tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post8116654069035275094..comments2024-03-08T03:58:13.625+00:00Comments on Stickman Communications: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Blogging against disabilism.Hannah Ensorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12228122568368871809noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-50398830553450940902011-08-11T13:49:57.274+01:002011-08-11T13:49:57.274+01:00Every time I read stories like yours I want to scr...Every time I read stories like yours I want to scream and cry in frustration. I have a child with autism, and while she has no physical disability, I have learned so much about the ignorance and bigotry that exists towards people with disabilities, including those with physical and medical needs. <br /><br />I feel it really is the last taboo, and currently disabled people are being victimised more than ever due to the government campaign against benefits claimants. If they were so keen for people to get back to work, they will have to ensure that work environments are suitable, and that colleagues are open and understanding of people with complex needs. <br /><br />Until these attitudes are changed, what chance have people got?Mandyquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05819456898373234183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-91989178580194033822011-05-25T03:33:10.444+01:002011-05-25T03:33:10.444+01:00Came here via BADD (which I am reading through ver...Came here via BADD (which I am reading through very very late)<br /><br />How awesome that you had great colleagues ... but the way everyone else treated you is awful. Most of the things you were asking for sound to me like they COULD have been so simple and cheap to implement if they had simply PLANNED for them all along (and actually bothered to LISTEN to you) instead of blowing you off.Andrea Shettle, MSWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16984732076766787818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-65303729065179869112011-05-11T13:56:51.586+01:002011-05-11T13:56:51.586+01:00I live in a sheltered building - have since I was ...I live in a sheltered building - have since I was 52, 14 years. They've just installed firedoors which are almost impossible to open! Why, I've no idea, the old ones where perfectly sound and had automatic hold-backs that closed when the fire-alarm went off.<br /><br />The new doors I can just about manage on foot, or in my powerchair, but I'm about to get a lightweight manual chair that will open up places too small to use my powerchair - like the pub! More importantly, I can use it in my flat. It will also provide some much needed exercise. <br /><br />However, with a manual chair there is not a hope in hell of opening the two firedoors between me and the entrance.<br /><br />I could, were I on foot, using the chair as a walker - but why should I? So I foresee a confrontation, but if they can spend money on doors that were totally unnecessary, they can spend a bit more to accommodate me.<br /><br />They're also(across their entire estate), trying to force those of us with scooters to buy insurance, because scooters cause damage - well, not as much damage as chairs and rollators (neither of them mine, I hasten to add), and I have the pics to prove it.<br /><br />I was part of the consultative process, and I've pointed out right from the start that unless they impose the same condition on manual chair users, rollators, baby buggies, Zimmers - in effect, anything and anybody capable of knocking lumps out of the walls and doorways, singling out scooter users is pure discrimination.<br /><br />I've also asked for proof that scooters are, indeed, the problem, and not just an assumption based on prejudice. Didn't get it.<br /><br />It's going to get interesting pretty soon, but I was a union rep in a previous incarnation (pre wheels), and I'm sure I can deal with these clowns!Ron Graveshttp://ronsrants.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-61438124245052508382011-05-04T18:10:25.170+01:002011-05-04T18:10:25.170+01:00It sucks doesn't it David. :( I hate that so m...It sucks doesn't it David. :( I hate that so many people have experienced such ignorance, and the stubborn refusal to think logically and open mindedly when it comes to disability. It is as if any request for adaptions is seen as 'milking it' or 'making a point'. The grievance I submitted was upheld. They acknowledged error, but the same people still hold the same jobs and the same power :(<br />And yes, Anonymous, you can quote from my blog in your dissertationHannah Ensorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12228122568368871809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-84838489783935534682011-05-04T17:56:08.457+01:002011-05-04T17:56:08.457+01:00This sounds an awful lot like my experience, but w...This sounds an awful lot like my experience, but with a different emphasis. As a software engineer with problems sitting for any length of time things were inevitably going to get complicated, but for a long time friends in junior management bent the rules to ensure that I could manage and I found myself a slot where deadlines came once a year, which let me work around the days I could barely think straight. <br /><br />Then one project wound down, and the manager on the new project proved to be utterly clueless. When he demanded everyone give daily guarantees of what they would complete I took him aside, explained that was incompatible with my disability and said I needed not to have that asked of me as a reasonable adjustment. He promptly berated me for being negative. The next thing I know my uber-boss, the man responsible for my career, is berating me in public for being no use to him if he can't put me under pressure. Within a week I'd been transferred into the first of a succession of dead-end posts, with him admitting that he was refusing to put me into posts at my own grade because he felt I was a risk to his schedules, yet claiming it had nothing to do with my disability. <br /><br />I escaped into a secondment, made a considerable success of it, taking on extra responsibilities, picked up praise from both sides of the Atlantic, and still the uber-boss claimed that my performance was below par, worse, they refused to extend the secondment and dumped me into another dead-end, deliberately setting me up for the impending round of redundancies.