How a Growing Number of People Identifying as Disabled Could Impact Workplace Accessibility
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With leading networking and connectivity, advanced cybersecurity and expert partnership, Comcast Business helps turn today's enterprises into engines of modern business. Powering the engine of modern business. Powering possibilities. Restrictions apply. Here's your money briefing for Monday, March 10th. I'm Mariana Aspuru for The Wall Street Journal.

As more companies call employees back to the office, a growing number of people are seeking workplace accommodations based on mental health diagnoses. And it sparked a debate among disabled workers. They feel kind of torn. There are some who say strength in numbers. The more people who are advocating for their needs, that benefits everybody. But there are other folks who say, you know, I'm a little bit concerned about a boy who cried wolf phenomenon.

We'll talk to Wall Street Journal columnist Callum Borshers about the broader impact this could have on workplace accessibility after the break. With leading networking and connectivity, advanced cybersecurity and expert partnership, Comcast Business helps turn today's enterprises into engines of modern business. Powering the engine of modern business. Powering possibilities. Restrictions apply.

From 2021 to 2024, there was a 51% increase in complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from employees seeking workplace accommodations. Wall Street Journal columnist Callum Borshers joins me.

Callum, what has caused this number to spike? There are two big factors at play. One is there are just a lot more people who identify as having a disability. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses a pretty broad definition these days. In fact, it counts one in four American adults.

as disabled. And that can include anybody who has, let's say, any physical, emotional, or mental health condition that prevents them from leaving the house without anxiety, let's say, or having a hard time concentrating can be another trigger. So it's a lower bar than perhaps a lot of people have thought of in the past.

And so as a result, you have more people thinking, I may be entitled to protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Maybe people who didn't previously believe that they were entitled to those protections. And at the same time, of course, we have this return to work post-pandemic. And a lot of people who really liked working from home, who said, yo, this is a lot better for my mental, physical, emotional health. They'd prefer to stay remote. So some of those folks are asking for remote accommodations. And when a worker asks for one of those remote accommodations,

What does that entail? Yeah, it would basically entail asking your employer for an exemption from whatever the RTO mandate would be and saying, because of this condition, I do not want to have to go back to the office full time. And I believe I shouldn't have to. I believe that that in-office environment is an obstacle to my being able to do the job to the best of my ability. And how often are those requests granted? Well, it's still the vast majority of the time. I mean, if you look pre-pandemic, typically 95%, 96%

The phrase is reasonable accommodation, right? That's what's outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act. But of course, reasonable is in the eye of the beholder. And so that's why you get this kind of gray area. Our colleague Lauren Weber has done some reporting on this showing a slight decrease in the approval rate down to like 91, 92%. So still, we're talking the vast majority of the time workers get a yes. But when they don't, that's where you can get these complaints to the EEOC.

In your story, you describe a debate among disabled workers over the increasing number of workers seeking accommodations.

What are their concerns? When I talk to folks with disabilities, they feel kind of torn. There are some who say strength in numbers. The more people who are advocating for their needs, that benefits everybody. And we shouldn't be sniping at each other, trying to police, well, your condition isn't severe enough to qualify for having the disability label or not. But there are other folks who say, you know, I'm a little bit concerned about a boy who cried wolf phenomenon, where you get so many people who are asking for accommodations that

employers grow weary of this and then they start to maybe distrust some of the claims and do they renege on some of the opportunities? Remember, the last few years have been really great employment wise. We've seen the unemployment rate go way down for people with disabilities, largely because of remote work accommodations. And so I do talk to folks with disabilities who are concerned about losing ground on this front.

Have companies said anything about this? Not much on the record. You know, it's very delicate for them. And really, nobody wants to be in the position of refereeing who is really disabled enough. But the managers I've talked to who will quietly talk about this, they are particularly torn about the mental and emotional health conditions.

I don't hear any managers objecting to, oh, I mean, I have to install a screen reader on my computers because I have a blind employee. Like nobody's complaining about that stuff or nobody's complaining about installing ramps and elevators and making sure that you're ADA compliant. It's the workers now coming out of the pandemic saying working from home was really life changing for me because I have depression or I have anxiety or I have PTSD and going out or at least going to an office every single day is triggering for me and

I do my job better in the comfort of my own home office. And really it comes down to, in some cases, just how good

the employee is at what they do. I spoke with a man named Vincent Martin, for example, who is blind. He's a three-time Paralympian and he's an accessibility engineer at a bank. And so he thinks about these issues all day. And he said, the reality is I've seen companies accommodate just about anything for employees who are really important and really valuable. And then they're a little bit tougher to convince if you're just sort of a regular Joe. How can the employee navigate those gray areas you're talking about?

and approach their employer with this. It really comes down to just being kind of honest with yourself about whether what you're asking for is a need or a convenience. One of my takeaways from working on this story and talking to so many people with disabilities is that those invisible disabilities are very real and have real effects on people's lives. I also came away with great respect for the perspective of people like Justina Plowden, who is in a wheelchair. She was partially paralyzed in a terrible car accident 14 years ago.

and has worked incredibly hard to regain her life function. She has some use of her hands and she is relearning to drive, even though getting behind the wheel of a car is really frightening for her because that was how she ended up in a wheelchair in the first place. And here she is getting ready to start an in-person job at a court clerk's office as she finishes her bachelor's degree.

She's heading off to law school in the fall. And she's one of the people who has some concern about the boy who cried wolf phenomenon with maybe too many people asking for remote work accommodations based on mental health diagnoses. And so for folks who are in that gray area, it's worth respecting the perspective of somebody like Justina, who says, please, please, please ask for it if you need it. But also, please, please, please don't abuse it because there could be some backlash on people like me. That's WSJ columnist Callum Borschers. And that's it for your Money Briefing.

This episode was produced by Zoe Culkin with supervising producer Melanie Roy. I'm Mariana Aspuru for The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening.