Answered Questions is a monthly resource for the Spanish language Disability Community that fills an information need. This month’s question is I am a new HR professional who wants to support our employees and job applicants with disabilities. Where can I learn more about teleworking as a workplace accommodation? This edition of Answered Questions includes items that research disability employer practices; discuss telework during the pandemic; discuss telework and new technologies for employees with disabilities; and discuss telework as an alternative for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce, among others. More about Answered Questions.
NIDILRR-Funded Projects:
The Disability Employer Practices Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) (in English) (90RTEM0008) produces new scientifically rigorous and scalable data and evidence to meaningfully increase the employment of people with disabilities. The Center designs and implements a series of studies to provide valid, reliable, and scalable metrics as to employer practices for people with disabilities across the employment life cycle, with consideration of post-COVID pandemic “new norm” business practices facing businesses in the US, and their job applicants and new hires, in retaining, advancing, and accommodating employees with disabilities. In this New York Times interview (in English), RRTC researchers discuss the benefits of remote work for workers with disabilities.
The ADA National Network Regional Centers (in English) assist employees with disabilities and employers to understand their rights and responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws. Center staff provide information, technical assistance, and training. Spanish-language services are available at several regional centers. The publication, Research Brief: Teleworking and the ADA (in English), discusses the latest research in telework and employment of people with disabilities, telework as an accommodation, the challenges and benefits of telework to employees and employers, and how the centers are assisting employers in implementing telework.
From the NARIC Collection:
The article, Telework during the pandemic: Patterns, challenges, and opportunities for people with disabilities (in English), discusses a NIDILRR-funded study that examined the extent to which people with disabilities worked from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, how this changed as the pandemic progressed, and the role of the occupational structure and tight labor markets. The results of the study showed that while workers with disabilities were more likely than those without disabilities to telework before the pandemic, they were less likely to telework during the pandemic. The findings suggest that the pandemic has increased employer acceptance of telework, but the current occupational distribution limits this potential.
Technology:
New technologies for people with disabilities may help increase their inclusion in the workplace. The article, Teleworking and new technologies to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities, discusses how new technologies help people with disabilities; why employers should consider teleworking for people with disabilities; what requirements must a remote position meet; and what applications do new technologies have for people with disabilities.
Employment:
The article, Teleworking: An alternative to the workforce inclusion of people with disabilities, provides a general overview of how telework can be a contributing factor to the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace. The article discusses a study to determine the main competencies of people with disabilities to telework and identify the main reasons for employment discrimination with respect to people with disabilities. The study found that telework initiatives aimed at hiring people with disabilities must be aimed at satisfying business and social requirements with the support of the general community.
Resources:
- Accommodation problems and solutions associated with telework (in English) outlines potential accommodation problems resulting from telework, and when possible, lists ideas for accommodation solutions. This document is part of the NIDILRR-funded Workplace Accommodation Expert Support System (Work ACCESS) (in English) project’s efforts to develop an online tool for conducting workplace accommodation assessments.
- How Telework Benefits People with Disabilities, an informational page from Fundación Universa, shares how telework has been increasing since 2017, especially for people with disabilities. The page describes how teleworking benefits people with different types of disabilities and the barriers they face without the use of telework.
- Learn about the new type of work for people with disabilities, an article from Inclúyeme, discusses how new options, such as teleworking, strengthen the employment of people with disabilities. The article looks at how Perú has used telework to benefit people with disabilities, pregnant people, and older adults and how other Latin American countries are implementing telework in their workplaces. The article provides examples of how teleworking has benefited people with disabilities and businesses in the region.
- Accommodation and Compliance: Telework (in English), an article from the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) (in English), introduces telework and guides employers and their employees with disabilities through questions they should consider when exploring telework as an accommodation.
Further Research:
REHABDATA:
PubMed:
Each month, we look through the searches on our blog and through the information requests made by our patrons who speak Spanish and pick a topic that fills the largest need. Each resource mentioned above is associated with this month’s information need. We search the various Spanish language news sources and feeds throughout the month to bring you these articles. With the exception of the NIDILRR Projects, From the NARIC Collection, and Further Investigation, all the linked articles and resources are in Spanish – any that are in English will be clearly marked.
