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Using telework to accommodate theneeds of employees with disabilitiesBradford W. Hesse aa American Institutes for Research, 3333 K Street, NW,Washington DC, 20007Version of record first published: 04 Nov 2009.
To cite this article: Bradford W. Hesse (1996): Using telework to accommodate the needs ofemployees with disabilities, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 6:4,327-343
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JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONALCOMPUTING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 6(4), 327-343 (1996)
Using Teleworkto Accommodate the Needs
of Employees with Disabilities
Bradford W. HesseAmerican Institutes for Research
Few concerns are more important to managers than providing for the needs ofemployees who have been encumbered with short-term or long-term disabilities. Theinformation society, with its advances in telecommunications technologies, is makingit increasingly more possible, and more plausible, for human resources managers toimplement the organizational strategy of telework to help accommodate theiremployees who have disabilities. Telework—or the use of telecommunications and/orcomputer technology to support working away from a primary worksite—is suit-able for employees who are in some way disabled for at least three reasons: (1) itprovides a buffer against the stress of work-life disruptions, by offering control overthe worksite; (2) it facilitates the inclusion in the work force of employees withseverely limiting disabilities and (3) it helps "level the playing field" for personswith speech or mobility impairments. In this context, the U.S. Department ofDefense instituted a pilot program. The results from the formative evaluation of thistelework project are discussed.
telework, disabilities, telecommuting, policy
1. INTRODUCTION
Few issues spark as much concern from human resources managers as the desireto accommodate the needs of their employees who are encumbered with long-term or short-term disabilities. At the very least, managers recognize a moral,and in some countries legal, obligation to make the rewards of a working environ-ment accessible to all of their employees. Even beyond the question of morality,employers recognize that the practical consequences of losing talented employeesto the disruptions caused by a protracted illness can be expensive for both the
The author gratefully acknowledges Judith Gilliom, Robert Weisgerber, Natalie Broomhall, LeaStublarec, and Charles Grantham for their collaboration on the Department of Defense flexiplaceproject, along with all the participants in the project who were so willing to share their stories.
Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Bradford W. Hesse, American Insti-tutes for Research, 3333 K Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007.
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organization and the employee involved. Now, with advances in telecommuni-cations and computer technologies, it may be possible to minimize the impact ofpersonnel disruptions by offering support for telework: work conducted awayfrom the office, using telecommunications and/or computer technology. As anorganizational tool, telework holds great promise in helping managers to adaptthe work environment to the particular needs of their disabled employees.
The purpose of this article is to present telework as a means whereby personswith disabilities can have access to work. It begins by explaining what teleworkis and why telework might be especially suited for removing the barriers thatpersons with disabilities often confront. The advantages are both practical, inthat telework allows employees to get work done when physical commuting isimpossible, and psychological, in that the ability to control the work environ-ment can serve as a buffer to stress. The article then describes a telework pilotprogram introduced specifically to serve the needs of employees with disabilitieswithin the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The results of interviews con-ducted with the 34 employees who participated in the program are presentedtogether with recommendations for the future.
1.1 Background on Telework
Telework is the use of telecommunications and/or computer technology to sup-port working away from a primary worksite. It encompasses the concept of tele-commuting [1], whereby workers substitute computers and telephones for travelto the office, and work conducted at home, "on the road," or from other sitesremote from the office or other primary worksites [2]. Telework has been madepossible largely through two separate developments. (1) The information revolu-tion has brought along with it the requirement for a new type of work, one thatdepends more on the intellectual processing of information than on physicallabor. People who do this type of work are referred to by some as "knowledgeworkers." They do not need access to industrial equipment or raw materialsresources to get their work done. They need access only to the raw stream ofdata from which they create information. It follows that, as long as knowledgeworkers have access to information (including the information provided by otherknowledge workers) they need not be bound to any one physical worksite [3].(2) The technologies that support the processing of information enable workcommunities to be distributed both through time [4-6] and across organizationalboundaries [3,5,7-9]. Telephones, fax machines, electronic mail, voice mail, andlocal area and wide area networks all make it possible for knowledge workers toshare information remotely and asynchronously.
Although the technology has been in place for some time, the acceptance ofnew organizational practices such as telecommuting has been difficult to predict[8]. Early commentators predicted that by the 1990s large numbers of knowledgeworkers would be working full time away from the office in their own "elec-tronic cottages" [10]. Such optimism (some would say "technological utopianism"[11]) may have been premature. Critics have been quick to point out that becauseof social and managerial problems telecommuting never caught on to the extentprojected earlier. These observers pointed to, for example, managerial resistance,
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personal isolation, and poor time management as obstacles to the wide-scaleacceptance of the practice [12].
