As COVID restrictions slowly ease and employees head back into the workplace, a local disability advocate is urging employers to consider their work spaces to make them accommodating for all workers.

Kathy Hawkins, the Interim Executive Director of Empower NL, the Disability Resource Centre, says employers are growing increasingly aware of how to make workplace adjustments for all of their employees.

She says despite that, she’s been hearing from people in the community who have been expressing fear and concern about going back into the workplace and the ways in which they get there, including public transit.

That’s perfectly understandable says Hawkins, and she’s asking employers to take those fears and concerns into account when transitioning workers back into the workplace.

She says if employers are as flexible as possible, recognizing that workers are experiencing the transition back to the workplace differently, that will help make for a much easier transition.