Covid-19 changed the trajectory of Lucy Trieshmann’s legal career.
With Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare inherited disorder, in-person law classes were unbearable unless Trieshmann spent part of the time lying on the floor. After the March 2020 lockdown, many classes moved online, and before long, Trieshamn enjoyed watching them from home and ended up receiving a grant from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that included remote work.
“I was able to go to real estate court in New York representing clients and have energy for them because they were remote,” said Trieshmann, who uses the pronouns she/elu.
Trieshmann is among nearly two million Americans with disabilities who have found a job or started looking for one since December 2019, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is an unprecedented 30% increase in labor force participation for a group that, before the pandemic, had four in five people with disabilities excluded from the workforce, a rate that has now fallen to three in four.
Workforce participation of people with disabilities has increased along with the number of people identified with disabilities by departmental data in the broader U.S. population, driven, experts say, by greater self-identification of individuals with debilitating mental illnesses and long Covid .
For many, the abundance of remote work options during the pandemic has opened up job opportunities that had long been closed off. A strong job market also helped.
“A tight labor market increases opportunities for everyone, and working from home or remote work has expanded opportunities for some segments of workers with disabilities and strengthened their employment opportunities,” said Andrew Flowers, an economist at I work at Appcast, a digital services company. recruitment.
With more employers pushing for return-to-work policies in early 2024, this could mean these gains are at an inflection point. Indeed, although the department’s six-month smoothed data shows an upward trend, the three-month data is starting to level off.
HOW LONG WILL IT LAST’?
Some recent data shows that employment momentum for workers with disabilities is slowing, and some economists and experts say we could see a different picture in 2024.
For starters, a report from Resume Builder showed that 90% of companies plan to implement return-to-work in-person policies by the end of 2024, which could resurrect a pre-Covid barrier for many.
To keep people with disabilities employed, Stacy Cervenka, Senior Director of Policy at RespectAbility, says the federal government and public agencies need to act as model employers and establish guidelines that include remote work.
Some job seekers with disabilities, like Trieshmann, who is now looking for work as an attorney after completing an ACLU fellowship in December, say they are starting to feel the effects of in-person return-to-work policies. After initially receiving a job offer last year and traveling to meet interviewers in person, Trieshmann said the offer was rescinded.
“People ask inappropriate questions, questioning my basic work abilities because of my disability, even though my disability is exactly why I became a lawyer and what motivates me to do this work,” Trieshmann said .
Source: Terra
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