Other commentators have observed that in spite of obstacles, telecommut-ing continues to enjoy an expanding, albeit modest, base of participation. Onereason for this is that, when used properly, telework can lead to positive out-comes for both employers and employees. For example, in their final review ofthe U.S.-sponsored "Federal Flexiplace Pilot Program," evaluators of the pro-ject concluded that flexible workplace arrangements can bolster productivity,enhance communication, and improve quality of life [13]. Largely as a result ofthe positive outcomes associated with the federal pilot program, officials at theU.S. Office of Personnel Management endorsed flexiplace as a "family friendly"practice that should be used by other agencies without hesitation when consideredappropriate [14].
1.2 Telework and Persons with Disabilities
The argument that telework as an organizational practice could be used to helpaccommodate the needs of employees with disabilities rests on at least threepremises. First, telework can be an invaluable buffer for coping with the disrup-tions in daily work life that frequently accompany disabling conditions.Employees can be provided with the physical capability of completing workwhen commuting is contraindicated, and the stresses that disruptions in worklife invariably bring can be reduced or mitigated. Second, for some individuals,telework may be the only alternative to not working at all. An increasingly prev-alent concern in many economies is to how to support individuals who fall out ofthe workforce as a result of disability retirement or who are forced to stay athome on workers' compensation. Finding ways to rehabilitate these employeesshould save the economy money and contribute to the workers' self-esteem.Third, creating a general infrastructure to support distributed work has the sidebenefit of making office resources more accessible to individuals who must useadaptive computer equipment. In this respect, the mediation of telework-enabl-ing technologies may help to "level the playing field" for employees with andwithout disabilities.
1.2.1 Coping with Work-life Disruptions. Persons with mobility and pro-found sensory impairments often find that commuting to a central office can bean unnecessary burden, and a burden that is exacerbated by inclement weather,traffic, or other obstacles. It is easy enough to imagine the difficulty of getting towork when someone is blind or restricted to a wheelchair, and that difficulty isamplified when the streets become icy or snow covered. Prudence argues thaton such days, time would be better spent getting work done at home rather thanenduring the unnecessary frustration of fighting the elements.
For some employees, just being in the office for extended periods can beburdensome or prohibitive. An individual wearing an orthotic brace, for example,may find sitting upright for hours on end fatiguing or the brace may exert anuncomfortable stress on the spine. Likewise, people taking medication mayoccasionally experience dizziness or drowsiness. One of the advantages of tele-
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work is that by working at home, the individual is able to accommodate thesenatural cycles of fatigue by working when it is effective to do so and resting whennecessary. Even teleworkers who are not disabled have reported that being ableto rest during the day when telecommuting has helped them match their per-sonal cycles of effectiveness and fatigue and allowed them to increase theirpersonal productivity [13]. For individuals with short-term disabilities (e.g., frac-tured limbs or acute illnesses), working at the office may be ill-advised oreven prohibited by insurance restrictions or a physician's orders. Rather thandrain their sick leave accounts, people in these situations may telework to ensurereceipt of a paycheck while recuperating.
Beyond the straightforward benefits of simply being able to get work donewhen physical commuting is ill-advised, an organization's telework policy mayalso help individuals combat the psychological stress associated with unpredict-able frustration. In a theoretical paper on electronically distributed work com-munities, Hesse and Grantham [15] outlined the social and psychological factorsassociated with teleworking. One of their key theses was that because teleworkcan provide individuals with control over their environment, the practice shouldbe useful for buffering individuals from the stress associated with work-life dis-ruptions. The rationale goes as follows:
• Psychological research suggests that one of the preeminent causes ofstress is coping with change. By far, the biggest stressors are those relatedto significant life changes, such as losing one's spouse, but psychologicalrsearch suggests that even dealing with the "hassles" of daily disruptionscan be stressful [16].
• Research also suggests that personal control and predictability can helpindividuals buffer themselves against the stress of change [17].
• To the degree that telework can provide individuals with personal controlor predictability over their working environment, telework should helpshelter workers from some of the stress imposed by work-life disruptions.
