Creating an Inclusive Workplace: My Journey and the Importance of ADA Accommodations
How Northwestern’s Office for Research supports employees with disabilities
By Tera Moskal, Research IT
I can’t work outside of my house anymore. Some days, the chronic pain only allows me to roll my desk chair across the hallway into my home office, open my laptop, and join a Teams or Zoom meeting. On really bad pain days, I join off-camera from my tablet and easy chair. My body may be falling apart, but my approved accommodation allows me to participate in meetings almost like I did at the Research IT office at Northwestern University before severe spinal degeneration dramatically changed everything.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 27% of Americans have a disability. This means 1 in 4 of us will end up with either a temporary or permanent condition at some time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that only 22.5% of that population with a disability is employed. As someone who gets around in a wheelchair, I look at those statistics and am reminded of how grateful I am for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)—and the Office for Research’s willingness to accommodate me.
Before my illness, I never contemplated what I would do if working ever became too hard. Now, my ADA-framed arrangement keeps me off long-term disability, allowing me to pay my monthly mortgage on time like everyone else.
The ADA was designed to ensure “equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for all individuals with disabilities.” In the workplace, the law protects a person with “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” When the ADA was written, Congress purposely did not list specific disabilities or life activities, so the legislation could apply to many situations. Originally, only permanent conditions were protected under the law. Years later, the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) included temporary conditions, such as pregnancy.
I began working remotely full-time in 2015 as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. I used the ADA to stay in my IT Project Manager position, which I could still perform mentally but not physically. I could no longer drive to work in the winter, park across the street from my office, and navigate huge snowbanks in a wheelchair. At first, I was very self-conscious about this accommodation. I worried I would be viewed as a less valuable employee because I worked in my home office daily. Would my colleagues now see me as a privileged slacker?
As horrible as the Covid pandemic was, the world instantly opened to people with disabilities who were previously marginalized and stuck at home. In fact, the Monthly Labor Review reports that persons with disabilities who work rose by 3.6% due to an increase in telework during the pandemic. Through Zoom, I was like everyone else in a square box, and my physical shortcomings faded away. The world learned a lot of lessons from the pandemic, but the best were lessons of flexibility, adaptability, and survival. Hardship brought inclusiveness and shared experience for all people with and without disabilities.
I encourage people to keep those lessons learned close to their hearts. I ask you to imagine being at the mercy of others for your ability to make a living. I’m purposely tugging on your heart a bit. The ADA was written using vague language, which left legal loopholes. If an institution wants to deny a person an accommodation, legal barriers can be thrown up along the way. At the least, this process for seeking accommodation is mentally defeating to a person who probably is already struggling. At worst, the person’s request can be denied or rescinded at any time, throwing them into joblessness and a financial tailspin.
To use the ADA as the tool it was meant to be takes a culture of inclusiveness. Building this culture is everyone’s job. Top management conceives it by communicating the importance of being creative and flexible in our definition of a viable workplace. Middle management might embrace flexibility by recording all virtual meetings for employees so a person with a cognitive impairment can go back and review content more slowly. Enabling captions in a virtual meeting helps those with a hearing impairment. Offering a hybrid solution, even though it may take a bit more effort, helps those with mobility issues. Employees adopt the new culture by agreeing that it is the ethical thing to do, and they leave their judgment at “the door” when other employees are doing things differently. Lastly, it requires the person with the impairment to do their homework and always be an informed advocate for themselves and others.
With everyone working towards the same inclusive goal, we can take comfort in knowing that if we are the one to wake up one day with a life-changing condition, we have collectively paid it forward in our own workplace from the top down and can reap the rewards of having a softer place to land.