To want to understand how disabled MNers manage to be employed?

I'm not disabled but DH has a chronic physical health condition that would qualify him for PIP and blue badge (doesn't take either) and works FT in a senior role in a tech type sector (which also employs many neurodiverse people).

BUT he is not typical and you can't generalise about disability. The late chairman of my old company (global multi-billion dollar world famous business) was left paraplegic after a skiing accident and worked for years afterwards. I could cite him as a great example of overcoming your disability to work full time but he was a multi-millionaire 'name' with access to the best care, assistance and medical support money can buy.

You can't just say 'disabled people can work' - what is the nature of the disability? What is the work? What is the support? What is the family and home situation? It's expensive to get (those that are able) into work and requires a lot of resource.

I was diagnosed with my musculoskeletal condition 13 years ago. I’m a teacher - had been for 12 years before diagnosis and still am. Have annual OH assessments for work. Supposed to have reasonable adjustments made but anyone who works in a schools knows what is supposed to happen doesn’t actually work in practice e.g. OH recommends I don’t stand for longer than 20 minutes but we all have to do one half an hour duty a week. I’m supposed to avoid being knocked or pushed but impossible at lesson changeover moving from one classroom to another. I do have a lift key though and what is good for me is that I have a higher threshold for absence before a warning.

I’m not sure if I can teach til I’m 67 but we’ll see. I pay for monthly osteo appointments and do daily physio so I consider myself quite healthy at the moment. I have noticed a decline since menopause though. Even with my condition I was still able to run but since my last period of chronic pain (18 months ago), I have had to give that up.

I need to work though - my mental health would decline if I didn’t. And I say that although I do a bloody stressful job!

Despite the bankruptcy and how difficult life was when my pain was unmanaged and I had no choice but to work, looking back I'm very glad I had to keep working, even struggling to hold onto jobs sometimes, rather than writing myself off on the scrap heap and giving up. It has given me so much confidence and self esteem knowing what I'm capable of despite this horrible disease.

I have stage IV endometriosis and have had severe chronic daily, almost constant, pain since my teens. Currently on a large dose of morphine daily to function along with a host of other meds. I am phenomenally lucky to have been able to have a child.

1. What sort of role are you in, and is this influenced by disability? (Eg. physical disability so avoid manual work.)

1. What sort of reasonable adjustments do you find the most helpful? And how easy was it to get these?

1. Were you disabled when you became employed, or later so had already proved your worth to employer?

1. If you were already disabled, what led up to your current role - eg. did you have to get qualifications? Experience elsewhere? And how did you financially support yourself during this time?

1. How did you manage to pass the probationary period or avoid being managed out for performance/time off sick?

1. Do you have large CV gaps due to your disability, and if so how have you explained/managed these?

1. How did you convince an employer to give you a chance, to get a foot in the door of a suitable job?

1. (I'm thinking in particular of experience (and references). Starting in any old job as a first step toward something better may not be possible for a disabled person as the "any old jobs" available are unsuitable due to their disability. Is there a way to leap-frog past this stage?)

I have PTSD, FND and autism. So physical and mental disability.
I work for the government- public sector role and I was already disabled when I got the job- I knew I would only get the adjustments I need in the public sector.
Yes to gaps in my work history. I have hand waved these as traveling and childcare related.
I'm a professional and retrained to that profession as an adult to get this role funded with credit cards and a loan. I have flexible hours and work from home 100% as an adjustment. Without this I couldn't work- I have had to take 2 days off because of symptoms this week with no notice and my boss has been nothing but lovely.

I have CFS and employment is impossible for me because I am not consistently well enough to be able to commit to working set hours/days per week. So I am self employed, and I do what I can but I’m very limited by my energy levels.

For example today - had a good night’s sleep last night, woke up feeling ok, did one job for just over an hour 9-10.15am, then felt completely exhausted, came home and rested, including an hour of sleeping, until 3pm, then managed another job from 4-6pm. I only take on work that is fairly flexible and I can shift around depending on my energy levels that day. I’d love the stability of employment but I can’t see it happening. If I lose my LCWRA and PIP I’m screwed as I can’t physically work enough to survive, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ve had CFS for 10 years and this is the most productive I’ve been in that time and I’m aware that if I have a crash of my symptoms then I’ll be back to being bedridden, and that could happen any time.

Surely it's a good thing to talk about what might work, to talk about which employers might be supportive.

I am in a group for my rare condition and I found it really helpful to ask people what adjustments they asked for at work, what adaptations they use at home etc.

Also, why is this in AIBU? What is your AIBU? I mean, what is your question?

Ok I get it.

So you are just innocently and with no ill intent trying to amass anecdata around how what disability campaigners say are barriers to work, aren't actually barriers to work, days after cuts were announced.

Because after all, if one person has climbed over a barrier, that means everyone else can too. Perhaps it isn't really a barrier! Perhaps disabled people can just go ahead and work 40 hours a week and why wouldn't they!