Consider the cases of the 1989 Loma Prieta and the 1994 San Fernando Valleyearthquakes in California. In both instances, the local disasters created severeobstacles for getting to work. Damage to bridges and freeways after the LomaPrieta earthquake was so bad that, according to officials from the Californiatransportation department, the number of cars on major traffic arteries in thedays following the earthquake dropped by as much as 50%. Under conditions ofdisrupted traffic, commutes that had already been taking up to 2 hours a daybefore the earthquake were taking 4 to 6 hours afterwards. As a response to thedisruptions to work, managers and employees in the technology-rich regions ofsouthern and northern California began experimenting with telecommuting as away of coping with the aftermath of the disasters [18-21].
As a coping response to the earthquakes, organizations began experimentingwith telecommuting not just because it enabled employees to work in the shortterm, but because it provided a buffer against stress in the long term. Studiesfrom similar disasters suggest that disruptions in daily living coupled with con-stant reminders from the media can create a lingering sense of posttraumatic
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TELEWORK AND PERSONS WTTH DISABILITIES 331
stress among residents of the affected area [22], To relieve stress in these types ofsituations, organizations often promote active discussions of policy changes andcontingency plans. These discussions not only help employees cope with theircurrent disruptions, but they help employees feel secure in their ability to copewith similar emergencies in the future. It was in the context of this movementtoward "emergency preparedness" that many of the proposals for institut-ing teleworking policies in organizations following the Loma Prieta earthquakewere introduced. As might be expected, these policies persisted within com-panies long after employees returned to the workplace.1
Individuals with disabilities experience a similar level of stress as the resultof disruptions imposed by their disabilities. Creating an expectation for employeesthat they can continue working in spite of the fact that on some days they willnot be able to come into the office should build a sense of predictive control.Moreover, individuals do not have to telecommute to feel the psychologicaladvantage offered by a flexible telework policy. Just knowing that options areavailable is like having an insurance policy against temporary or permanentunemployment. Like all insurance policies, the benefits are not measured interms of premiums and claims only, but in terms of the "peace of mind" thepolicies offer their owners.
1.2.2 Creating Inclusion Through Telework. In his book. The ChallengedScientists: Disabilities and the Triumph of Excellence, Weisgerber [23] presented anillustrative case history of an engineer with quadriplegia who found that work-ing full time in an office was next to impossible. Because of the severity of hisparalysis, the engineer needed the full-time attention of a special attendant,along with extensive modifications to his immediate working environment.Hoists, pulleys, and specially adapted wheelchairs were all needed just to helphim get through the activities of a typical working day. To complete his engi-neering duties, he used specially constructed input devices for use with a com-puter that required exacting and tedious attention. Although his employer, aninternationally recognized computer electronics leader, was willing to makewhatever accommodations were necessary, the engineer suggested that the bestaccommodation would be to help him work at home full time. The employersupplied the computer and telecommunications equipment needed to connectthe home office to the company's main-frame computer. With the employer'shelp, the engineer became a vital part of the company's virtual work force inspite of the fact that he very rarely visited the office.
In the case of the engineer, the best working accommodation to guaranteeparticipation in the work force was a full-time teleworking arrangement fromhome. Although this may not be the most common use of telework, enough
1 A common observation is that predisaster commuting patterns often resume after trafficarteries are repaired, suggesting that temporary telecommuting arrangements have little or noeffect on would-be teleworkers. This conclusion may be oversimplified, however. What remains tobe seen is the effect of a temporary telecommuting arrangement on (a) an individual's tendency touse telework as a response to other work-life disruptions later (e.g., when children are sick); (b) anorganization's willingness to permit telework on subsequent occasions, and (c) employees' (bothtelecommuters' and others') perceptions of predictive control.
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examples exist to suggest that full-time teleworking may be the only way of in-cluding employees in the work force who might not be there otherwise. In 1990-1991, George Washington University in Washington, DC, established an effortto support home work as part of a comprehensive vocational rehabilitation pro-gram [24], Around the same time, the Tennessee Valley Authority instituted aprogram to support workers with spinal damage, paralysis, and other disablingconditions as they worked from home full time [25]. Through programs such asthese, human resources agencies were able to pave the way for persons whowould otherwise have remained on workers' compensation to return to thework force. Bringing injured employees off the workers' compensation rollsreduced the government costs associated with the program and restored theearning potential of the rehabilitated worker.
Making a similar observation, Woelders [26] noted that in the Netherlandsunprecedented numbers of aging and disabled employees would be confrontingthe social security system at the same time that the country would be makinggreat leaps in wide-area computer connectivity. Woelders argued that if thegovernment could subsidize the use of telework for individuals with disabilities,the country would be able to recoup the costs by decreasing the expense of pay-ing disability benefits. At the same time, the government would preserve one ofits most important natural resources: the knowledge and skills of its work force.
