Column: WFM accommodations changing due to coronavirus

As the coronavirus pandemic winds its way through the United States, millions of people are being forced to work from home during this time of crisis.

Unless you are an essential worker, such as a health care employee or a grocery store worker, you are being asked to stay at home, and in many states being ordered to, in order to curb the spread of the virus.

People from different occupations are being asked to work from home (WFH), and that is now being given as a privilege, rather than an accommodation.

In the 1999 Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was revised in 2002, the Equal Opportunity Commission stated that telecommuting from home is a form of reasonable accommodation.

A reasonable accommodation is anything that can be done in the work environment to enable an individual with a disability to do the same type of work an individual without a disability would have.

Normally, in order to work from home, one would have to ask their supervisor to work from home and get it approved as an ADA accommodation for a disability. Over a short span of time, businesses were able to go fully remote and work from home and give those accommodations to their employees, whether or not they were defined as having a disability.

Over the years, it has been increasingly difficult for many individuals to file for work accommodations without the threat of being fired or otherwise punished by their job. Interviewing some students on campus with disabilities, a student that asked to remain anonymous said “Several employees have been allowed to work from home since early March, but I had a panic attack in the office the other day and was forced to stay and work. The nature of my job makes it so not all of it can be done at home, but 2/3 can be. I’ve only been given one day at home and I had to fight for it.”