The idea of a reasonable accommodation appears in the employment law context. It may have developed there, or it may have developed elsewhere. But it is a concept that has changed lives and not just the lives of the disabled people it is intended to apply to. It is a concept that has changed the perceptions of a people.
Not so long ago, employers could exclude people from the workforce simply by looking to able-bodied people to perform the job they offered. That is no longer the case, by and large; employers who want to make a profit now see that with a reasonable accommodation, disabled people can more than do the job.
It took a law to change that perception in the employment context. Some people say that they see this way of recognizing reality as special treatment. How blind they are. They do not see benefits to employer and employee alike, or say they don't; they can open their own doors and they are more than satisfied with what they themselves might call an unearned benefit.
Reasonably accommodating other people so that they can work is a different way of recognizing reality, perhaps. It is nothing less than a change in perceptions of the world we share. It does not involve special treatment of anyone. It involves giving every person an equal chance to work, not a better chance of working. The goal in any case is to work, not to be treated special.
COVID-19 may have changed perceptions of health care for us. The pandemic may have introduced us as a society to the possibilities of reasonable accommodation in health care. It may not be necessary to change perceptions by enacting laws in order to recognize a space for reasonable accommodations in health care like telemedicine, as it seems to have been necessary to change perceptions about the workplace.
There is a big difference here between labor and medicine. Only disabled people experience thresholds as obstacles, for example. Everyone on the other hand experiences doctors' and hospitals' waiting rooms.
It should not take another law like the Americans With Disabilities Act, all in all. to allow telemedicine and other reasonable accommodations to make health care widely available. But this time it takes Rules and Regulations issued by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid for those affected. Others not yet on Medicare or not on Medicaid may still need our help. Our reasonable accommodations for other people's health, if you will.
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