Many disabled veterans serve in agencies. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2024 about one-fifth of employed veterans with a service-connected disability worked for the federal government.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Veterans Affairs Department is one of the most common agencies where veterans work. It employs more than 105,000 vets, according to federal workforce data from the Office of Personnel Management, which is nearly a quarter of the department’s workforce.
Several disabled veterans who work at the VA told Government Executive, however, that they feel the department is pushing them out of their jobs.
At the start of his second term, President Donald Trump terminated work from home for the civil service, arguing that the workplace flexibility had been abused following the COVID-19 pandemic. But his directive exempted qualifying feds with disabilities — many of whom are eligible for telework through a reasonable accommodation, which agencies are required to provide under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 unless doing so would result in an “undue hardship.” Other examples of reasonable accommodations include interpreters for people who are deaf and accessible work stations.
Multiple VA employees interviewed by Government Executive said that since the department undertook a review of reasonable accommodations in response to Trump’s directive that officials have denied and rescinded telework accommodations, which is impacting many veterans with disabilities.
“There’s a joke within the VA that the VA supports disabled veterans, unless you work for the VA,” said Galen Wheless, the president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1594 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“I guess they fully expect me to quit or lose the job”
Kevin Price medically retired from the Army after a particularly bad helicopter landing during training that has led to flare-ups of pain in his legs. Oftentimes, he works from bed for half of the day.
“I treat it like a slow computer. Sometimes it takes my body — not all the time — but sometimes it takes my body a little bit longer to wake up,” he said.
Because Price was on a telework reasonable accommodation, he and his young family in 2024 were able to move more than three hours away from his office to live closer to relatives. He received permission from his supervisors for his relocation, with one saying in an email Price shared with Government Executive that the reasonable accommodation allows him “to live anywhere in the state of Florida.”
In February, however, the VA rescinded his reasonable accommodation. While Price appealed — emphasizing his move and that he’s limited to driving no more than 30 minutes because of his disability — department officials responded in an email that an “employee’s commute to and from the worksite is generally considered outside the scope of the position’s essential functions; therefore, the agency is not responsible for providing accommodations related to commuting.”
Cheri Cannon — a partner at Tully Rinckey who specializes in federal employment law — said the VA’s contention regarding accommodations and commuting is “not a lawful justification.”
“The Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act require employers to accommodate known disabilities if a person could otherwise perform their job duties,” she said. “So if you can perform your job duties at home and you need a reasonable accommodation in order to do that, driving is a life function just like walking, talking, reading, hearing and seeing. Driving is a life activity covered under the statute.”
Based on department emails reviewed by Government Executive, the VA offered Price alternative accommodations onsite, including extra breaks, a wellness room and an ergonomic chair. He said that several coworkers received the same suggested accommodations, even though they have different disabilities.
Those emails also show that VA officials said there wasn’t any space in an office closer to Price’s new home.
“So they fully expect me to drive over 150 miles one way, Monday through Friday,” Price said.
Price hasn’t yet had to undertake the approximately six-hour total commute because he started parental leave around his mandated return-to-office date. But he said the rescission of his reasonable accommodation has already taken a toll on his health.
“I had an urgent doctor’s appointment because my blood pressure was skyrocketing,” he said. “I was in hypertension. I wasn’t sleeping. I was stressed out of my mind.”
And Price’s parental leave ends later this month, so he’s unsure if he’ll be able to stay at the VA.
“I guess they fully expect me to quit or lose the job,” he said.
“It’s extremely draining”
Daniel Solee — a VA employee and Navy veteran with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury — had been working under a telework reasonable accommodation since 2021. It was rescinded, however, in July 2025 in what he believes was retaliation for criticizing his management.
“[My supervisor’s] reasoning was that [Trump’s] order requested all employees return back to the office, which is correct, but it did not say that the Rehabilitation Act is revoked,” he said.
Solee said that he continued to work remotely, but his supervisor eventually revoked his access to systems that he needs for his job and he was terminated in October 2025 for not showing up in person.
