Work RERC

1. International Conference on Aging, Disability and Independence (ICADI) St. Petersburg, FL Friday, February 22, 2008 Work RERC Policy Change and the Accommodating Workplace: Issues, Barriers and Opportunities Paul M.A. Baker, Ph.D., AICP Nathan W. Moon Workplace Accommodations RERC CACP www.workrerc.org Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP) and the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) Georgia Institute of Technology National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education

2. 1.0 Introduction: Policy and the Workplace • 1996 Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) found 7.2 million individuals with a disability able to work with some limitations in the type of work they could do • Implementation of appropriate workplace accommodations is one approach that has been used to reach the goal of equal employment opportunity for people with disabilities • Successful workplace accommodations incorporate an array of technological, process, and policy at the employer and governmental levels • Design of policy/process/environments, facilitating workplace integration of employees, aging or otherwise, to optimize workplace collaboration and engagement

3. 1.0 Introduction: Policy and the Workplace (II) • Research conducted by Workplace Accommodations Rehabilitation Engineering and Research Center (RERC), identifies, designs, and develops devices and systems to help people with disabilities be more productive in the workplace • Provide ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the pertinent policy, legislative, and regulatory environments • Develop a policy framework to identify and assess policies, practices and issues that influence the nature and availability of workplace accommodations • Generate policy and practice options, and propose programmatic recommendations

4. 2.0 Federal Policy Environment • Policy influences employment context as well as the development and availability of technology • Legislative efforts, even within disability context, focus on cost reduction, not increased civil rights of people with disabilities • U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) program reviews • Office of Disability Employment Policy (Labor Dept.)/ Society for Human Resource Management alliance to promote employment of PWD • Department of Justice 2006 report “Access for All: Five Years of Progress,” looks at nationwide enforcement of (ADA) during the past five years • Market based approaches (e.g. Sec. 508 Rehabilitation Act)

5. 3.0 Policy Design Approach • Empirically based research used to develop policy approaches • Conceptual framework (“themes,” associated barriers, impact on workplace, stakeholders, policy related approaches to addressing the problems, and potential outcomes from problem resolution) developed to guide policy change • Consultation with key stakeholders • Key issues, and potential policy options probed using online policy Delphi Method • Output from Policy Delphi used to develop and influence policy formulation (papers, briefs, guidances, regulatory filings)

6. 4.0 Policy Delphi • Conventional Delphi is a systematic, judgmental forecasting procedure to obtain, exchange informed expert opinion • Policy Delphi more closely matches complexities of policy problems; involves informed advocates or key stakeholders, in addition to policy issue “experts” • 72 questions related to forecasts, key issues, goals and options • First round of the Delphi (December 2006 and January 2007) E-mail invitations sent to key stakeholders. 91 people registered for the e-Delphi, 44 completed the first round • Subsequent rounds scheduled for completion this year

7. 4.0 Policy Delphi (example page)

8. Workplace Accommodations Conceptual Policy Matrix [i] Anderson, Jane. (2001). “Telecommuting: Meeting the needs of businesses and employees with disabilities,” Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, (16) 2.

9. 5.0 Key Conceptual Themes • Emergency preparedness and safety in the workplace for persons with disabilities • Inadequate/insufficient data on the incidence, nature, and cost of workplace accommodations • Incomplete employer understanding/awareness of workplace accommodations • Telework as an accommodation for persons with disabilities • Aging as an issue of increasing salience regarding the U.S. workforce and the need to address the needs of aging persons with disability and workers aging into disability.

10. 5.0 Accommodation Barriers/Considerations (I) • Emergency plans for workplaces may not be designed to fit the needs of employees with disabilities • Employer misconceptions (in an emergency situation) that employees with disabilities are more likely to be at risk of serious injury than able-bodied employees. • Insufficient comprehensive data available on workplace accommodations implemented for persons with disabilities • Employer perspectives lacking in the development of “best practices” workplace accommodations; • Employers lack clarity on what is an “accommodation”

11. 5.0 Accommodation Barriers/Considerations (II) • Interoperability issues • Legislation/ rulemaking mandating the accessibility of telecommunications services for persons with disabilities fails to address newer technologies: e-mail, wireless telecom, etc. • Research in collaborative and virtual workspaces not necessarily conducted with special considerations for people with disabilities (telecommuting vs. telework) • Needs of aging workers with disabilities vs. workers aging into disability? • Older workers with disabilities lack awareness that they may be eligible for workplace accommodations

12. 6.0 Policy Objectives/Considerations (I) • Increased involvement of people with disabilities in the emergency plan development process • Increased outreach efforts to encourage corporate awareness about information technology accommodation resources • Systematic cataloguing of existing accommodations to provide best practice examples of existing workplace accommodations • Balance federal guidelines and regulation to encourage implementation of telework for persons with disabilities with alternative market-based/outreach mechanisms

13. 6.0 Policy Objectives/Considerations (II) • Develop examples, best practice approaches, training modules to help employers foster proximate/virtual social networks • Explore consensus based (consultative) approaches, to augment traditional federal intervention approaches • Increased participation of employer in policy development: research, barrier assessment, best practice development • Development of a common understanding of “workplace accommodations”

14. 7.0 Interim Conclusions (I) • Emergency preparedness and safety issues received the highest degree of support by respondents, yet respondents were unclear on how to best address problem • Employers increasingly recognize aging workers as a growing population; and consequently the importance of appropriate accommodations • Employers unclear on range of accommodation options available to them, or reluctant to pay for them because they assume that they are too expensive • Continued need to develop approaches to improve issue awareness, and information flow to/from policymakers: outreach and education

15. 7.0 Interim Conclusions (II) • Policy interventions include training initiatives employee and employer, economic incentives, public sector examples • Expand use of formal commenting processes (via filings, comments and testimonies) to inform policymaking, and regulations • Multi-disciplinary research initiatives beyond technical issues addressing social inclusion/participation issues, including ancillary disciplines such as planners and sociologists • Expand use of wireless/IT technologies/collaborative virtual environments to improve the teleworking experience for all

16. 8.0 Policy Development/Next Steps (I) • Delphi (first round) provides issue clarification and policy objectives from experts/stakeholders • Subsequent research focuses on 4 key issue areas using policy to link objectives to proposed outcomes • Specific interventions, strategies and initiatives to be developed and refined with input from key stakeholders and are designed to address specific identified barriers • Increased collaboration with other related RERCs to leverage policy activities and effect policy change • Expand expert resources through renewed stakeholder involvement using “collaborative policy network” concept

17. 8.0 Policy Development/Next Steps (II) • Ongoing monitoring legal, regulatory, and policy activities at the federal and state level • Produce informative newsletters, publications, guidance and other materials • Generate filings/comments to the FCC/ pertinent agencies • Outreach Activities (e.g. Southern Growth Policies Board; RESNA Committee; American Planning Association) • Delphi Round 2 will run for about another 2 weeks; to participate contact: nathan.moon@cacp.gatech.edu

18. www.workrerc.org We wish to acknowledge the assistance of Lynzee Head, Andrew C. Ward, the Wireless RERC, the HERO (Human-Environment Regional Observatory) online Delphi System, Penn State University [http://hero.geog.psu.edu/eDelphi/] This research supported by grant #H133E020720 and H133E010804 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education H133E010804. The opinions contained in this publication are those of the grantee and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Education.