<br /><br />By then we were in the formal grievance process, with their tame quack claiming severe pain wouldn't affect my work, no matter that they were in possession of a report from my specialist saying precisely the opposite. I made something of a legend of myself by escalating the grievance all the way up to director level and convincing our notoriously hard-nosed director of engineering that she couldn't rely on a medical report at odds with that from my own specialist when the EHRC agreed with me that that was untenable. Even then they commissioned a new report from my specialist rather than rely on the ones they already knew backed me. <br /><br />Despite being completely vindicated by the new report, their own interpretations confirmed wrong at every stage, their response was to turn around to me and say that if my disability would inevitably affect my work, then they were justified in discriminating against me. They seemed rather surprised when we ended up in an Employment Tribunal. <br /><br />Worryingly I suspect they were probably better than most employers out there, yet they were utterly clueless, and willfully disablist, from project management clear through to directors.DavidGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11734028655032503805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-29759034592484589872011-05-03T04:06:04.459+01:002011-05-03T04:06:04.459+01:00Oh, this really chaps my butt. Thanks so much for...Oh, this really chaps my butt. Thanks so much for posting about it!Attila the Momhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02158308703617226652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-54694524111182876302011-05-03T03:29:06.851+01:002011-05-03T03:29:06.851+01:00Really outrageous! I'd really like to kick som...Really outrageous! I'd really like to kick some ass right about now after reading this! <br /><br />I can't even be all like "Thanks for sharing your story" etc ... JUST PLAIN MAD.Lizhttp://bookmaniac.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-32814296605704860492011-05-02T12:13:02.323+01:002011-05-02T12:13:02.323+01:00Hi Hannah, I'm writing a dissertation on disab...Hi Hannah, I'm writing a dissertation on disability and human rights, would it be ok to reference your blog? Obviously I will have to reference any direct quotations, and would include it in my bibliography.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-21474426511775247042011-05-02T12:05:27.579+01:002011-05-02T12:05:27.579+01:00This is awful. I used to work in local government ...This is awful. I used to work in local government too, I am shocked. You had rights, couldn't the union be more helpful? Could you take them to an industrial tribunal?trabasackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17777401280316912577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-19483016657299671192011-05-02T07:56:43.752+01:002011-05-02T07:56:43.752+01:00I don't know how I missed this event...althoug...I don't know how I missed this event...although I was for a change not home Sunday.<br /><br />I may have reposted my video again, it is long and boring for many. I was rambling really about the effects not just of the illness but the abuse I feel from the system. <br /><br />Amazing share, sending a gentle unconditional cool hugPeace Artist Laineyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01752499118846572098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-57092097306590988322011-05-02T05:04:26.130+01:002011-05-02T05:04:26.130+01:00This is appalling. I'm so angry all these terr...This is appalling. I'm so angry all these terrible things happened to you.<br /><br />And yet, I wish I could say I was surprised.<br /><br />If you were in the US, I'd say, "Sue their asses off!" But I don't know if the DDA allows for that.<br /><br />Also, I want to say, as a disabled lesbian, the oppression I have experienced as a disabled person is waaaaaay worse than what I have experienced as a gay person. I know this is not true for everyone -- I live in a very gay-friendly area -- but still, at least most people now realize anti-gay discrimination exists, whereas even progressives will argue that there is no disability discrimination.<br /><br />Thank you for telling your story.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-84568390142032709642011-05-02T00:35:56.272+01:002011-05-02T00:35:56.272+01:00No words for how awful that is. And it's all ...No words for how awful that is. And it's all so "equal" now, apparently. Thanks for sharing such a painful story.Selenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16906565055142387639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-9577757768556734112011-05-01T22:28:08.496+01:002011-05-01T22:28:08.496+01:00This is unacceptable stuff; writing about it and s...This is unacceptable stuff; writing about it and sharing it can only help change the culture we live in. (I hope).<br /><br />THank you.<br /><br />WCDWheelchair Dancerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11981313345401954118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-51834278505568384082011-05-01T21:00:58.470+01:002011-05-01T21:00:58.470+01:00Yes, you can include mine - so long as you credit ...Yes, you can include mine - so long as you credit it to me of course :)Hannah Ensorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12228122568368871809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572102937612408267.post-6212104986965211772011-05-01T20:21:29.213+01:002011-05-01T20:21:29.213+01:00Hi, I’m not able to take part in BADD by writing a...Hi, I’m not able to take part in BADD by writing a blog this year but I’m planning on posting a list of the blogs on my tumblr and I was wondering if I could include yours.<br />Please let me know if this is okay.<br />BeccaBecca_Boothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14518064102435148090noreply@blogger.com