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A little over a year after people began to isolate at home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, my Facebook feed is flooded with people celebrating an imminent “return to normal” thanks to the advent of the COVID-19 vaccine. While I’m excited that I may soon be able to do things like hug my friends and family, I also can’t help but feel a certain degree of dread at the idea of going back to a version of normal life that was never accessible to me in the first place.
I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when I was less than a year old, and I’ve used a wheelchair for most of my life. I need help to do basic things like getting out of bed and getting dressed, which means they can take a lot longer and can be a lot more complicated for me than they are for most people. I don’t think of my disability as a bad thing because it’s just part of who I am, but the inaccessibility of society definitely makes my life harder than it has to be.
We’ve all learned to live remotely
One of the positive side effects of pandemic life has been that it forced society to do something disabled people have been asking for for years: Be more flexible and open to doing things differently. From Zoom happy hours to remote work, virtual conferences and events, the pandemic has shown us that we have the ability to communicate, connect and collaborate in a multitude of ways.
For me and millions of others, “normal” never really worked. An estimated one in four Americans are disabled in some way, according to 2018 report by the CDC and the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that over 80% of people living with disabilities are unemployed. People with disabilities are half as likely to have a high school diploma as their nondisabled counterparts, and the same holds true for bachelors degrees, according to another report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the pandemic is changing the face of the workforce in ways that could benefit many disabled people like me.
The percentage of people who work from home has increased from 20% before the pandemic to 71% during the pandemic, according to a study from the Pew Research Center, This same study shows that about half of people working from home cite increased flexibility with hours and scheduling as a benefit of remote work. That’s a key element to changing the employment and educational landscape for many disabled people. It certainly has for me.
Now, I can participate in work and social life
I relish my increased access to social engagements, conferences and even things like museums and virtual tours of cultural institutions that I could never dream of going to in person. Attending social engagements virtually means I’m not limited by the fact that most of my friends and family don’t live in spaces that are fully accessible to me. I now have weekly happy hours with my friends and I’ve been able to attend and really enjoy every birthday celebration without having to worry about whether the venue will be accessible or how far I will have to travel to get there.
But the benefits aren’t limited to my social life. I’ve been able to balance grad school with an internship and a part-time job, something I never would have dreamed of doing before working from home became commonplace. I no longer have to worry about accessible transportation to and from the office, which has freed up so much time and energy in my day. I was already attending school virtually, but now there are more options for classes, and I can do my internship and my job without ever leaving my house.
That also means I don’t need as much assistance and support as I normally would. This year, I spoke at a conference in New York City from my apartment in Washington, DC. I didn’t have to arrange (and pay for) an assistant to travel with me to help with my needs in an unfamiliar environment. I will be able to attend the virtual graduation ceremony for my Master’s degree, and share that moment with loved ones, something that I’d likely be unable to do in person. I can go to doctors appointments on my own because I don’t have to worry about getting in and out of inaccessible buildings, stress out about a lack of transportation or plan my whole day around something that would take the average person 15 minutes.
Even though some of these virtual alternatives existed before the pandemic, they weren’t widely accepted. For example, I once had to drive two days for a business trip because flying is inaccessible to me, and the organization I was working for at the time was uncomfortable with me attending virtually. Now that virtual options are more accepted, my opportunities are not limited by geography.
We can carry pandemic lessons forward
It may sound strange, but during the pandemic, my social and work life have been fuller than ever, and it felt amazing to be able to fully access things in a way that felt comfortable to me. It breaks my heart to think that as so many people exit isolation, others will be forced back into it because virtual access will be deemed no longer necessary. It hurts me to hear people say they’re looking forward to getting off Zoom, when Zoom events allowed me to be part of things for the first time in my 30 years of life.
I envision a world where events happen simultaneously in-person and virtually, and people aren’t pressured to go into spaces that are not accessible or safe for them in order to avoid missing out on life. If we’ve learned one thing this year, it’s that remote work is a viable long-term option for many of us. A number of companies including REI, Nationwide Insurance, Zillow and Facebook are already allowing at least a portion of their staff to work remotely indefinitely, according to Business Insider. That’s good news for those of us for whom telework isn’t a luxury, but a necessity.
I’m glad we can see a light at the end of the tunnel of this pandemic, but we don’t have to go back to an exclusionary normal. We can take the lessons we’ve learned and move forward into a better, more inclusive world.
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