A Disability is Invisible in a Virtual Work Environment

Today’s technologies have definitely changed the landscape of employment opportunities for persons with a disability. A person with a disability can now be just as productive in several fields of employment as non-disabled persons. In many cases, being disabled has become a non-issue on the job. In fact, in a virtual work environment, you can actually completely hide your disability from your coworkers.  I came to that realization this week during an email conversation with one of my teammates:

We have eight people on our team and we are dispersed across six locations in the US and the UK. Even though I am the only team member in my office location, I still prefer to go into the office almost every day, but occasionally I will telecommute – mainly when it rains heavily because I like to keep my wheelchair dry and I don‘t like the inconvenience of having to deal with a rain coat. I generally try to act like anyone else in the company and I rarely ask for any special treatment due to my C5/C6 quadriplegia. However, I did ask for two laptops – one for my work office and one to keep at home, which goes against company policies. But it is not easy for me to carry a laptop back and forth between work and home in a wheelchair and to plug my laptop into the docking station when I arrive at work.

A few days ago I made a mention of my home laptop and my work laptop in an e-mail to one of my teammates. He replied to me questioning how I managed to get a hold of two laptops while no one else does. I replied back to him that I was able to get two laptops because it wasn’t easy for me to carry a laptop back and forth between work and home in a wheelchair. In his next reply he said: “Amazing, I never knew you were disabled using a wheelchair.  I would never have guessed.”

I was actually amazed myself because I have worked very closely with him for over a year now – we have almost daily meetings on the phone together, often share desktops, present subjects to each other, and e-mail and IM frequently. I was also surprised that no one else on my team who had met me before ever told him that I was confined to a wheelchair. That made me feel really good because that confirmed to me that the people on my team who already knew I was using a wheelchair are not making a big deal out of it and are more interested in what I am able to contribute to the project and the team in general, and treat me like anyone else on my team.

To me this was clear evidence that being disabled can be a complete nonissue as far as job performance goes. To some extent working in a virtual environment provides a person with a disability an air of freedom and dignity. And as more employers are starting to support telecommuting, more doors will be opened for people with a disability to join the workforce because it provides us with the reasonable work accommodations prescribed by the ADA.