Self-accommodation at the workplace

Abstract

As a part of the Diversity and Inclusion initiative, corporates are beginning to embrace and value persons with disabilities. However, part of making a workplace inclusive to disabled employees and ensuring they perform productively is making suitable accommodations for them. In India, the RPWD Act of 2016 mandates “to protect the rights of persons with disabilities and respect their inherent dignity and autonomy”. It was put in place to ensure non-discrimination of PWDs and provide equality of opportunity. It also mandates organizations to frame and publish an Equal Opportunities Policy with benefits and facilities provided by them. In the United States, the department of Labour actively legislates for employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to make the workplace inclusive. However, a significant number of people are choosing to opt to self-accommodate for their disabilities rather than rely on employers. The study aims to analyze this choice with respect to the reasons behind it, supply-side issues (improper/incomplete workplace accommodations), challenges arising from over-reliance on selfaccommodations in the backdrop of a general study of employment issues faced by PWDs.