Looking for work in a wheelchair

[Worrysaboutalot]

That's it really.

I was looking for work before lockdown as I have been a SAHM for the last few years. Once my hospital appointments have scaled back to a reasonable level, I will continue to look for work.

How do I find out if a company has disabled access to their buildings? How do I find out which companies will want to employee me? I am very worried that noone will want the hassle and overlook me, just because of the chair.

I also have invisible chronic bowel condition and I am deaf and hard of hearing too but I lip read well enough and wear an hearing aid too

I know council jobs give interviews to those that 'identify' as disabled, so guess I can tick that box now. Plus I have applied to several charity jobs which are home based, so I will keep on doing that.

I know about 'access to work' providing necessary adaptions if they can but they might not be timely.

Basically any advice, ideas, positive stories welcome.

Great update! Good luck

I work for a large professional services firm. Our firm has accessible offices and support for disabled employees (I know of quite a few colleagues with various different disabilities). Other similar large firms I know of have a similar set up. We are private sector. I’d definitely consider them as good places to work 😃

Have you applied for a grant via Motability at all? I don't know how it works if your DH earns, but it's worth a try and may cover some of the upfront payment. It's great you have got so much sorted accessibility wise.

I'm like you and the NHS wheelchair service won't give me a powerchair (been a wheelchair user 10 years) because I can take a single, painful step some days. I did get my previous wheelchair funded by Access to Work though, so that might be a route to try later on.

Able bodied people don't realise how difficult the work environment is for those with disabilities. From the agonising over whether to tick the box to say you are disabled and then have pre-conceptions made before you get through the door, or whether not to tick it but it's not something you can hide. Worrying about the accessibility of the meeting room - or things being sprung on you on the day. I listed that I needed level-access for one interview, but on the day they asked me to fill out a really long essay and left me to it before I could say anything. I can only write a few sentences by hand without a lot of pain, and so what I had to give in was poorly done and couldn't really be read. Had they mentioned this I would have asked for a computer and been able to do the essay as well as anyone else. I wasn't offered the job, obviously.

Then I've been moved to a office where the lift didn't fit my wheelchair meaning I was in agony all day, every day. (My condition is degnerative so could walk sometimes, which they took as being fine to move me to an inaccessible environment.)

Then there's the jobs that don't list all the tasks on the job description - then get annoyed with you when you can't physically do it.

Then another employee told me because another 'blue badge holder' in the building could walk down the five flights of stairs in the event of a fire drill, then I should be able to as well and I was just making excuses by explaining I couldn't.

There's so much more - refusals of basic reasonable adjustments, the time I applied for a role at the local council and when offered it was told their office was up a big flight of stairs and tough luck basically.

I also had some really rewarding roles and great managers, but the total exhaustion of being in the work place, on top of the pain/exhaustion of my condition was incredibly difficult to deal with.

Thanks tappitytaptap :)

Thanks GlitterNails.

I am very worried about how I can work in practice. I am very tired all the time. My hands shake and I drop things at random. I use a wheelchair and can only manage a few steps with my sticks. I need to be close to a disabled bathroom and to be able to go at short notice to it. Plus my hearing issues need a specialised phone for me to use and I need to check that the closest fire alarm was loud enough for me or have a flashing light extension to fire alarm instead.

But I have a brain, I like helping people, I am good on a computer especially crystal reports and excel. I was a project manager, tender manager and various other career roles in the past.

I would love a job that would accommodate my limitations but would give me purpose and the reward of a monetary wage.

I guess it boils down to getting an understanding boss and they are rare as hens teeth.

I am going to concentrate on home based charity admin work jobs, government/council/NHS jobs. Although my friend says NHS is the worse for not accommodating differences and said to avoid them but they are a big employer, so they are still on my list.

Guess I have to throw myself into it and hope fate will provide a reasonable opportunity. I am due some good luck, after the year I have had to date!

We're a small private firm of finance specialists in the City in London and our little building is fully accessible for wheelchair users. No steps to access, lifts to every floor, and large accessible bathrooms on every floor. The basement and showers down there are also fully accessible. The only hindrance I can think of at the moment is access from the lobbies to the offices, as they're swipe card locked and are heavy-ish doors which open towards you; they might be difficult to navigate in a chair.

We have a couple of people with mobility and with hearing problems. As long as you can do the job I don't think it would be a problem at all.

Lockheart That sounds reassuring, that some companies are fully assessible.

Definitely look at public sector - not just local councils, but civil service (if within reasonable distance) and government agencies. I work in one of the latter and had a colleague with mobility problems. She travelled by bus (1 hour each way) for years till looking into Access to Work, which then paid for her to come to and fro by taxi, which alleviated her issues massively. We also have a profoundly deaf colleague, and she is simply provided with all the equipment she needs to carry out her role - as is anyone with any requirements identified by an Occ Health assessment. The ethos is very much about enabling people to work.

You’ll qualify under the guaranteed interview scheme, so keep applying and see. There are lots of non-specialist admin roles in places like these which you might be qualified for even without recent experience.

Sending lots of positive waves to you - let us know how you get on.

Big companies have accessibility policies on their websites.

Which almost invariably refers to the accessibility of the website (and even then it's usually wrong).

e.g www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/

or even:

www.mumsnet.com/info/accessibility

And even when there's a load of warm guff about "being accessible", it's unlikely to have ever been tested by someone using a wheelchair.

DWs 20 years of experience for you there.

With your background you could look into IT/analyst type roles training, there tends to be IT remote work available and working fom home may solve many of your accessibility issues

Ive worked in financial services for years and the tendin general to be proactive about accessibility and inclusiveness etc so possible a sector to look out for

Toomanyradishes
Yes, working from home would be ideal for me and addresses all my accessible issues and I have a hearing friendly phone here (boosted volume and flashing lights for incoming calls) :)