Lasting Lessons From the Pandemic: Disability Inclusion Advantage

I’ve been working remotely off and on for the past fifteen years. I have multiple sclerosis and in order to avoid the physical and neurological problems that commuting in extreme cold or hot weather can bring, I - like many people with disabilities - have long since mastered the art of tele-or remote work. Our collective experiences are able to help others who are working at home for the first time because of COVID-19. In fact, companies and government agencies have been looking to hire more persons with disabilities whose home-office and connectivity arrangements already position them at an advantage to perform certain types of jobs, such as call-center representatives.  

That’s positive news in grim times—truly it is. After all, remote working is considered a “reasonable accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

But consider this: According to a recent study by Guardian Life, seventy percent of workers desire telecommuting options yet only 18 percent have them. Seventy-three percent desire a flexible work schedule, while only 29 percent have that benefit. Prior to this global health crisis, there were many highly capable persons with disabilities who were unable to land jobs or find suitable roles because their conditions meant that they had to work from home. I was mentor to one of them.  My mentee, an individual on the autism spectrum with higher education degrees, technical skills and leadership awards, was turned down again and again due to his need to work from or close to home. This, even as researchers at the University of Chicago have found that in 2020, 37% of US jobs can plausibly be performed entirely at home.

All of which begs the question: What will happen when offices re-open? Will companies realize what they’ve learned?  Will they remember that many more jobs can be done very well, remotely, than the pre-COVID world recognized? 

What the research reveals

Accenture's recent research, Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage, a collaborative effort with Disability:IN and AAPD, shows why employers should recognize that persons with disabilities represent a great and still largely untapped source of talent. The study reveals a positive correlation between employment and inclusion of persons with disabilities and company performance.  For example, companies who are leaders for disability inclusion can see – on average – 28% higher net revenue and 2x higher net income.  The research clearly shows that hiring talented people with disabilities is not only the right thing to do, it is also good for business.

And yet employment trends are indicating that there is much more work to be done in order to achieve this advantage. Before COVID-19, the US was seeing an increase in labor force participation among persons with disabilities. In February 2020, for example, 31% of persons with disabilities who could work (age 16 to 64) were employed. That was an increase of 2% from the fall of 2018 when our study was launched, representing 300,000 more employed individuals. But since then, the economic and health impacts of COVID-19 have wiped out those gains - and then some. As of the June 2020 update from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we stand at 28% of persons with disabilities employed (a little over 4 million, age 16 to 64) with ~875,000 persons with disabilities of working age actively seeking employment.

It’s worth noting that 3000 participants across nearly 20 countries convened last week for Disability:IN’s virtual #DisabilityAdvantage conference to discuss topics related to employing, advancing and retaining persons with disabilities in the workforce.  My own experience – both as a speaker and as a participant – was  truly incredible. Executives from major companies across sectors and at various stages of their disability inclusion journeys (including Accenture) shared achievements, challenges, strategies for improving employment outcomes, even despite the pandemic. It was so very encouraging also to know of the public commitments that CEOs from companies like Best Buy, Microsoft, Accenture, CVS Health and others are making to be #allin for advancing disability equality and inclusion!

Inspiring companies light the way 

How can we ensure that the post-COVID world recognizes and best leverages the key skills and capabilities that are available amongst those of us with disabilities?  And how best to accommodate our needs when working remotely is our only option – such that we may be most engaged and productive in our roles?

Look to the companies that are making recent (and cost-effective) shifts in the way work gets done, and follow suit. Here are just a few of the actions companies have taken (or improved on) in the past few months with accessibility and employees with disabilities in mind:

• Apple has introduced a dedicated support team to address accessibility questions and offers a new support site and how-to videos on using these features.
• Google is offering its advanced Hangouts Meet videoconferencing for free with inbuilt accessibility features like live captions and screen readers.
• Microsoft Teams enables users to set up video conferencing with background blur. This feature was developed by a Microsoft employee who would lip-read during calls but was struggling because of background interference.
• Otter.ai has introduced an automatic transcription service for Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings. The app syncs audio, text, and images to create shareable and accessible transcripts.

Also take note of the changes some companies are making for their workforces overall that demonstrate just how easy it has been all along to support persons with disabilities. Twitter, for example, is now allowing some employees to work from home permanently and offering an increased allowance of $1,000 for work from home supplies. An allowance such as this makes requests for accommodations simpler. According to a survey by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), 58% of accommodations cost nothing, and nearly all the rest involved a one-time cost that averaged only $500.)

Let’s continue mining these new practices, even as offices re-open. And let’s continue to explore new ways of working, new ways of accommodating, and new ways of embedding accessibility into the employment journey. Because what’s good for people with disabilities is ultimately great for our society, our economy, our business and for ALL people!