Public Comment

In the nineteen nineties, working from home with your computer, aphone, and home office, was called "telecommute" and my father did this often. He was probably good enough at what he did and had put in enough years such that he merited the privilege. Today, everyone does it, and it is also a convenient way of outsourcing to other countries or perhaps to the Philippines. Communications have advanced to the point where, when the phone rings, or when an electronic message of any type shows up, you don't know with whom you're dealing or where they are.

Working from home has amazing advantages for many people. As someone who writes, my work from home is really a fit for me. The trend is taking off and it was really spurred by the pandemic. It is not new, but many people have discovered it for the first time, due to the pandemic, and many of those may greatly prefer it now that they've done it for a while. Work from home is but one of the advantages to human beings brought about by the age of information technology. Work from home is especially ideal if you have health problems or a disability, either of which could detract from the conventional commuting to work method. 

If you have agoraphobia, or if you have mobility issues, both of which I have, grocery delivery is a must. I've found that Safeway groceries, AKA Safeway.com, is a fair deal. Safeway wants to sell you groceries and there is no sneaky ulterior agenda. The delivery fee is affordable, and you are saving more money than you spend on delivery because of the special deals and because your purchases are probably well thought-out and targeted. Safeway.com also takes food stamps in California. The delivery fee is separate, and you'll need to pony this up yourself, but it is not much. 

A word of caution about Safeway grocery delivery: Sometimes they become extraordinarily busy, and this results in errors. Or you might get a driver who's new or who doesn't do a very good job. You can also get poor results if the Google GPS is confusing where you live. I advise patience, and to have pertinent phone numbers on hand, to follow up if you're not getting what was promised. Ninety percent of the time, they do a very good job. That other ten percent is usually tolerable. 

Ordering from restaurants is extravagant and can't be afforded by most disabled people. But maybe on a birthday or special occasion, it could be worth doing. Ordering a pizza on the computer or by phone might be five or ten percent of your budget for the month. 

Medication delivery is another great thing. Doordash does medication delivery and there are probably some others that do it. I haven't used this service in the past twenty years. Twenty years ago, a pharmacy that has since shut down was delivering my medication. Cost? I would guess reasonable. 

Becoming familiar with Uber or Lyft might be worthwhile if you can't afford to own a car or if you can't drive. I've driven my own vehicle and have not used either of those. But if you only need to go to a few places every week, app-based trips might save you money, because you're not paying insurance, gas, and repairs. 

I don't recommend to most disabled people that we be on the driving side of app-based services because these jobs are highly pressured. Since I suffer from hypertension, I made a value judgment to stop my attempts at working for Door Dash. The level of pressure involved in the job is enough that I'd be endangering my health safety and that of others if the numbers on my blood pressure were to go too high. 

In the past, deaf people relied on a T.D.D. unit to communicate over the phone. Now most phones can do text, and this advancement, no doubt, has benefitted deaf people. Televisions all have captioning options now, so that deaf people can understand the plot of the show they're viewing. 

Since there are a lot of people staying home and at their computers, the field of writing has tightened up. Competition is fiercer than it ever was. It means to me that I just have to keep at it, and work harder at the work I produce. When we submit a manuscript, we could be competing with fifty or a hundred genius types. For this reason, to try writing you must think very highly of yourself to be willing to compete. And that's only the beginning of what you must do. Can a disabled person do this? If you don't try it, the answer, by consequence, is "no."