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1 Workplace Accommodations for Teleworkers with Disabilities Co-sponsored by the Southeast DBTAC and RERC on Workplace Accommodations February 8, 2007

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2 Presenter Karen Milchus, Co-Director RERC on Workplace Accommodations Funding Nat. Institute on Disability & Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Dept. of Education

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3 Online Meeting Tips Exit all background programs on your computer (e.g., Outlook, Word) to improve performance. Identify yourself each time you speak. Press and hold the Control Key (CTRL) to talk. Release the Control Key (CTRL) after you have finished speaking. Questions may be typed in if you do not have a working microphone.

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4 Agenda Telework as an Employment Option Case Study - Jane Telework Accommodations Implementation & Resources

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5 Telecommuting & Telework A situation where an employee is working anywhere but in their traditional office Telework = telecommuting = remote work New Freedom Initiative uses term telework

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6 Types of Teleworkers Primary office in home / Full-time teleworkers Shared office / Mobile professionals Dual offices: Occasional teleworkers or day extenders (evening and weekend)

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7 Agenda Telework as an Employment Option National Trends Telework as an Accommodation Who Teleworks? Case Study - Jane Telework Accommodations Implementation & Resources

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8 Telework: National Trends 1877 first teleworker was a bank president with phone line to his home 1974 - Telecommuting coined in a transportation thesis by Jack Nilles New technologies (e.g., computers, fax) begin to open new possibilities for working remotely 1990s - Early adopters | 2000s - Rapid growth

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9 Telework: National Trends 17% of Americans telework full-time while 30% telework at least one day a week. (DOL 2003) One estimate that 7% of employed persons with disabilities work from home 20+ hours. (Tahmincioglu)

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10 Telework: National Trends By the year 2010, more than half of American wage earners will spend more than two days a week working outside the office. (Sulzer Infrastructure Services, London)

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11 What is job accommodation? Strategies, environmental modifications or assistive technology that help a person perform work- related tasks that he or she might not be able to perform otherwise, or might not be able to perform as efficiently

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12 Telework: A Reasonable Accommodation? U.S. EEOC recognizes telework as a reasonable accommodation New Freedom Initiative (NFI 2001) has a focus on Telework Telework may mitigate barriers associated with transportation and the physical characteristics of the workplace

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13 Home-Based Employment Some of the issues related to teleworkers also apply to people who run their own home-based business.

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14 Who Wants to Telework? Work RERC conducted a retrospective study of VR accommodation referrals for Georgia At the time of the assessment, 23.7% intended to work from home Among those who could be reached for followup interviews, 27% worked from home

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15 Potential Teleworkers: Occupations HomeWorksite %Rank% Office & Admin. Support26.1%136.6%1 Computer & Mathematical Science17.4%2 6.1%4 Sales & Related13.0%3 7.3%2 Business & Financial Operations13.0%4 2.4%5 Arts, Design, Entertain., Sports, Media 8.7%5 1.2%6 Production 4.3%6 7.3%2 Data from retrospective study of GA DRS assessments. Numbers in bold are statistically significant (X2