Work problems and accommodations reported by persons who are postpolio or have a spinal cord injury

A number of studies have documented early functional declines in persons wi th a disability. The purpose of this study was to document (1) whether empl oyees who are aging with their disability have experienced new work problem s as a consequence of functional declines and (2) whether their work proble ms are being accommodated adequately. Ninety-six individuals with a disabil ity (50 who are postpolio and 46 who had a spinal cord injury) were intervi ewed by phone. Each had worked at least 5 years postonset and was either cu rrently working or unemployed for less than 5 years at the time of the inte rview, Forty-nine of the 50 persons who are postpolio reported they had exp erienced functional declines in recent years, and 41 of the 50 rated the se verity of their disability greater than it was when they first began workin g. As a result of the functional declines they had experienced, most (90.9% ) of their work problems were new and would not have been significant probl ems for them when they first began working. The situation was very differen t for the group with spinal cord injuries. Only a few members of that group had experienced functional declines that were causing new problems at work . A total of 480 work problems were reported by study participants. Three o ut of every eight problems did not have an accommodation satisfactory to th e employee. The primary reason why a satisfactory solution was not provided was that no accommodation had been identified. Employers were generally su pportive of the employee's need for accommodation; they paid for 59.1% of t he accommodations that had a cost and refused to provide an accommodation f or only 18 of the 480 problems.