For decades and especially as of March 2020, workplace experts were expounding on the value of remote work for people with disabilities.
For federal workers with disabilities, President Donald Trump’s January 2025 “Return to In-Person Work” memorandum could have been troublesome if telework was a part of any workplace accommodations. More than a year later, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Office of Personnel Management jointly issued document to help agencies comply.
“Agencies should not take a blanket approach to rescind and deny all recurring or full-time telework accommodations,” EEOC said in the Feb. 11 technical assistance document, formatted as responses to common questions about federal telework accommodations.
The agency referred to text in the presidential memo itself, which says telework decisions must be “consistent with applicable law.”
What the Rehabilitation Act requires and how it applies
Like the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act — which applies to applicants and employees of the federal government’s executive branch — states that it’s unlawful to discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability, and that the individual must be able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodations.
But like the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act doesn’t define “reasonable accommodation,” or what telework is, the EEOC pointed out in its FAQ document.
Regarding reasonable accommodations under the ADA, the EEOC has previously suggested:
- acquiring or modifying equipment or devices.
- job restructuring.
- part-time or modified work schedules.
- reassignment to a vacant position.
- adjusting or modifying examinations, training materials or policies.
- providing readers and interpreters.
- making the workplace readily accessible to and usable by people with disabilities.
In the most recent document, EEOC outlined that full-time telework, recurring or routine telework, and situational telework could be a worthwhile approach to disability accommodations, but that a federal agency’s disability accommodations should always be fact-specific.
“A distinction must be made between cases where telework is the only effective reasonable accommodation for a qualified employee with a disability and cases where telework is just one of several effective options,” EEOC said in its FAQ. “When there are several reasonable and effective options, an agency may choose an accommodation other than telework.”
How disability violations have looked in the private sector
Remote work has continually been a topic of lawsuits alleging ADA violations. The EEOC brought a case in September 2024 against an employer, alleging it violated the law when it refused to approve remote work for a worker who had experienced a stroke.
The employee’s role involved electronically managing service tickets and responding to customer inquiries for a utility company. After her stroke, the employee said she asked to work remotely full time, because the office lights and the task of commuting worsened her condition.
The EEOC said the company’s refusal was a violation of the ADA, because on-site work was allegedly not an essential function of the job, and the case remains in litigation.
However, a different worker’s lawsuit alleging an ADA violation around remote work did not ultimately succeed. The plaintiff took leave after a PTSD diagnosis and returned with a temporary agreement from the trucking company employer to work partially on-site and partially from home. After a few extensions, the employer fired the worker.
A district court ruled in the company’s favor and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also shot down the plaintiff’s appeal, maintaining that full-time, in-person work was essential to the job.
What HR can learn from the EEOC about telework
Even private-sector HR professionals may find some lessons in EEOC’s recent document.
For example, Chair Andrea Lucas highlighted the “the importance of engaging in the interactive accommodations process” in a Feb. 11 statement sharing the FAQs.
And in the document itself, EEOC noted that employers don’t always need to grant telework when other options exist, but also cautioned against rescinding previously granted telework amid top-down RTO mandates.
“If an agency takes a blanket approach and revokes previously granted telework without first making an individualized assessment, it risks liability in those cases where an individualized assessment would have shown that telework was either the only possible effective accommodation or that an in-office alternative was necessary to maintain an effective accommodation in lieu of telework,” the EEOC said.
The EEOC acknowledged that individualized determinations on all previously granted telework accommodations will take time and effort, recommending that management make these potential accommodation changes “with an eye towards minimizing disruption.”
Notably, a SHRM report from last fall reaffirming that remote work has helped people with disabilities participate more fully in the workforce. The labor force of workers with disabilities increased by more than 30% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the organization’s data, with SHRM citing the increase in remote and flexible jobs as the reason for this increase.
OPM Director Scott Kupor pointed to a need for fair, consistent accommodation decisions in the joint press release, saying that “returning to in-person work and upholding disability rights are not mutually exclusive.”