2.2.3 Facilitating Access to Organizational Resources. For a number ofyears, the disabilities community has been especially interested in investing inthe use of new technology for improving quality of life [27]. Although new tech-nologies are arcane and remote for some people, many individuals with disabili-ties are thoroughly accustomed to using them to communicate more effectivelywith friends and colleagues, to coordinate their work in groups, and to learnnew skills. These employees are accustomed to using high technologies, and theelectronically distributed work community relies on high technologies to mediatecommunication. For these reasons, people with disabilities—even more thanpeople who are not disabled—may experience telework as offering the particularbenefit of enhanced personal outcomes. For example, persons with hearing im-pairments have been communicating textually through telecommunicationsdevices for the deaf (TDDs) for some time. As an organization moves internaldiscussions from the water cooler onto electronic networks, where primary com-munications are textural in nature, it levels the playing field for participants withhearing impairments. Electronic networks colloquialize the practice of communi-cating textually, while they remove the difficulty deaf employees have had inlocating TDD services and using them effectively in communicating with non-impaired others.
In some respects, similar benefits may accrue for persons with vision impair-ments. To read internally circulated materials, employees who are blind mustrely on external reading devices to translate the printed word into synthesizedvoice. Although impressive advances have been made in optical character recog-nition (OCR) technology, the process is still cumbersome and prone to error. Onthe other hand, since computer-mediated communications are text based innature and are already delivered in a machine-readable format, it is a relatively
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TELEWORK AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 333
simple matter to convert incoming messages to synthesized speech. Puttingcompany memoranda online has the advantage of speeding up the process bywhich persons with vision impairments translate written memoranda into inter-pretable communications.
For employees who are home bound or who have mobility impairments,computer-mediated communications should remove the barriers imposed byphysical and temporal distance. In a study of the implementation of electronicnetworks in science, Hesse and his colleagues [28] found that increased use ofnetworks was associated with enhanced professional outcomes for scientistswho were geographically isolated. In a study of network usage in a city govern-ment, Huff and his colleagues [6] noted an increase in organizational commit-ment from shift workers who used asynchronous communications to "talk" withcolleagues on other shifts. Olson [29] reported that telecommuters who usedelectronic mail felt less isolated working at home than those who relied only onthe telephone. Generalizing from these observations, it could be predicted thatemployees who are home bound as a result of a short-term or long-term disabil-ity should benefit directly from being able to use computer-mediated technol-ogies to communicate with colleagues.
Other advantages to using telework-enabling technologies are more subtlein nature, but their effects may be just as pronounced. Mediated communicationis limited to the textual channel, and it therefore lacks the nonverbal and socialcontext cues present in face-to-face interaction. As a result, computer-mediatedcommunication limits the impact of social status cues, physical posturing, andverbal dominance cues in discussions [9]. Participants in these mediated inter-actions tend to contribute equally to discussions and decision making. In asense, the medium democratizes group discussions and will minimize the stigmaassociated with physical disabilities.
Taken together, the implications are that telework-enabling technologies mayhave the potential of breaking down barriers for some people with disabilities.Consider as an example a hearing-impaired employee who for the first time canparticipate in a discussion of office politics on an equal level with nonimpairedco-workers because their communications are textual and not aural. Or consideran employee who has been made timid through years of self-consciousness overa visually apparent disability and who through electronic discussions can con-tribute to discussions with confidence and impact.2
2. THE DOD FLEXIPLACE PROJECT
With these justifications as context, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) setout to establish a flexible workplace program for its civilian employees with dis-abilities. Originally, the effort was part of an ongoing project to create new
1 Not all movement to computer-mediated communications may be associated with positiveoutcomes. For persons who are visually impaired, speech may still be a more desirable channel forcommunication than speech-synthesized text. For anyone using computer-mediated communica-tions, the positive benefits of greater connectivity may be outweighed by any negative consequencesassociated with restrictions in social context and other nonverbal cues[9], increased pace[31J, andinformation overload [32].
