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Policy Initiatives to Support Workplace Accommodations

Assistive technologies such as screen readers or techniques such as improved lighting that help people with disabilities gain greater access to the workplace are fairly well known. Also significant are policies that support workplace accommodations. Perhaps the most recognized of these is Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities in their place of employment. Yet the ADA is only one component in a much larger network of laws, regulatory rulemakings, and court rulings that guarantee that people with disabilities will have access to the workplace.

One goal of the WorkRERC’s Policy Initiatives Project is the development of a policy framework that identifies and assesses policies, practices, and issues that influence the availability and nature of workplace accommodations. One way we achieve this objective is through regular reviews of federal and state regulatory, legislative, and policy activities. Another method is through the WorkRERC’s ongoing “Policy Delphi on Workplace Accommodations.”

The policy Delphi method is a polling instrument that gathers and analyzes the opinions of key stakeholders on important and complex policy issues. Some of the key issues addressed by our current policy Delphi include: the collection of data on workplace accommodations, expanding awareness by employers about making accommodations, addressing the needs of workers who are aging into disability, the use of telework and distributed work as workplace accommodations, improved planning for emergency egress and communications for workers with disabilities, interfaces between AT and information and communication technologies, and universal design approaches to create a more accessible workplace. Our policy Delphi seeks to explore participants’ feelings on awareness, regulatory, economic, social, and technological issues related to workplace accommodations.

It is important to support people with disabilities, determine their needs for accommodations in the workplace, and create public policies that promote their integration into the workplace, as well as into the larger communities in which the various workplaces exist. To this end, our project explores approaches to the use of policy as a cross-disciplinary vehicle for achieving improved workplace conditions.

Contact

Paul M.A. Baker, Ph.D., AICP
Project Director, Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP, Georgia Tech)
Phone: 404-385-4618
paul.baker@cacp.gatech.edu