DH reckons way more than half the people at his work are autistic, some of them quite severely. It's a scientific section of the public sector. They are hugely supportive of people with autism because they recognise their strengths so support their struggles

I had MS and Epilepsy. I've been in my role for 30 yrs. It was fine/okay ish until I started with the strokes (I've had 3 in 2 years) and they left me even more disabled.

I am not disabled but I know the following in my close friend and colleagues circle:
Autistic: 1 university administrator, 1 lecturer, 1 lab technician. All women, work part time (but have kids, all 3 have at least one autistic DC). The first two WFH a lot.
Blind: lawyer. He uses text readers a lot, and I think has a specialist secretary. His sight has got worse recently but he's used text readers as long as I've known him (20+ years).
I am sure there are more. I know a lot of autistic adults because I've got to know parents of school mates of my DCs. Those that work are usually part time but that's the case for most parents of children with disabilities.

I have been disabled my whole adult life although it got much worse in the last 5 years and that is when i also- finally - got my diagnosis. It's a rare neurological condition that is poorly understood even most doctors. It is very disabling and fluctates a lot. I am often to too ill to walk and quite regularly lose the ability to speak, see, swallow or lift my head up so it is not a mild condition

What sort of role are you in, and is this influenced by disability? (Eg. physical disability so avoid manual work.)

I'm a lawyer. I was in a more senior role but that was requiring an increasing amount of time in the office and as I got more unwell I couldn't manage it so I looked for a less senior role as I felt that would be better for my body. So I have taken a substantial pay cut to manage my disability by having a very much work from home role.

What sort of reasonable adjustments do you find the most helpful? And how easy was it to get these?

Working from home. Being able to work short days when needed. Having a wheelchair accessible desk (not an issue at all, the whole build is brilliantly wheelchair accessible)

No difficulty getting them. In fact my public sector employer went above and beyond to make me feel like my disability isn't an issue at all and that I can ask for more adjustments as needed. They have never made it feel like a problem.

Were you disabled when you became employed, or later so had already proved your worth to employer?
If you were already disabled, what led up to your current role - eg. did you have to get qualifications? Experience elsewhere? And how did you financially support yourself during this time?

Both, became (more) disabled when employed. And then late removed jobs to a new role as I wanted to be home based and my original role wasn't suited to it.

I had qualifications - degrees - and experience. When I was too ill to work in my twenties I volunteered from home and I still do remote volunteering now for various organisations alongside my day job. I am also doing online study on a flexible basis to improve my qualifications.

How did you manage to pass the probationary period or avoid being managed out for performance/time off sick?

I had a fair amount of time off sick during the probationary period. They knew it related to my disability and never made me feel bad and in fact often encouraged me to take a bit longer to get better. I performed well when I was working so there weren't any performance concerns.

Do you have large CV gaps due to your disability, and if so how have you explained/managed these?
How did you convince an employer to give you a chance, to get a foot in the door of a suitable job?

I did have a gap as I was ill in my twenties. For a long time I had no diagnosis so I felt ashamed of it and just called it a career break. I did do volunteering (remotely) during that time so I talked about that too. Now I understand why I was ill I just explain that I was ill.

1. I run my own business. This started due to childcare availability and continued because I love the variety of clients I get.
2. I am profoundly deaf. Lockdown was good for me (technologically speaking) as more people discovered Zoom and closed captions became normal. I request this now if I'm not hosting the meeting and use an AI note-taker to keep track of tasks and appointments. In real-life, its a combination of hearing aids, lipreading and guesswork.
3. I have been disabled all my life. My first employer was a bank, followed by a charity. I've always been upfront about my deafness (I get a lot fo 'you don't look deaf') as it's better than appearing rude or uncaring because I missed something.
4. I have a degree and industry-led qualifications. I usually look for ways to upskill or improve myself on a quarterly basis. My industry changes rapidly.
5. I am fortunate that my disability does not result in long absences.
6. I have worked continuously, with the exception of maternity leave.
7. This was tricky to start with. Once I had experience and could 'prove' I could do the job with references, case studies, and examples, it became easier. Most of my clients now seek me out.
8. I can't answer this for regular salaried jobs, but for freelance and your own business, clients care less about your personal problems or the time you spend at your desk and more about their results. If I had to start again, I would take on two or three clients for free (for a limited period) to prove I could deliver and then use that as a springboard.

I am registered disabled with inflammatory arthritis. I have a job in medical research management and much of it is office based and I can WFH so at the moment I can work full time but fatigue is a big issue at the moment and think this will end in me going part time

Yeah I've got no legs so I just do jobs where I can use my arms.

And??

I knew someone who had problems walking who worked as a receptionist.

Yeah I'm getting bad intentions from this one.

I have asd and mobility/chronic pain. I work 12 hours a week , some weeks it’s fine others it’s a struggle