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Blindness (3%)
Mental Illness (3%)
Short Term___ _ ^ Disability (24%)
Other(41%)
Paralysis (29%)
Figure 1. Self Reports of Participants' Primary Disabling Condition as Coded from Partici-pant Information Forms.
opportunities for persons with disabilities in the DOD civilian work force. How-ever, with base closings and reductions in force, the goal changed to one ofimproving current positions and in reducing the costs associated with workers'compensation and disability retirement programs. The project was referred to asa "flexiplace" program to coincide with similar efforts by the Office of PersonnelManagement and the General Services Agency to create flexible telework policiesthroughout the federal government [30]. The term "flexiplace" was used to em-phasize the notion that flexibility and personal choice over the working environ-ment should be defining characteristics of the program.
The first goal of the flexiplace project was to establish an informal demonstra-tion or pilot program by which project administrators could evaluate advantages of,and obstacles to, using flexiplace for persons with disabilities as a DOD-wide solu-tion. During the demonstration phase, members of the project's overseeing com-mittee worked with human resources specialists throughout all components ofthe DOD to identify employees who were either already utilizing a flexible work-place option or who might qualify for inclusion if suitable component policieswere established. In those cases where suitable policies did not exist, the over-seeing committee worked to establish a foundation for policy from the topmostlevels of management down.
2.1 Participants
In all, 34 employees registered for inclusion in the demonstration project. Toqualify for the program, employees needed only to obtain permission from theirimmediate supervisiors, after which they completed and submitted a participantinformation form. Relevant flexible arrangements were those that were approvedby a supervisor and in which some or all of the employee's working week wasspent away from the primary duty station. Employees would qualify for inclusion
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TELEWORK AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 335
if they worked from home, a telework center, a nursing home, or independentliving center. Employees were not required to maintain specialized telecommuni-cations technologies away from the office other than a standard telephone. (Notsurprisingly, though, many participants worked as information systems special-ists and maintained modem links to their office's main frame or local area net-work.) Supervisors were instructed to extend flexiplace privileges to employeeswho had obtained a performance review rating of "fully satisfactory" or better.
Participant information forms were submitted to the American Institutes forResearch, a not-for-profit research firm, for tabulation and analysis. As can beseen in Figure 1, the most commonly reported disabling condition in the projectwas paralysis, with short-term disabilities in second place. This is not surprising.For participants with paralysis, flexiplace removes the burden imposed by havingto negotiate specialized transportation needs. For participants with short-termdisabilities, flexiplace offers a way to continue working while obeying a physi-cian's order to remain at home.
Table 1 presents a descriptive analysis of some of the key characteristics ofparticipants included in the flexiplace pilot program. As can be seen, this initial
Table 1Numbers of Pilot Participants by Department of Defense Component
Component
ArmyNavyAir ForceOffice of the Secretary
of DefenseArmy & Air Force Exchange
QorviroJcl VHC
Defense Commissary AgencyDefense Contract Audit AgencyDefense Finance &
Accounting ServiceDefense Information
Systems AgencyDefense Intelligence AgencyDefense Investigative ServiceDefense Logistics Agency
Defense Mapping AgencyDefense Nuclear AgencyDepartment of Defense
Dependents SchoolsNational Guard BureauNational Security AgencyOffice of the Inspector GeneralOffice of the Civilian Health
and Medical Program of theUniformed Services
Uniformed Services Universityof Health Sciences
Totals
Men
3
3
1
1
1
9
Women
5441
2
1
1
6
1
25
Descriptive Characteristics
GeneralSchedule
573
11
2
1
6
26
Pay Plan
GeneralManager
1
1
1
1
4
Other
1
3
4
YearsonJob4.006.672.00
10.00
6.00
18.50not
given5.75
16.00
9.00
notgiven
7.69
NeedEquipment?
21
2
11
7
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group appeared to be primarily women (74% women, 26% men), working prin-cipally under General Schedule pay plans, and with an average time on the jobof 7.69 years. The disproportionate number of women in the study seems to beaccounted for by the high percentage of employees who were on short-term dis-ability to accommodate complications in pregnancy.
In addition to the data reported in Figure 1, and Table 1, eight employeesreported that they had been receiving workers' compensation before startingflexiplace, a statistic with cost-savings implications for the DOD, and twoemployees indicated that they had been considering (liability retirement. Sevenparticipants reported that they required specially adapted equipment to be setup in their homes. To accommodate special equipment needs, the program direc-tor secured early participation from the computer accommodations program(CAP). All copies of the participant information reports were routinely routed toCAP to anticipate needs for equipment as early in the program as possible.
