As employers tighten RTO mandates, workers with disabilities face new barriers

Return-to-office requirements are creating barriers for employees with disabilities, including some who say remote work is the only way for them to be employed.

Human resources experts say employers need to be more flexible with RTO policies to accommodate workers with disabilities, including whether in-office requirements reflect the actual demands of different jobs.

“[Employers] create policies to manage the majority,” says Paola Accettola, chief executive officer of True North HR in Toronto. “But [people with disabilities are] not the majority and we can’t treat it like a blanket policy when there are individual people involved that this has a real impact on.”

Employers have largely justified more in-office days by citing collaboration, team culture and professional development. However, returning to the office can introduce accessibility challenges that were largely absent when employees worked remotely.

Day-to-day challenges

For one worker we spoke with who has a visual impairment, working from home meant they could do their job without worrying about whether their workplace could accommodate their disability.

The Globe is withholding the employee’s name and their employer out of concerns about job security and workplace repercussions.

After their employer recently introduced a five-day RTO mandate, they’ve found work a lot more challenging. For instance, reading text on a regular-sized computer monitor is tough compared to the two oversized monitors with enlarged text capabilities they used when working from home.

When working from home, they purchased the special monitors on their own without having to put in a request for the equipment.

Their employer also operates on a “hot-desking” system, making it difficult to establish a permanent workstation with the equipment they need at the office.

“I’ve asked for a large monitor but it hasn’t yet been provided,” they said. “Because we don’t have assigned seats, I would have to cart around the large monitor to a new desk every day.”

The worker submitted a formal accommodation request for more accessible equipment, but were told that the company has received a “large number of accommodation requests” since the RTO mandate was announced and their request is still waiting to be reviewed.

An influx of requests

Ms. Accettola says there has been an influx of accommodation requests and accessibility needs that “puts people with disabilities at a disadvantage.”

She says employers can mitigate these barriers by adopting more flexible attendance policies and tailoring accommodations to individual needs.

Ms. Accettola argues that employers should also consider whether their in-office attendance requirements reflect the actual demands of employees’ jobs, rather than imposing the same number of days across the organization.

“The number of days is rarely based on the work either,” she says. “Someone picks three because it sounds reasonable.”

A new host of accessibility barriers

Ms. Accettola highlights that stricter RTO mandates can put employees in the uncomfortable position of having to disclose disability-related information to obtain accommodations.

“It’s an increased hurdle that didn’t exist before,” she says. “For several years, a lot of people with disabilities were working well without having to explain anything to anyone because the arrangement that made it possible was simply how everyone worked. An RTO mandate hands it back as something they have to apply for.”

For many employees with disabilities, particularly those who are neurodivergent, returning to the office can also mean navigating sensory challenges, including crowded commutes, harsh lighting, background noise and frequent interruptions.

“Working from home allows people to control their sensory environments and significantly reduces the cognitive load,” says Karina Gaudier, founder of Autism Workforce Solutions in Kawartha Lakes, Ont. “When RTO mandates are enforced without flexibility, they reintroduce these invisible barriers.”

Ms. Gaudier, who has autism spectrum disorder herself, finds traditional office environments overwhelming.

“Our brains would go all the way into survival mode,” Ms. Gaudier says.

Remote work is an accessibility need, not a perk

In her experience, many employers still see remote work as a perk rather than an accessibility need. But for many employees with disabilities, remote work remains the only way for them to be employed.

This is the case for Alex Haagard, who previously worked in tech and lives with various chronic illnesses and autism spectrum disorder. She’s worked remotely since 2018, long before the pandemic made it commonplace.

“Remote was and is the only work environment that is sustainable for me,” the eastern Ontario professional says. “Every job hunt has gotten progressively harder as the number of remote roles has dwindled.”

Ms. Gaudier adds that many neurodivergent employees end up leaving their jobs or pursuing alternative career paths because of rigid RTO mandates and accommodation needs not being met.

“A lot of people are leaving companies and switching careers,” she says, adding that some go down the self-employment route.

RTO mandates aren’t ‘all or nothing’

With RTO mandates unlikely to reverse, experts say employers need to balance company-wide attendance policies with the individual needs of employees with disabilities.

The Globe asked the Big Five banks how they handle accommodation needs amid their five-day RTO policies: Royal Bank of Canada, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of Montreal pointed to their existing accessibility policies, which they say are intended to support employees with disabilities. Scotiabank declined to comment and Toronto-Dominion Bank did not respond by publication time.

Amazon Canada, which also has a five-day office requirement, said in a statement through spokesperson Amy Diaz that the company works with employees to provide “reasonable accommodations that help them overcome work-related barriers in accordance with applicable provincial human rights and accessibility laws.” Ms. Diaz also said the company has a dedicated team that reviews each accommodation request individually “to identify the accommodations that best meet an employee’s needs.”

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which oversees employment policies for the federal public service, also emphasized that accommodation requests must be assessed individually.

“Requests for accommodation are to be assessed on a case-by-case basis,” the department said in a statement, adding that existing accommodation measures don’t need to be reviewed simply because of increased in-office attendance requirements.

Still, accommodating employees with disabilities may require flexibility in how RTO policies are applied.

Ms. Accettola recommends assessing RTO requirements on a role-by-role basis. She also suggests that managers provide minor adjustments, such as flexible start times or occasional work-from-home days, without requiring employees to provide medical documentation.

For more formal accommodation requests, she recommends establishing a centralized process with clear timelines, so employees like the one with a visual impairment aren’t left waiting indefinitely for a decision.

“It’s not an all or nothing,” Ms. Accettola says. “Sometimes, it can be an in-between.”