Yahoo Money

Rise in remote jobs could be a sea change for job seekers with disabilities

Kerry Hannon · Senior Columnist
Mon, May 16, 2022, 2:35 PM · 5 min read

Joel Dodson, 55, who lost his eyesight in a car accident in 2017, was on the job hunt during the pandemic after being laid off by his former employer in a corporate restructuring. It was new terrain for the Sunnyvale, Calif..-based software development manager. ... “I'd hired people, and I'd interviewed for jobs plenty of times,” Dodson said. “But now I was doing it as a blind person for the first time.”

Dodson was finally hired last summer by RingCentral, a global provider of business cloud communications, headquartered in Belmont, Calif. It was also a home-based remote job, which saved time and costs for Dodson who commuted a few days a week to his previous job via Uber or Lyft rides. ... “When I'd go into the office, which was only about four miles away, I’d check Uber or Lyft, and take whichever was cheaper," Dodson said. "But it added up to as much as $14 each way.”

The rise in work-from-home jobs during the pandemic presents an opportunity to create a sea change for the 1 in 4 adults in the United States who have some type of disability like Dodson. So far, though, job gains for these workers have lagged those without disabilities.

“The pandemic created a perfect opportunity for business leaders to see that remote workers are productive. The result is that remote work is now widely seen as a viable option for those who need or want to work at home due to a disability or illness,” Kate Brouse, a spokesperson for the National Telecommuting Institute (NTI), a nonprofit that provides free job training and placement services for people with disabilities, told Yahoo Money.

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