![]() This approach expressly rejects the medical model of disability, which emphasizes formal diagnoses and treatment-and prioritizes “fixing” a person with a disability, rather than empowering people who do not fit society’s definition of “normal.” Neither the ADA, nor the EEOC’s initial regulations implementing it, require employees to provide medical documentation of disability at any point during the process. Under the social model of disability, an employee could conceivably gain an accommodation to work from home by merely explaining that this practice would be more accessible to them given their past experience. According to MacFarlane, the drafters of the ADA emphasized the idea that an employee’s preferences, knowledge, and experience should drive the accommodations process. ![]() MacFarlane explains that the ADA was designed to embrace a “ social model of disability,” a framework that promotes the idea that disability is based on how well someone fits into established institutions and structures, rather than any intrinsic differences in ability. In a recent article, disability scholar and advocate Katherine MacFarlane argues that the EEOC’s current process for assessing reasonable accommodations under the ADA unfairly burdens individuals with disabilities and should be reconsidered. Yet before the pandemic, employers often denied their employees the option to telework. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency tasked with enforcing the ADA, has long stated that remote work may be a form of reasonable accommodation. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers must provide “reasonable accommodations” to employees with disabilities if doing so does not disproportionately burden the employer. This unexpected silver lining of the pandemic raises a question: Why was remote work not previously available as an option for more workers with disabilities? In fact, 83 percent of remote workers with a chronic illness or disability have reported that they were able to find work during the pandemic precisely because of remote working arrangements. The switch to remote work also opened up opportunities for many people with disabilities. As the COVID-19 pandemic drove people inside, many workers brought their workplaces with them.
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