for example, works two days in the office and three days at home.
He notes that many of his clients live in apartment buildings with elevators that function imperfectly, which can cause them to miss days in the office. Your own wheelchair lift sometimes fails as well.
“So by working from home I don’t have to worry about losing my job because I can’t go to work,” Whitmore said.
The pandemic era has made many employers more accepting of the need for employees to work from home at times, even as more days in the office are expected. But Bloom also argues that companies’ hybrid rules should apply universally, not just to workers with disabilities.
“What you don’t want if you have a disability is to be home five days a week and have everyone else come over,” Bloom said. “Because you would be totally isolated. It is important that not only can you work from home, but the ideal is that others have the same schedule, because then you are completely connected.”
Bloom and his colleagues also note that as the U.S. population ages, considerations for workers with disabilities will become increasingly relevant. Most people are not born with physical disabilities, but they are more likely to have them as they age. Hybrid and remote work will allow more people to stay in the workforce longer.
“The majority of Americans with disabilities tend to be older,” Bloom said. “So as time goes on, this effect will only grow. “People who find it a little bit harder to walk, move around, lift things, instead of retiring, maybe they can stay and work part-time, partly from home, which I think is great for society.”
© 2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
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