Jack (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jackandahat) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
accessibility_fail2010-02-04 05:44 pm
jackandahat) wrote in accessibility_fail2010-02-04 05:44 pm
When the people who claim to help are the problem.
Right now I'm looking for work, and I've just been sent to an agency - Remploy - who deal with getting disabled people into work. I'm hard of hearing and I have arthritis so I walk with a cane.
I was sat with "my" advisor, Jonathan, getting lectured on how I would be wonderful in this job and I had to think positive thoughts. He yet again pulled the "All you need is adaptive technology" speech - I've discussed with them several times that adapted phones just don't work for me - I've never met one that does, and frankly, it's too much of a bloody struggle.. I was sat down, my cane was propped against my backpack.
The other advisor - I don't know his name, call him Stupid Fuck - picked up my cane and put it behind his back, and started giving a speech about how now no-one would know I was disabled, and I had to think of it like that.
The only thing that kept me from getting up and punching him was knowing I'd lose my benefits if I did. Oh yeah, and the fact he had my cane.
Did I mention this is an agency designed specifically to deal with getting disabled people into work?
So there was absolutely nothing I could do. If I did anything, they'd have stopped my dole money and I wouldn't have been able to afford to, you know, pay rent and eat. I told Jonathan that being told "You don't look disabled" is not helpful, but I was too much in shock to work out what to say about the cane thing - when I go in tomorrow I Will be having words with Stupid Fuck, I just didn't know what to do and he was standing over me.
Anyone else faced this kind of thing? Any ideas what to do/say to him? (I know the obvious is "Put in a complaint", but if that's how the staff act, I suspect they'd laugh in my face.)
I was sat with "my" advisor, Jonathan, getting lectured on how I would be wonderful in this job and I had to think positive thoughts. He yet again pulled the "All you need is adaptive technology" speech - I've discussed with them several times that adapted phones just don't work for me - I've never met one that does, and frankly, it's too much of a bloody struggle.. I was sat down, my cane was propped against my backpack.
The other advisor - I don't know his name, call him Stupid Fuck - picked up my cane and put it behind his back, and started giving a speech about how now no-one would know I was disabled, and I had to think of it like that.
The only thing that kept me from getting up and punching him was knowing I'd lose my benefits if I did. Oh yeah, and the fact he had my cane.
Did I mention this is an agency designed specifically to deal with getting disabled people into work?
So there was absolutely nothing I could do. If I did anything, they'd have stopped my dole money and I wouldn't have been able to afford to, you know, pay rent and eat. I told Jonathan that being told "You don't look disabled" is not helpful, but I was too much in shock to work out what to say about the cane thing - when I go in tomorrow I Will be having words with Stupid Fuck, I just didn't know what to do and he was standing over me.
Anyone else faced this kind of thing? Any ideas what to do/say to him? (I know the obvious is "Put in a complaint", but if that's how the staff act, I suspect they'd laugh in my face.)
no subject
1. Talk to Stupid Fuck. (Politely and civilly, if you can.) If that fails,
2. Talk to SF's Boss. (Again, politely and civilly, if you can.) If that fails,
3. Write a letter to the head of the agency. If that fails,
4. Skip everybody else and write/contact your local MP. CC your local newspaper, the agency's board (if there is one), and any other agency that might even remotely have supervisory authority or financial clout, including major donors/supporters if you know who they are. Include in the letter, in very clear language, that the agency you depend upon for survival is abusing their authority through intimidation and by endangering your source of financial support. (They took away your mobility! and got upset when you pointed it out to them! they're Big Meanies! Playing "Abuse The Cripple" is really, really bad PR.)
My sense from what I've read is that probably steps 1 and 2 are as far as you might have to take it. But be aware that steps 3 and 4 are options, if you feel safe exercising them. Threatening to withhold finances is a tactic straight out of domestic abusers' playbooks, pure and simple. It doesn't negate the fact that it's a valid and real consideration, but it is abuse, nevertheless.