Thankfully, with vaccines being distributed across the country in recent months, a small glimmer of light is finally at the end of this long, dark pandemic tunnel. However, despite the world — hopefully — getting back to somewhat normal, a lot has changed in the past year. There have been many dark moments, but some aspects of pandemic life have actually benefited those of us with disabilities. One of the best things to come from the pandemic is that more people are working from home than ever before, and many of those are now doing it for the first time.

While people with disabilities have been fighting for the ability to work from home for years and now finally can, it doesn’t come without its drawbacks. Mastering the work/home balance can be incredibly tricky, but after a year of rolling on the working-from-home tightrope, many have perfected the routine.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with a couple fellow wheelchair users about their transition from working in an office to home, and what they have learned in that process.

The Month the Work-World Changed

Andrea Klein is a business analyst in the IT department at Life Care Centers of America, a company that owns and operates skilled nursing homes in 28 states. She has worked for the company for more than 20 years, but began working from home on March 13, 2020.

“I distinctly remember that day because it was a pretty rapid pack-up of essential items from my cubicle,” she says. She took only her laptop and charging cord, a notepad, a few ink pens and a couple of binders with reference materials she might need. “I left my beloved large monitors, docking station and my desktop flip calendar that’s sat on March 13, 2020 ever since,” says Klein, who uses a power wheelchair.  “Since I’m an individual with respiratory muscle weakness associated with my neuromuscular condition and a noninvasive ventilation user with fragile respiratory health, my supervisor told me that afternoon she had approval for me to begin working from home for as long as I felt like I needed to, in order to be safe from the virus.”

Another powered wheelchair user, Bill Crowley, is an attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin and has worked in this role for six years. Crowley, who has a C6-7 spinal cord injury, also manages his blog, Mr. Milwaukee, where he shares his wheelchair-friendly take on all things Milwaukee.

On March 16, 2020, Crowley started working from home full-time. “My office closed down due to the pandemic,” he says. “I had worked from home on occasion in the past, for instance, if I had a medical or wheelchair maintenance appointment and it didn’t make sense schedule-wise for me to commute into the office afterwards.”

Like any new thing, Crowley says that working from home took some getting used to. “When working in the office, my team would routinely bounce ideas off one another or ask for advice on casework,” he says, adding that there was also “a strong office culture with monthly potlucks, where we caught each other up on what our teams were working on. In switching to working from home, we lost that easy collaboration and ability to connect with the team just down the hallway.”

Aside from the office culture changing, it was also difficult to even manage working in a new physical space. “Normally, I have my own office that is full of work-related documents and past case files I can look back to for reference,” Crowley says. “I can also close my door to be free of distractions. When working from home, there are a ton of possible distractions, and you have to keep those in check.”

Similarly, Klein dealt with physical difficulties when she first started working from home as well. “My eyesight was challenged by using a small laptop screen at home,” she says. “My husband set up an old 19-inch TV as a monitor for me, but there was no ideal way for the TV to sit upright in my small office area off of our kitchen, so I later purchased a monitor that I could use with both my employer’s laptop during the workday and with my own laptop during the evenings.”

The Positives Outweigh the Challenges

There are some challenges to working from home, as previously mentioned, but the benefits seem to far outweigh them. “It is definitely much easier and more convenient to work from home. Because I don’t feel that I need to wear make-up at home, invest time into perfectly-fixed hair, or deal with traffic on the way driving there. I’m able to sleep longer and don’t have to spend as long getting ready for work. This has helped me to conserve energy,” says Klein. “For someone with a condition that causes fatigue and requires a certain amount of breathing muscle rest on a noninvasive ventilator, working from home has been very good for my health.”

When discussing the positive aspects of working from home, Klein also adds, “Toileting at home is easier. The restroom where I work meets my current accessibility needs, but nothing works as perfectly for me as my home set up. As my accessibility needs change for my progressive condition, I believe my home can be more easily and quickly adapted to meet those needs.”

From both Klein and Crowley, the long commutes to and from work seem to be one of their biggest peeves, so the 15 second commute now from the bed to the computer is a big bonus. “I would say the biggest convenience is the elimination of a commute,” says Crowley. “I normally use public transportation to get to work, which is typically an hour commute each way. In winter, there can be snowdrifts that block bus stops or curb cuts, which is an extra added headache to deal with. Working from home saves me a lot of time, aggravation, and wear and tear on my wheelchair.”

Working from home is something that many wheelchair users hope will continue, even after the pandemic ends. Crowley not only wants to keep working from home, but he also thinks that, “a silver lining of all this working from home is that employers are seeing the feasibility and the benefits of giving employees the ability to work remotely, for people of all abilities.” His hope is that some of this flexibility continues in the future and that it helps open up more employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Tips for Working From Home

Working from home can be tricky, especially in the beginning. It’s convenient to scroll Facebook, watch a movie on Netflix, or do pretty much anything other than concentrate on the work that needs to be completed. On the other hand, it can also be difficult not to work overtime since your house is your office.

“I would say the most important thing is to have defined work hours and non-work hours. Having a workspace that is separate from where you spend most of your leisure time lets you physically leave a place and helps you unplug from work,” says Crowley. “Once I stop working, I stop working. I do not constantly check my email or keep working on something that can be finished the next day.”

Andrea Klein thinks it is also important to have hobbies that help separate your work and personal life. “I am conscientious about my work, but I have other passions that I immerse myself into,” she says. “I make time each day to do something I enjoy, like volunteering my time serving my nonprofit Breathe with MD, playing and snuggling with my basset hound, watching TV shows, cooking, baking and working on crafts and hobbies.”

Working from home is certainly a challenge at times, but like anything, the more you do it, the better you’ll be at it. It absolutely comes with benefits, especially for those of us in the disability community, and employers are hopefully taking note of those benefits and realizing for the first time that it actually is possible for people to work from home. Is a global pandemic what it took for people with disabilities to get the accommodations they’ve been requesting for years? It’s looking like it. At least one good thing came from the mess that was 2020 … and 2021.