With support from his union, he challenged his firing before the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears federal employees’ appeals. Ultimately, Solee was reinstated as a result of a settlement agreement viewed by Government Executive under which the VA also agreed to participate in a new reasonable accommodation process and provide backpay that Solee said totaled $30,000 before taxes.
After returning to his job in March, the VA offered Solee telework two days per pay period as an alternative reasonable accommodation, according to documentation viewed by Government Executive. But he declined, saying his doctor argues that he requires full-time telework. Now in a standoff, Solee said that he is continuing to work remotely every day, but his supervisor is again limiting his access to systems. And he’s only receiving about half of his normal paycheck due to being deemed AWOL, he said.
“It’s extremely draining. It usually increases my TBI with a headache,” he said. “It’s constant stuff daily that I go through. I used to have a mental health appointment every three months. Now I have to do it every two weeks because of the stress level.”
He emphasized, however, that he does not want to leave the VA, arguing that the MSPB settlement shows his supervisor is at fault.
“I should leave my job for a person that just cost the VA money? For a person that illegally tried to terminate me? For a person that illegally tried to revoke my reasonable accomodation?” he said.
VA press secretary Quinn Slaven said in a statement to Government Executive that claims the department is violating the Rehabilitation Act are “absurd.” He pointed to guidance that states agencies are not required to continue providing previously approved telework accommodations and can review and potentially replace them with “an effective alternative reasonable accommodation.”
“Under President Trump, VA took thousands of employees off remote work and brought them back to the office, where they can work as a team to better serve veterans,” Slaven wrote. “At the same time, VA is ensuring accommodations are granted to employees who need them the most.”
Regarding Price’s and Solee’s experiences, Slaven said the VA cannot provide information about employees unless they sign a “Request for and Authorization to Release Health Information” form. Government Executive relayed this information to both individuals who declined to sign, citing concerns about sharing their health information.
In addition to the alleged professional and medical harms, disabled vets who work at the VA say the return-to-office directive has caused other consequences for them.
One such employee, who preferred to be unnamed due to fears of retaliation, estimates that he is spending an additional $500 per month on transportation and clothing. This individual said that he previously teleworked because it was department policy at the time rather than a need due to a reasonable accommodation.
“This is a moral issue”
Government Executive previously reported on a June 2025 VA memo that outlined a new policy to provide stricter scrutiny of reasonable accommodations as part of an effort to “maximize” in-person work. Similar processes have played out since the start of the second Trump administration at other agencies, including the departments of Treasury, Health and Human Services and Justice as well as the National Science Foundation.
But Douglas Massey, president of AFGE Local 17 for VA’s Central Office in Washington, D.C., said that he received reports of department employees across the country getting their telework reasonable accommodations denied as early as spring 2025.
“This is a moral issue,” he said. “These are veterans. We’re supposed to be serving veterans.”
Wheless, the local president from Florida, said that union officials from other areas have not reported widespread reasonable accommodation recissions. But his local is currently representing nearly 150 impacted individuals.
“These are people with, for example, epilepsy. It’s illegal for them to drive, so they can’t come into the office. We have stories of a person missing half a lung who is immunocompromised that can’t be in an office environment,” he said. “We have folks with PTSD that literally were blown up in wartime that need to be out of an office environment. They’re still valid, capable workers that can still do all the essential functions of their job, but they just shouldn’t be doing it in an office environment, per their doctor’s orders.”
Another disabled veteran who works at the VA said that she requested a short-term telework reasonable accommodation after a major car accident exacerbated a service-connected mental health disability that temporarily prevented her from driving. While she used to regularly telework in her position, officials denied the request, contending that the department is not responsible for her commute.
“So I talked to my husband, he went to his job and they changed his schedule. They accommodated him for me, so he could drive me to work and pick me up,” she said. “The VA — my VA, my military, my country — basically would not help me, but his work would. That really bothered me.”
