28-Jun-19 | News

How Remote Work Impacts Employees With Disabilities

How remote jobs helps people with disabilities work

“Being able to work from home is a huge stress relief,” Ramir says. “It gives me a lot of confidence that I’m able to function as a normal employee and be able to navigate the workplace with that disability.”

This gets at the heart of the issue. Remote work is more than just a perk for high-performing teams. It’s fundamental to making work accessible.

Remote work also tends to go hand-in-hand with flexible hours. “As long as I’m accomplishing work, time is truly not an issue,” Ramir explains. “One of the nice things about being in the tech culture is that you have flexibility. You don’t need to be face-to-face with everyone within a certain amount of hours.”

For people with certain disabilities, this flexibility is impactful. “There are certain things I need to take care of in regards to my disability, like going to physical therapy and going to other types of therapies,” he adds. “(With remote work) I really have the flexibility to take an hour during the day to go do that and then come back and work a little bit later or start a little bit earlier.”

Remote work, fundamentally, makes work less disruptive. It doesn’t require you to be at designated places on a rigid schedule. It lets you define your workspace, and, to a certain extent, your working hours. For employees with disabilities, removing this disruption goes a long way toward making work productive, enjoyable, and in some cases, even possible.

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