ADALive!

Sharon Rennert, senior attorney with the ADA Division of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has played a leading role in the development of their policy interpretations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. In this podcast, Sharon explains the protections for people with disabilities in employment and how they apply to people with Long COVID. Rennert describes the importance for employers to understand the protections that job applicants and employees with disabilities have in the workplace, and the related responsibility for people with disabilities to understand the process for securing needed accommodations that enable them to perform the essential functions of their job.

Professor Yana Rodgers, Rutgers University and Professor Jennifer Cohen, Miami University discuss their collaborative research about Long COVID, disability and accommodation. Their research examines the prevalence of Long COVID across different demographic groups, and the extent with which workers with impairments associated with Long COVID have benefitted from remote work. People with pre-existing disabilities, women, sexual and gender minorities, individuals without college degrees and Hispanic people are more likely to experience Long COVID. These groups are also more likely to be clustered in jobs less amenable to remote work. Rodgers and Cohen suggest other types of accommodations for employers to consider, including flexible scheduling and task-sharing that re-evaluates essential job functions.

Pandemic Patients founder Andrew Wylam discusses the reasons he created the organization, and his vision for future national efforts to address issues facing individuals with disabilities with Long COVID. The organization also manages a COVID 19 Advocacy Center to connect individuals with Long COVID with policy makers in support of legislative proposals that will improve access to health services and expansion of family and medical leave policies. His organization offers a Legal Assistance Network that provides attorneys who volunteer their time to assist individuals with Long COVID with such issues as disability discrimination in the workplace and access to social security disability benefits. He explains some of the challenges he has encountered as he has advocated for policies that are shaped around Long COVID, but also discusses the importance of supporting individuals with Long COVID on a one-on-one basis to help them with their new daily challenges.

Mason Ameri, associate professor at the Rutgers University Business School, describes how the pandemic has transformed the outlook of disability employment. Tight labor markets have demonstrated an increased willingness by employers to have remote workers, and people with disabilities are helping meet this demand. However, the growth of telework is more likely in white collar jobs, and workers with disabilities are more concentrated in blue collar jobs and service positions. There is a need for more research to understand how employers can restructure jobs where nonessential tasks are done remotely as well as increased understanding of remote work as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA with other supports that make that possible. There remain unanswered questions as to whether remote workers will be put to a different standard in proving performance necessary for career advancement, challenged by less real time interaction face-to-face with supervisors.

Nicholas Wyman, executive director of the Institute for Workforce Skills and Innovation, describes the value that apprenticeships offer in addressing disability employment disparities. In doing so, he describes the obstacles that people with disabilities face in seeking employment, whether outright discriminatory assumptions or longstanding practices that may have good intentions but have adverse consequences for people with disabilities. It is vital with continued skilled labor shortages for employers to rethink the application processes and coordinated support systems to enable disabled people to succeed in inclusive apprenticeships.

Ari Ne’eman, doctoral candidate in health policy at Harvard University, says that the numbers demonstrate the extraordinary impact the COVID-19-induced shift to expanded telework had on the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, but even those don’t tell the complete story regarding what remote work means for disability employment. It is a situation reflective of the gains prospective employees with disabilities experienced because of the pandemic and the parallel economic recession, Ari Ne’eman, doctoral candidate in health policy at Harvard University, says in this episode. The overnight shift to remote work for much of the general workforce because of the pandemic has made it more difficult for employers to argue that physical presence in the workplace is an essential component in job duties, Ne’eman points out, and this is the essence of how disability employment has benefited from remote work. That deconstruction of the perceived importance of physical presence in the workplace needs to be normalized.

Lydia Brown, director of public policy at the National Disability Institute, discusses two issues preventing people with disabilities from excelling in the workforce and in general: policies that trap them in poverty and artificial intelligence that discriminates. Antiquated Social Security rules with asset and income limits create a poverty trap that limits a disabled individual from seeking more pay or career advancement. In terms of AI, algorithms are being used that may screen out candidates with disabilities based on certain characteristics such as gaps in employment history, or length of time it took an individual to graduate from college. Often these characteristics are unrelated to a job function or job performance. Brown says these are two of the major issues of this generation for not only disability rights groups but also policymakers. They represent larger issues regarding policies, laws, socioeconomic structures, and the need to address our fundamental values as a society.

Zach Morris, Assistant Professor, Stony Brook University School of Social Work, calls for a re-evaluation of the systems in place to support people with disabilities. We must recognize that people with disabilities not only earn less than people without disabilities. They also face extra expenditures to cover disability-related out-of-pocket costs.

Lisa Mills, Owner, Moving to a Different Drum, Disability Policy and Services Consulting, discusses opportunities to increase employment outcomes by braiding and blending resources across funding sources such as vocational rehabilitation, Medicaid, and Ticket to Work.

Chai Feldblum, Vice Chair of the AbilityOne Commission and former EEOC Commissioner, discuss the importance of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 and describe the strategic plan to modernize the AbilityOne program. She also talks about the recent rule that prohibits payment 14(c) subminimum wage on contracts within the AbilityOne Program.