The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is 30 years old, but there’s still plenty of work that needs to be done to truly integrate the disabled community. Too many situations arise where a disabled person has physical access issues, or when someone cannot get the work accommodations needed to achieve employment success.
But you know what really infuriates me? When the able-bodied abuse an accommodation or service offered to or needed by the disabled.
You know what really infuriates me? When the able-bodied abuse an accommodation or service offered to or needed by the disabled. Click To Tweet
Diminishing Or Hiding An Accommodation
I have a subscription with a local grocery store where I could order online, set up a time for pickup, and get our groceries loaded into our care by a store employee. Great system that worked well for years. Understandably, there’s a higher demand for pickup times now that the Stay At Home order is in place. Even though they post all delivery times for the upcoming 7 days, they would all be taken every time I checked over a 3 week period.
The grocery store understood how that high demand would have a bad impact on their immuno-compromised shoppers, so they opened up earlier shopping times and specific pick up times. They updated their site pages and emails to offer these opportunities to the community.
Well, to the senior community. The verbage and graphics all referenced their 60+ customers. As a disabled person, I felt abandoned by a store chain I had shopped for years. Hell, when they opened up a new store a mile away from my house, I became one of their first regular pick-up customers. Their prominent Senior Program felt like a giant middle finger was extended to the disabled community. Here’s an ad from the front page of their site:
I searched their website to see if there was a COVID-19 statement that detailed all of their updated policies. Silly me thought there would be a link to take me right to it, but I had to type COVID in the Search box to find it.
The memo had a section called Senior Shopping that outlined their dedicated shopping times, pickup hours, and reduced delivery charge. Oh, it ended with the following sentence:
We invite other vulnerable populations to shop during this designated time, as well.
Then they showed a copy of the ad I showed above. You know, the one that says Offer good for seniors 60 and older only.
But other “vulnerable populations” are supposed to interpret that the ads that say are for seniors only also apply to us. We’re supposed to know we’re invited. That’s a lameass invitation. That’s like sending a party invitation postmarked the day after the party but saying you were invited.
Abusing An Accommodation For Greed
Since I couldn’t pick up from my usual grocery store, I was pleased to discover during the Stay At Home order is ordering grocery delivery online. One of our local stores offered a free delivery order through Instacart. The delivery experience was so positive that I signed up an annual subscription. I wouldn’t have to pay delivery fees if I ordered a minimum amount.
When I make an order, I’m to include a tip for the shopper(s) fulfilling my order(s), and I’ve tipped high on each order. After all, I’m asking someone to do something I can’t do for myself. I’m also asking someone else to take the risk of going out to a grocery store while my family is safe at home. I was unhappy that the recommended tip amount was only 5% of the order amount. Who would be that cheap for someone going to all of this trouble?
Turns out things were even worse than I thought. People have been offering high tips on an Instacart order to entice a shopper, and then they change the tip to $0 after the order has been delivered. Read about it here. I’ve had a number of thoughts since reading that article, and the kindest thing I can say is that these people are assholes.
I’ve been tipping high to show my gratitude for the people willing to make sure I can feed my family. I’m showing my gratitude that my husband doesn’t have to head to a grocery store before or after a full day of teleworking and risk bringing disease back into our house with him. Now I’m concerned that my high tip will be regarded with suspicion because of the reprehensible behavior of others.
One shopper called me from the store because she wanted to discuss some possible substitutions. During the call, I thanked her for shopping for me since I’m immuno-compromised. She told me it was her pleasure. Now I’m concerned that when I submit a request with a high tip that I’ll raise suspicions instead of sharing true appreciation. Will it take longer for someone to choose to shop my order because they’re questioning whether I’ll actually pay them what I think they deserve?
But enough about groceries.
Refused Accommodations Magically Appear
When locations were put on lockdown, working from home became the standard. It was also a grim reminder to many disabled and chronically ill people who had requested the opportunity to work from home and were denied. I had no clue. I was an IT Manager for a company that considered work from home part of standard operating procedures. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I worked for a visionary.
