Remote work was supposed to be the great equalizer. The pandemic forced companies to rethink everything, and for millions of workers with disabilities, it felt like a long-overdue breakthrough. Finally — flexibility, autonomy, no exhausting commutes, no navigating offices that weren’t built with them in mind.
But a new study just revealed something that should stop HR departments in their tracks: working from home helps everyone, but it helps disabled workers significantly less. And that gap? It’s not closing on its own.
The Study That Changed the Conversation
Researchers from Rutgers University surveyed nearly 1,000 healthcare workers — with and without disabilities — and dug deep into their actual day-to-day work experiences. Not just “are you happy at your job?” but things like: Do you trust your manager? Do you feel like you belong? Are you thinking about quitting?
The results were eye-opening.
Workers with disabilities reported higher rates of wanting to quit, feeling less supported by their organizations, feeling excluded from workplace culture, and having worse relationships with both their bosses and coworkers. These weren’t small differences — they were consistent, significant, and didn’t disappear even after accounting for factors like education, income, and job type.
And the single most striking finding? Working from home made things better for almost everyone — but the gains were much bigger for workers without disabilities.
The Hidden Trap of Remote Work
Here’s where it gets uncomfortable. Remote work is increasingly being held up as a disability accommodation — a flexible, modern solution. And it does help. Workers with disabilities who worked from home three or more days per week showed improvements in organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and fewer thoughts about quitting.
But workers without disabilities improved even more across nearly every measure.
The result: the gap between disabled and non-disabled workers didn’t shrink. It stayed — or in some cases, widened.
Why? The researchers point to one word: isolation.
When you’re already struggling to feel seen and valued in a workplace, removing the physical space where human connection happens can make things worse. Workers with disabilities who worked remotely reported especially poor relationships with their supervisors and coworkers. Out of sight really can mean out of mind — fewer casual conversations, less visibility for promotions, more misunderstandings, less trust built over time.
Remote work removes many physical barriers. But it doesn’t remove bias. And it doesn’t automatically create belonging.
What the Numbers Actually Said
- Workers with disabilities were significantly more likely to want to quit their jobs
- They felt less supported by their organizations and less like they “belonged”
- They were much less likely to feel their workplace was open, inclusive, or welcoming of differences
- Their relationships with managers and coworkers were consistently worse
- 46% of workers with disabilities wanted more remote work than they currently had — compared to only 33% of those without disabilities
That last number matters. The demand is there. The desire for flexibility is real and valid. The problem is that flexibility alone isn’t enough.
The Bigger Lesson Nobody Wants to Hear
There’s a well-known phenomenon in social policy sometimes called the “curb-cut effect” — the idea that designing for people with disabilities often benefits everyone. Curb cuts in sidewalks were made for wheelchair users, but they help parents with strollers, delivery workers, cyclists, and elderly pedestrians too.
Remote work is the workplace version of that. It was initially framed as an accommodation for disabled workers, but when companies were forced to try it at scale, non-disabled workers thrived too — arguably more so.
That’s not a bad thing. Universal improvements are worth celebrating.
But the lesson the researchers are driving home is this: you cannot use a rising tide to close a gap. If remote work lifts all boats equally (or lifts some boats more than others), it doesn’t solve the underlying inequality. It just makes everyone a little better off while leaving the same distance between groups.
Closing the gap requires interventions that disproportionately benefit workers with disabilities — not just better working conditions across the board.
So What Actually Works?
The researchers have some practical ideas, and they’re not complicated:
Structured, predictable social interaction. Not random virtual happy hours, but consistent, scheduled check-ins with managers and teammates. People with disabilities — especially those with sensory, cognitive, or social challenges — benefit from knowing when and how interactions will happen so they can prepare.
Accessible virtual events. If you’re going hybrid or remote, make sure the tools you’re using actually work for everyone. Closed captions, screen reader compatibility, flexible scheduling — these aren’t perks, they’re basics.
Training managers to stay connected with remote workers with disabilities. “Out of sight, out of mind” is a real management failure, not just a cliché. Active, intentional outreach matters.
Stop treating accommodation as an exception. One of the study’s sharpest insights is that accommodations for disabled workers tend to be framed as special exceptions — deviations from the “normal” worker. That framing itself is part of the problem.
The Bottom Line
Remote work is a genuine benefit for workers with disabilities. It reduces commuting stress, increases autonomy, and for many people, it’s a life-changing flexibility. But it’s not a fix for workplace bias, social isolation, or the deeply ingrained gap in how disabled workers are seen, valued, and supported.
The companies that figure this out — that go beyond flexibility to actually redesign how inclusion works in a remote world — will be the ones that retain the best talent across the board.
Because the real problem was never the office building. It was always the culture inside it.
source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.17790
