COVID-19 changed the trajectory of Lucy Trieshmann’s budding legal career.

Having Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare inherited disorder, Trieshmann found in-person law school lectures unbearable without spending part of the time lying on the floor. Lockdowns in March 2020 meant classes went online, and before long Trieshmann hit a groove attending from home, eventually landing an American Civil Liberties Union fellowship that featured working remotely.

Some disabled job seekers say they are beginning to feel ripple effects of return-to-the-office mandates.Credit: iStock

“I was able to appear in housing court in New York on behalf of clients and have the energy for them because they were remote,” said Trieshmann, who uses she/they pronouns.

Trieshmann ranks among the roughly 2 million Americans with a disability to land a job or start looking for one since December 2019, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures show. That’s an unprecedented 30 per cent increase in workforce participation by a group that before the pandemic saw four of every five individuals with a disability on the sidelines, a rate now down to three of every four.

Workforce participation for people with disabilities has risen alongside an upswing in the wider US population identified in BLS data as disabled, driven experts say by increased self-identification by those with debilitating mental illness and long-COVID.

For many, the abundance of remote-work options that flourished during COVID opened job opportunities long shut to them. A defiantly strong job market helped, too.

‘I do think we’re reaching a turning point. To much of the world, the pandemic is behind us. And therefore remote work is behind us.’

“A tight labor market lifts all boats, and work from home or remote work has kind of expanded opportunities for some segments of disabled workers, and that’s been a boost for their job opportunities,” said Andrew Flowers, labor economist at Appcast, a digital recruitment firm.

As 2024 begins and more employers push return-to-office policies, it may mean those gains are at a turning point. Indeed, while BLS data smoothed over six-month horizons shows an ongoing uptrend, figures viewed over three-month periods have started flattening out.