2.2 Qualitative Evaluations (Telephone Interviews)
To evaluate the effectiveness of flexiplace, semistructured interviews were con-ducted with all 34 participants in the demonstration project and, when feasible,with participants' supervisors. Most interviews were by telephone, but whenrequested interviews took the form of facsimile transmissions or electronic mailfor those participants with speech impairments. In each case, an interviewerfollowed an 11-page protocol designed to elicit a full description of the telecom-muting experience. Interviewers were given the discretion to follow the protocolexactly or to paraphrase, depending on the demands of each session. Typicalinterviews lasted anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes and were audiotaped forlater review. Following each interview, the interviewer summarized the principalpoints and important quotes in a 2 to 3-page individual synopsis. All audio-tapes and synopses were analyzed with respect to (a) reasons for accepting flexi-place as a workplace alternative, (b) advantages of the practice, and (c) problemsexperienced. Each of these areas will now be described in greater breadth.
2.2.1 Reasons for Going on Flexiplace. Reasons for seeking flexiplaceopportunities differed somewhat depending on whether the employee was deal-ing with a short-term or a long-term disability. In the DOD demonstration project,24% of participants reported going on flexiplace work schedules to accommodateshort-term disabilities. Their conditions of disability ranged from complicatedpregnancies to injured limbs. In each case, working at the office while recoveringfrom the disability was so prohibitive that working at home was the only alterna-tive to not working at all. These people chose full-time telecommuting arrange-ments for a short time.
For people with long-term disabilities, the reasons for telecommuting weresomewhat different. These were people for w^hom innovative work strategies inthe face of personal obstacles had become a way of life. Working away from theoffice had become a hard-won privilege bestowed through years of exemplaryservice and consistent negotiation. More often than not, these employees hadcreated part-time telecommuting arrangements for a long time. They would stay
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home as they needed to accommodate medical demands, to avoid dangerouscommuting conditions, or just to get more work done. Their most often reporteddifficulties had to do with negotiating the terms of flexiplace arrangements whenconfronted with managerial resistance.
2.2.2 Advantages of Telework. The biggest advantage of flexiplace, bothfor persons with short-term and long-term disabilities, was a sense of controlover aversive life events. As described by participants in the pilot program, flex-iplace by its nature incorporated elements from two alternative work strategies:telecommuting, where one is able to conduct work away from the office, andflextime, where one is able to control the hours during the day in which work iscompleted. Flexibility in the working environment allowed employees to mini-mize disruptions, caused for example, by lack of specialized transportation,needs for attendant care, or need for medication. It also provided them with theability to minimize distractions, as is the case when information workers neededto get away from telephones to read, write, or concentrate in other ways.
Flexibility in work schedules allowed employees to work at the times of dayin which they were most productive. This advantage was especially importantfor employees who, because of physical limitations or the side effects of medica-tions, felt fatigued after working long periods without a break. By working athome, these employees worked for a short stretch, rested, and then picked theirwork back up later in the day when they were feeling rejuvenated. Overwhelm-ingly, participants and supervisors noted that the increased control participantshad over their lives led to greater productivity, better health, and increasedmorale.
Other advantages expressed by interviewees included (a) feeling morerelaxed about getting dressed (a big concern for employees who were confinedto bed part time or who found that accommodating casts, prostheses, or braceswas fatiguing and time consuing); (b) feeling less apprehensive over self presen-tation (people expressed relief in dealing with remote colleagues in such a waythat the disability was not a salient issue); (c) sensing an enhanced feeling ofindependence; and (d) experiencing a heightened sense of community. This lastadvantage merits added emphasis. Employees and supervisors felt that effectivetelework arrangements were not just the acomplishment of one person, but theresult of an entire work unit striving to improve in communication skills, trust,and cooperation.
2.2.3 Disadvantages of Flexiplace. For most people, socialized by years ofworking on-site, flexible work arrangements were still a novel concept that took"getting used to" by employers and employees alike. Most of the participants inthe flexiplace pilot project were early adopters of the practice. For them, negotiat-ing a working flexiplace arrangement was a struggle, and one that was usuallywon only with the help of a compassionate champion. Even once an employeehad found a sympathetic ear, processing the request for off-site work wouldoften drag on through layers of bureaucracy.
Another outcome of unfamiliarity was a generalized sense of worry on thepart of the employee that the telework arrangement might be perceived by
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others as an excuse for malingering. As a result, flexiplace employees frequentlynoted that they were overcompensating. As they reported, they often foundthemselves trying to prove their sincerity by working longer hours and by over-producing. This tendency was exacerbated by the fact that the home had no cleardemarcations between work time and personal time and no social standards ofcomparison. Participants felt that, if unattended, these unclear boundaries inconjunction with anxiety over personal acceptance could make teleworkers vul-nerable to exploitation and burn-out.
