Staying on the Job with Technology

When a health crisis forces you to recuperate at home, technology may offer a way to stay connected and to keep your job.

Mabel Dilley thought she knew a lot about disabilities: First of all, she works with clients with disabilities as a program coordinator for Easter Seals' Housing Assistance Services program in Washington State, a job that requires her to assess and place nearly 300 clients a year in permanent, community-integrated housing.

Second, she has a master's degree in public administration and a degree in medical social work. Last but not least, Dilley was diagnosed with metabolic bone disease, degenerative disk disease, and rheumatoid arthritis 17 years ago, so she is no stranger to chronic pain and impaired physical functioning.

One morning, however, while working quietly at her desk, Dilley found herself in "ungodly pain." A visit to her doctor revealed that she had five spontaneous compressed fractures in her spine, which only time and immobility could heal. "We don't care if it's half a block, half a mile, or halfway across the country," Dilley recalls her doctors saying, "We don't want you to move."

Suddenly Dilley found herself confined to her apartment, about as "independent as a hog on ice," as her father once described her. "I knew that 25 percent of all people with disabilities live alone and have to rely on people other than family members for support. Suddenly, I became that [statistic]." Unable to lift more than five pounds or to walk more than 500 feet at a stretch, Dilley developed a deeper understanding of what it means to live with a severe physical disability. When someone says to me, "Gosh, I got up and thought I wasn't going to make it to the bathroom this morning, I understand. I thought I was compassionate before; now, I am."

Working from home

For an outgoing, "people person," it was a tough transition. Dilley had a strong support network: Friends, coworkers, and fellow church members sent funny jokes and essays via e-mail, and a nurse and occupational therapist made regular visits. But she couldn't get around the fact that, if she was to recover, she could not go in to her office to work.

Dilley's job is critically important—to Easter Seals and to Dilley herself—so to allow her to work at home, Dilley's computer was upgraded with more memory and set to dial up the office on the hour. In the seven months it took for the spinal fractures to heal, Dilley maintained her high level of productivity, placing 174 clients via phone and computer.

Because Dilley could work from home, she didn't have to "try to drive, take Class 3 pain medication, or lope down stairs." Doing a job she loved, where she knew she performed a useful service, says Dilley, "was my reason for getting up in the morning, for enduring the pain of transferring [from bed to a chair, for example]."

Technology lifts isolation

Isolation is one of the biggest problems for people with disabilities, comments Dilley, explaining that the nondisabled often resist encounters with the disabled by reasoning, "I'm not going to invade that person's privacy. I'm not sure what I would say to her."

"They leave you alone," Dilley says, "give you a wide berth." It's very difficult for many people with disabilities to interact normally because even a spontaneous lunch invitation, for example, requires some forethought: How will I get there? Is the restaurant accessible? One of the benefits of technology, Dilley emphasizes, is that your isolation lifts. "Somewhere, at the end of the connection, is another person."

"What you really want in the twenty-first century is a higher quality of life for people with disabilities, their friends, and their families," Dilley reflects. We need to "work smarter, not longer and harder." Yet, even as the demand for housing increases there are fewer resources with which to work. "Can't do it," says Dilley, "unless I've got a computer to help me. Without Microsoft, we wouldn't be anywhere."