Invisible Work

The unrecognized and often uncompensated effort that people with disabilities must perform to navigate inaccessible environments, technologies, and workplaces. In professional settings, invisible work includes learning workarounds for inaccessible software, preparing extensively to compensate for tools that do not support assistive technologies, managing self-accommodations like configuring multiple monitors for screen readers, and educating colleagues about accessibility needs. This additional labor can reduce productivity in core job tasks, create barriers to career advancement, and contribute to workplace inequity, yet it typically goes unseen by employers and non-disabled colleagues.