Other problems included missed opportunities, lack of equipment andmaterials (especially over not having the simple supplies, forms, books, or othermaterials needed to complete work away from the office), and disruptions in thehome. As an illustration of this last point, one employee with hyperacusis (anextreme sensitivity to sounds) found that the noise of her refrigerator going onand off in her home was much more disruptive than the din of office noise atwork. In those cases where telecommuting arrangements did not work out,most employees either returned to the office full time or else modified theirarrangements to include more time in the office than originally planned.
3. DISCUSSION
The purpose of this article was to outline why the practice of telework should beuseful for helping managers meet the needs of employees with disabilities. Froma review of the literature, three justifications for initiating a telework programstood out. First, as a means of providing personal control over the workingenvironment, telework has the capacity of helping individuals and organizationscope with both severe and minor disruptions in daily work life. Second, forsome employees providing a mechanism to work at home may be the only wayof including them in the work force. For these employees telework is their onlyalternative to not working at all. Third, by creating a virtual organization in whichwork is equally supported from the office and from the home, managers canlevel the playing field on which persons with and without disabilities interact.The implications of the current study for each of these areas will now be discussed.
3.1 Coping with Work-life Disruptions
Three quarters of the participants in the Department of Defense study sufferedfrom long-term disabilities. In many cases, these participants had used wheel-chairs or in some other way had been restricted in their ability to move fromplace to place. For them, work-life disruptions were a fact of life. Something likea snowstorm, making it difficult for anyone to travel to and from work, madegetting into the office a virtual impossibility. Beyond just getting into work,routine problems would interrupt their working days. Physicians' visits, phys-ical therapy, medical complications, and fatigue all made it difficult to keeproutine working days. Before being able to telecommute, employees with chronicphysical problems were often forced to take sick days or time off work. Telecom-muting allowed them to deal with these emergencies in a way that did not in-
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terfere too dramatically with their work. It gave them control over their workschedules and over the complications imposed by their conditions.
What emerged from the interviews with study participants was a sense thatfor those with long-term disabilities, telework served as a type of personal insur-ance policy to help them cope with the stress of unexpected, but frequent, dis-ruptions. Since their conditions were chronic and therefore the disruptions wereongoing, these individuals usually made telecommuting part of their negotiatedwork contract. By establishing a routine policy, they knew they could work awayfrom the office as needed and did not have to worry about dealing with newemergencies. After a time, these employees even began using telework as a wayof coping with other types of disruptions. Not only did they stay at home to copewith complications from their disabilities, but they also began staying at home toavoid interruptions from telephone calls and unwanted meetings; in short,simply to be more productive. In many respects, these arrangements lookedvery much like the flexiplace agreements negotiated by employees, withoutdisabilities, within other pilot programs [13,33].
3.2 Inclusion in the Work Force
For the most part, participants in the pilot program who had long-term disabili-ties used flexiplace arrangements as part-time solutions to long-term problems.It is conceivable that these people would have remained in the work force inspite of their disabilities, and in fact many of them were able to work in theiroffices before negotiating flexible workplace arrangements. Telework simplyreduced the amount of stress these individuals felt when having to deal withunexpected emergencies.
For another group of employees, however, not working was a distinct pos-sibility had they not had the advantage of working at home. In the Departmentof Defense study, these were primarily people with debilitating physical con-ditions who were directed by their physicians not to go into the office at all.Roughly one quarter of the participants in the DOD study suffered from somesort of short-term disability for which this restriction applied: a broken leg, orcomplicated pregnancy, for example. Although restricted from going to theoffice, these employees felt that they could sHll get work done and regrettedhaving to use up their sick leave needlessly. Through the use of flexiplace, theywere able to negotiate arrangements whereby they could finish their work athome. These employees used full-time flexiplace arrangements for a short term.In accordance with the conjecture that flexiplace can support inclusion, partici-pants with short-term disabilities suggested that if it were not for flexiplace theywould have been out of the work force altogether during the period of theirrecuperation.
