Work

Presenters discussed the impact of Long COVID on the lived experiences of people with disabilities in terms of healthcare utilization and employment. The presenters reviewed current and prior research on Long COVID and identified research gaps on COVID-related issues among people with disabilities. Participants also shared the development of a novel coaching-based intervention to help people with disabilities succeed at work. The video was recorded as a webinar in November 2023.

This article in May 2023 issue of Work and Occupations draws on separate strands of research documenting the psychological consequences of (a) precarious employment and other challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and (b) ableism, incorporating both into an examination of disability-based differences in the joint significance of discrimination and work precarity during the pandemic for mental health.

In this article in Disability and Health Journal, researchers used data from the American Community Survey from 2008 to 2020 and the Current Population Survey over May 2020 to April 2022 period to compare people with and without disabilities in the expansion of telework as the pandemic began, and to discuss the evolution of telework during the pandemic. While workers with disabilities were more likely than those without disabilities to telework before the pandemic, they were less likely to telework during the pandemic. The occupational distribution accounts for most of this difference.

The brief outlines the benefits and drawbacks of remote work for people with disabilities, with the hopes of influencing policy in individual workplaces and on local, state and federal levels, blending together three previous publications from the Disability Inclusive Employment Policy RRTC, from the Disability and Health Journal, the Journal of Cancer Survivorship, and the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.

In this working paper, researchers evaluated employment trends for people with and without disabilities over the course of the COVID-19 recession and subsequent employment recovery, both overall and by occupational category (essential, non-essential, teleworkable, non-teleworkable, frontline, nonfrontline) using data from the nationally representative Current Population Survey. As the COVID-19 recession began in the second quarter of 2020, people with disabilities experienced employment losses that were proportionately similar to those experienced by people without disabilities.

This journal article used data from the American Community Survey to compare people with and without disabilities in the expansion of telework as the pandemic began, and the evolution of telework during the pandemic. The authors concluded that many people with disabilities benefit from working at home, and the pandemic has increased employer acceptance of telework, but the current occupational distribution limits this potential. Tighter labor markets during the recovery offer hope that employers will increasingly hire people with disabilities in both telework and non-telework jobs.

This article in the journal Work and Occupations examines disability-based differences in the joint significance of discrimination and work precarity during the pandemic for mental health. Survey analysis found that precarious employment, greater discimination, and disability independently predict depressive symptoms. Further, in the context of greater discrimination, more precarious employment is found to have greater significance for people with disabilities compared to those who are not currently disabled.

This Psychiatric Services brief report describes a study that followed up with peer support specialists (PSSs) responding to an earlier survey to assess the pandemic’s continued employment and personal effects. A total of 496 PSSs completed both surveys. Unemployment remained at 7%. The proportion with full-time employment increased by December, but financial instability also increased. Tasks involving individual support and group facilitation, which had decreased significantly, rebounded somewhat by December, when nearly all PSSs (86%) reported having some new tasks.

In this episode of the ADA Live! broadcast, presenters discuss the impact of post-COVID health on the workplace, employees, and employers – and its effect on our economic recovery. Guest: Sharon Rennert, Senior Attorney Advisor, in the Division of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (ADA/GINA), Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

This journal article reports on a survey of 733 people with disabiltiies and 67 employers to understand what employment effects to people with disabilities experience and what business changes do employers encounter as a result of the pandemic.