Publisher: Archnet-IJAR (authors: Andrew Martel, Kirsten Day, Mary Ann Jackson, and Saumya Kaushik)
Topics: Supported Employment Practice-Best Practices, Pathways-Professional Development, Workplace Solutions - Accommodations, Workplace Solutions - Jobseeker and Employee Engagement, Workplace Solutions-Virtual employment, Workplace Solutions - Disability Specific Workplace Inclusion
Year published: 2021
Type of resource: Publication

The COVID-19 pandemic has engendered changes in previously unimaginable timeframes, leading to new ways of working, which can quickly become the “ordinary” way of working. Many traditional workplace and educational practices and environments, however, are disadvantageous to people with disability and consequently are under-represented in the workforce and higher education.
The Beyond the pandemic: the role of the built environment in supporting people with disabilities work life research paper finds that remote and flexible working arrangements may hold opportunities for enhancing work participation of people with disabilities. Instigating systemic conditions that will empower people with disability to take full advantage of ordinary working trajectories is key. As the current global experiment in modified work and study practices has shown, structural, organisational and design norms need to change. The future of work and study is almost certainly more work and study from home. An expanded understanding of people with disabilities lived experience of the built environment encompassing opportunities for work, study and socialisation from home and the neighbourhood would more closely align with the UNCRPD's emphasis on full citizenship.