It should be noted that staying at home for a short time is a bounded exper-ience. Studies indicate that people can put up with almost any arrangement, nomatter how awkward or uncomfortable, if they know that the situation willchange some day [34]. It is difficult to know if the people who were stayinghome for a short period in the DOD study could have coped with the isolationand other difficulties associated with working away from the office on a more
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permanent basis. Nevertheless, such arrangements are not without precedent.The case Weisgerber [23] described of the quadriplegic engineer who workedfull time from home was a prime example of someone who found full-time tele-work an acceptable alternative to not working at all. As one participant in theDOD study conjectured: "There are people out there who may have cancer andare losing their hair and are emaciated, but they want to work, they can work,and they should be allowed to work. People do not want to be worthless. It isnice to know that you are needed."
3.3 Leveling the Flaying Field
Observations to support the third premise, that telework-enabling technologiesmay help level the playing field for some persons with disabilities, were notdirectly probed in this study. There were, however, some indications that thetopic would be a fruitful area for future research. For example, those who wereconnected through computer modems to their office's local area networks com-mented routinely that they felt like they remained "part of the team," eventhough they spent a good deal of their time at home. At least two interviewees,whose speech was impaired, found that they could interact better through elec-tronic mediation than speaking directly with the interviewer. One respondentinteracted solely through electronic mail, while the other preferred to sendquestions and answers through facsimile transmissions. Other respondentssuggested that interacting over the telephone or sending electronic mail was arelief; it felt comfortable not having their disabilities "stare them in the face."
4. RECOMMENDATIONS
Given the observations from this study, combined with expectations from thelarger literature base on telework and computer-mediated communication, thisarticle concludes with recommendations. These are offered with an eye towardcreating models of best practice for implementing telework as a means of increas-ing accessibility to the work force for persons with disabilities. Suggestions areoffered both from the perspective of the employee, who is considering teleworkas a possible work alternative, and to managers, for whom using informationtechnologies to improve conditions in the work force remain a high priority.
• Facilitate equal access through universal design. As organizations rely increas-ingly on the technologies that enable telework, managers must take pre-cautions to be sure that the entrances they build into the electronicallydistributed work community are equally accessible to all employees. Some-thing as simple as moving a company's electronic mail system from atext-based interface to a graphic user interface (GUI) may have the unin-tentional effect of excluding persons with vision impairments who must
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rely on voice synthesis to interact with their computers. The goal is tocreate solutions that are universally accessible to persons with and withoutdisabilities [35]. An analogy is often made to curb cuts in sidewalks. Curbcuts are the ramps set into sidewalks to make buildings accessible to per-sons in wheelchairs. With forethought, they are easy to install, they pro-vide access to persons with physical impairments, and at the same timethey may be used by able-bodied persons. When at all possible, designersshould work closely with human resources professionals to create "curbcuts" in the electronically distributed work community.
• Use adaptive technologies to overcome the constraints of specific disabilities.Sometimes making the working environment accessible means purchas-ing special adaptations for persons with specific disabilities. Voice syn-thesis programs, "sticky keys" allowing for single-stroke keybroardentry, braille readers, image enhancers, and optical readers are all examplesof adaptive technologies that can help employees transcend the limita-tions of their specific disabilities. If adaptive equipment is used in theoffice, efforts should be made to acquire the same equipment for workat home [36].
• Implement the organizational infrastructure to support a productive use of telework.Obstacles to the use of telework by employees with disabilities are fre-quently managerial rather than technological [29,33,37]. Recent efforts inthe United States, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe have begunto wear away at industrial-age managerial philosophies and for the firsttime are presenting telework as an option to a good number of employeeswith disabilities. These efforts, along with reports about their problems andsuccesses, should continue. Even just knowing about successful teleworkprograms may give some employees the psychological boost to weatherdifficult bouts with illness [17,34],
• Provide for community resources online. The more individuals move from thephysical world to the virtual world, the greater the need for commonresources online. One of the biggest complaints of teleworkers is discover-ing that they do not have critical information at home when they need it[13], The more the organization is able to put resources—in the form ofannouncements, telephone directories, and archival material—in a vir-tually shared space, the greater the chance that a teleworker will alwaysfind needed resources to be just a keystroke away.
• Bring teleworkers into conversations electronically. Participants in the DODflexiplace project appreciated being able to stay in touch with the officethrough E-mail messages while at home. Likewise research suggests thatteleworkers feel less isolated when connected to the conversation flow ofthe office through E-mail and other electronic messaging capabilities [29].When some employees are absent from the office, care should be taken toinclude them in routine E-mail messages, distribution lists, and interofficememoranda (paper or otherwise). If possible, teleworkers should be pro-vided with remote networking capabilities to share in any organizationallysponsored bulletin boards or news groups.
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