Telework rationale and implementation for people with disabilities: Considerations for employer policymaking

Issue title: Telework Research and Practice: Impacts on People with Disabilities

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Moon, Nathan W. | Linden, Maureen A. | Bricout, John C. | Baker, Paul M.A.

Affiliations: Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA | Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA | School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA | Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

Note: [] Corresponding author: Nathan W. Moon, CACP, Georgia Tech, 500 10th Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0620, USA. Tel.: +1 404 894 8845; Fax: +1 404 385 0269; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Telework has been promoted as a viable workplace accommodation for people with disabilities since the 1990s, when information and communication technologies (ICT) had developed sufficiently to facilitate its widespread adoption. This initial research and accompanying policy recommendations were prescriptive in nature and frequently aimed at employers. OBJECTIVE: This article adds to existing policy models for facilitating successful telework outcomes for people with disabilities. Drawing upon two studies by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Workplace Accommodations, we expound on employee-side considerations in the implementation of telework. METHODS: Our policy model utilizes established typologies for policy evaluation to develop a process model that considers rationales and implementation factors for telework among people with physical disabilities. RESULTS: Telework may be used as an accommodation for disability, but employee rationales for telework are more complex, involving work-life balance, strategies for pain and fatigue not formally recognized as disability, and expediency in travel and transportation. Implementation of telework as a component of workplace operations is similarly multifaceted, involving non-technology accommodations to realize job restructuring left incomplete by telework. CONCLUSIONS: Our model grounds new empirical research in this area. We also renew our call for additional research on effective telework practices for people with disabilities.

Keywords: Employment, workplace accommodation, work environment

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-131819

Journal: Work, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 105-115, 2014