Remember the bird flu? In 2005, millions of birds died from the H5N1 virus. The virus also killed 65 people who worked closely with infected birds. Scientists were warning that if the virus mutated into a version that could be transmitted person to person, millions would die. A 2005 article from The Guardian included estimates ranging from 7.4 million to 200 million deaths globally. When the bird flu did not mutate, the world breathed a sigh of relief and moved on.
Not my IT department. Our Chief Information (CIO) realized that the biggest risk for companies wasn’t a natural disaster, but a prolonged quarantine that would keep staff away from the office for an extended period of time. A natural disaster would be a blip, while a quarantine would be devastating economically for companies that weren’t prepared. So over several years, we identified challenges and improved processes. The biggest areas of concern was identifying which positions required physical location access and how everyone else would work from home, but we figured out how to make it work. When the H1N1 (aka swine flu) outbreak hit in 2009, we were ready.
I’ve learned that many of the assumptions I had made based on this experience were false.
- I assumed that the bird flu and swine flu had shown companies the risks of a quarantine and had planned accordingly.
Scientists tried to warn us. They wrote articles and drew maps showing how a contagion would spread quickly human-to-human. They tried during the bird flu and again with the swine flu. Each time, most businesses were so wrapped up in their five-year strategic plans that they wouldn’t assign the time and labor to appropriately prepare for a quarantine. And throughout this time, they were explaining to the disabled community why work from home couldn’t happen. Then the entire business had to work from home. Then entire businesses had to make work from home happen, and in a short period of time, it happened.
- I assumed that companies had seen that enabling work from home would increase the quality of the hiring process.
Find a great prospect in another location that doesn’t want to physically move? Learn that the best qualified candidate needs to work from home to manage their health. Companies who integrate working from home could choose from a larger pool of talent.
- I assumed that companies realized that work from home would reduce turnover.
Employees may wish to move to be closer to family members. An employee’s spouse gets a job offer in a different city, The family has to move for health reasons. If working from home is an option, employees can move and keep their job.
- I assumed that companies realized that work from home would reduce absenteeism.
Sometimes, healthy employees need to stay home because they need to have something installed or repaired at home. Work from home would allow the employee to remain productive while waiting through that 8am-noon service window.And how about all of those people who come to work with a sore throat or other symptoms? They don’t want to use their sick leave (or they don’t have sick leave). They can pass along their cold, bronchitis, etc. that would make other employees too sick to come into the office. Allowing work from home would let that plague rat stay away from your healthy employees but still get things done.
- I assumed that companies would have realized they could lower facility costs by allowing work from home.
Facilities planning requires a challenging balance. Companies don’t want empty offices adding to rent, utilities, and other associated facility costs. Those that bid on contracts want to have overhead streamlined to allow them to bid lower and win more work. But companies also want to be able to increase staff as needed to increase growth. Working from home allows your business to reduce facility needs, which decreases costs.
Disabled and chronically ill people were repeatedly told that working from home was not possible. Now businesses are proving that working from home is possible, I just hope that once the quarantine is lifted that work from home is still an option. It’s a win for business as well as for people with chronic illnesses or disabilities.
So, What’s Next?
A crisis shows the best and worst in people. Amidst the chaos, some truths still stay the same.
- If you’re offering an accommodation, make sure you advertise it to anyone eligible. Don’t make people dig around for fine print to see if they’re included. Stop treating a significant part of your customer bases as afterthoughts.
- Don’t be a dick. Don’t game the system so that you’re getting more than you deserve by misrepresentation. If you’ve told someone you’re going to pay for their services, don’t cheat them after they’ve done the service for you. Not only are you hurting the person whom you’re no longer paying, but you’re putting legitimate customers in danger of missing out on needed services because of the mistrust you’ve festered.
- If someone asks for an accommodation, give the idea serious thought. It may turn out that the accommodation given to chronically ill and disabled people can end up improving the work environment for all staff.
