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: nathan.moon@cacp.gatech.edu
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
