The Complex Future of Post-Pandemic Work

Before the COVID-19 pandemic led many U.S. industries to embrace remote work, Vilissa Thompson, the founder and CEO of the disability-focused organization Ramp Your Voice!, used to travel more often, which is always a risk as a wheelchair user due to the rate of airlines breaking wheelchairs. Thompson, who lives in South Carolina, has continued working remotely unless she's doing a public event.

For many members of the disability community, the sudden shift to remote work in March 2020 was both a welcome change and a frustrating one. Some disabled people were fired for seeking accommodations. This includes former Lockheed Martin administrative assistant Donna Kerekes, who asked for permission to use a transcription or recording device to help her do her work. Instead of complying, the company placed Kerekes on disability leave, then she was fired. They ended up having to pay her more than $100,000, and they also had to educate their managers and human resources department about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which is 35 years old.

Capitalism is still going to find a way to exploit workers, whether you’re working in an office, or you work from home, or [you’re] able to come in [only on] certain days of the week.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that remote work is possible for many industries, but it’s still unclear what the future of remote work is five years later. For example, the option to use Zoom and other video conferencing platforms that provide hard-of-hearing people, myself included, with the opportunity to lipread, which we cannot do on phone calls, may be eliminated if in-person work is mandated.

In many industries, companies have had to decide whether to allow their employees to continue remote work, establish a hybrid model, or require in-person work. Tech companies have largely backtracked from their flexibility in allowing their employees to work remotely, and overall, the unemployment rate for disabled people has increased. Return-to-office mandates are also complicated by ongoing COVID-19 cases, especially as immunocompromised workers may face pressure not to mask due to the ongoing culture war surrounding this issue, which includes mask bans.

Thompson believes that if a boss thinks that in-person work would bring the most money, the needs of disabled workers may be ignored: “People may have to face the harsh truth of capitalism, which is [that] capitalism cares about the money.”

Tauhid Chappell, who lives with ulcerative colitis, used to split his time between working from home and participating in in-person engagements when he worked at Philadelphia's Free Press. Chappell also recognized the privilege of being able to work from home during the pandemic, which disabled people with essential jobs weren’t able to do, when we talked in 2021.

“To be able to have the option to work from home, and not have to physically leave [my] home to still get paid, makes me lucky,” he said. 

But there are disabled people who prefer to work in an office, so it’s also crucial that their accessibility needs are still met, said Rebecca Cokley, the disability rights program officer at the Ford Foundation. In her decades as a disability activist, Cokley saw companies do what they can to skirt the requirements of the ADA. Kroger, Walmart, and The Hershey Company are just a handful of many companies sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for violating the ADA. Cokley was concerned that companies would have the attitude of “let’s just have you telework, so we don’t have to make our workplaces accessible.” Cokley told Bitch that this attitude could lead companies to “enforce segregation” between disabled and non-disabled workers, instead of using financial resources to “comply with a [35]-year-old civil rights law.”

While being able to work from home is possible for some members of the disability community, remote work isn’t an option for all disabled people. That’s partly because not everyone has equal access to quality internet. A January 2021 study published in the World Economic Forum found that internet access can be unreliable and unaffordable in many rural areas and other low-income communities.

“There’s still a digital divide, a tech divide that [affects people] who have to be online to work,” Chappell said. “Those with physical disabilities need to be accommodated for, and companies are not creating tech or [other] products that allow them to participate on an even playing field.”

Our accommodation requests are reasonable—ableism isn’t.

Cokley told Bitch that she was glad to see the Biden administration’s Build Back Better bill, which ultimately did not pass, address digital divides. People need stable internet access, just like they would clean water and heating, and she thinks stable internet is a crucial infrastructure issue.

“Because [of] the fact that everybody uses it, it should be thought of [in] the same way as our bridges and our roads,” she said.

Disabled people are often given reasons for why our accommodations can’t be met or why they’re “bad.” For example, disabled people who need plastic straws are blamed for contributing to climate change. This extends to concerns that a 5G infrastructure may have some effects on the environment, though existing research doesn’t suggest that this would have a substantial impact. Cokley believes that “if we saw accessibility and environmentalism together as a package instead of pitted against each other, which [they] often [are], there’s no telling” what could be accomplished. Additionally, disabled people shouldn’t have to wait for tech companies to make their products accessible or be charged a fee to access a version that would better accommodate their needs. For instance, Zoom waited nearly a year into the pandemic to announce that it would introduce live captioning—a service that was previously available for a fee—despite the fact that hard-of-hearing and Deaf people, myself included, rely on Zoom for work.

The pandemic has continued to shape society, which includes the disability community, and will for decades to come. People who contract COVID-19 may experience symptoms for months or, like many members of the chronic-illness community, get sick and have symptoms that never really go away. Chronic-illness symptoms may change what a person can do at work, if they’re even able to work while taking care of their health.

María Cristina García, a former seamstress at a performing arts school in New York City, likely contracted COVID-19 while at work. García developed postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) after becoming sick, and like many people who become disabled or chronically ill as adults, García became acutely aware of how inaccessible public transportation is.

“Now, I use a rollator to get around, and I can’t count on the agility and stamina that used to vault me through closing subway doors,” García said in 2021. “Service was never great for anyone who needed an elevator, and now I worry that budget cuts will make accessibility even worse.”

The pandemic showed us that some accommodations are possible. However, bosses are still going to find ways to take advantage of disabled workers, like justifying paying a person less because they are working remotely.

“Capitalism is still going to find a way to exploit workers, whether you’re working in an office, or you work from home, or [you’re] able to come in [only on] certain days of the week,” Thompson said. In order to accommodate disabled people in a world where COVID-19 is still a problem, employers need to realize that meeting our needs is possible, and the rapid switch to virtual work in many industries showed us that. Our accommodation requests are reasonable—ableism isn’t.

This story was updated to include more up-to-date references, dates, and statistics.

Julia Métraux is Mother Jones' disability reporter.