Remote Work as an Accommodation under the ADA in a Post-COVID World

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised the issue of what role remote work is to play in the future, and how we should use it to ensure fairness and productivity for both employers and employees. This is especially important for people with certain disabilities for whom remote work may be a helpful and flexible option. Even as society gradually returns to in-person work, disability advocates and others will ensure that remote work will remain a topic of discussion as it has proven over the last 18 months to have immense benefits both for people with disabilities and those without disabilities. Remote work, however, has already been established under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and through case law as an accommodation for employees with disabilities, albeit a much rarer case and one more likely to cause undue hardship to the employer depending on the job. The question that remains is whether Covid will have an impact on normalizing regular remote work in the future as an accommodation for employees with disabilities under the ADA. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice website on October 7, 2021. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above