Introduction

In this article, I will provide a brief overview of workplace accommodations for people with disabilities, give examples of workplace accommodations including from my own experience and offer resources to learn more about this topic.

Workplace Accommodations: Overview and Examples From an Article

It is worth noting that disability-related workplace accommodations are unique to each job applicant or employee. As

this article about workplace accommodations from the U.S. Department of Labor

points out, an accommodation for one person with a disability might not accommodate someone else with the same disability. Examples of workplace accommodations referenced in the article include an employee with visual impairment needing assistance to acquire information from a bulletin board and a job applicant who is deaf needing an interpreter during the job interview. Since job accommodations are so individualized and the variety of accommodations are vast, I will share two workplace accommodations which have been helpful to me during my years of employment.

 

Workplace Accommodation examples From Blake’s Experience

As an individual who is totally blind, it became clear to me during a year of volunteering with the non-profit organization which I am currently employed by that utilization of a computer is necessary to complete tasks. At that time and continuing through my years of current employment with the organization, I have been permitted to install screen reader(s) on computers for accomplishment of tasks. A screen reader, regardless of operating system, enables a person who is visually impaired or blind to receive spoken and/or braille feedback about what is on-screen. It also became clear during my time as a volunteer that making the microwave accessible would enable me to heat up lunches. I was allowed to put braille labels on the microwave, which I still use today at my office. The remainder of this article provides some resources to learn more about workplace accommodations.

Workplace Accommodation Resources

As mentioned in my previous article

Disability Disclosure and Reasonable Accommodations,

the

Job Accommodation Network

is an excellent resource to help identify beneficial workplace accommodations. For those with invisible disabilities,

this article about one person’s workplace accommodations

might be helpful. It provides accommodation examples which are sufficient for her, along with accommodation tips for employers. If technology is needed, another online tool for finding workplace accommodation examples is this

resources list from the New Jersey Assistive Technology Center.

The list provides links to a variety of assistive technology providers and resources. Their list is not limited to the U.S. state of New Jersey. Another method for finding useful technology is to perform an online search with your location and the words “assistive technology center”. For Example, as a resident of the U.S. state of Delaware, I suggest that Delawareans who have disabilities consider contacting the

Delaware Assistive Technology Initiative

which Offers assistive technology demonstrations, along with other services. Bottom line: Although there is a variety of workplace accommodations in existence, resources can help with accommodation identification.

January 2020 Blog Topic

Next month, I will be providing an article containing job interview tips.