To ask people with disabilities to explain what discrimination they have faced?

[Givenuptotally]

Two horrific threads on disabilities this week. Can I ask any disabled person reading this to name and explain the discrimination they experience on a day to day basis? What are your experiences? I really do feel that so many need their eyes opening to what people with disabilities face.

My son has a disability. When diagnosed, his teacher refused to do additional training to be able to effectively support him. Many parents of children with the same condition end up having to attend school discos or residentials so their child gets the same experience as other children.

Then there was the time when I was studying and wasn't allowed a key to the college lift. Only staff had them. My classroom was upstairs. I was told I had to be accompanied by a teacher to use it. Everyone else was free to come and go as they pleased but I couldn't even go to the toilet without taking a teacher with me They'd sometimes forget about me in the mornings and I'd be left waiting by the lift. I sued them too and won.

Genuinely not trying to be confrontational. What do you mean by 1? Did they not ask for any evidence?

It was part of a members area, that you had to get an extra disabled viewing area ticket. So anyone with a members ticket could stop and use it as there are multiple ways of getting there, and at times they didn't always check if the person using the viewing area also had a ticket for that!

So you had to pay more for having a disability too?! That's shocking

Sadly yes, but the event would claim anyone could use that area with a disabled viewing ticket. Its also a bit of a con to get entry tickets if you get a members as they come in pairs, but its ok you can get a carer in for free on top. But as its local to me, I rarely have my carer (its really not my husbands interest) and often go in on my own.

Wanna know the worst people to deal with whilst being deaf?

Audiology doctors. People who specialise in deaf people.

They talk with their hands over the mouths…or try to talk to me whilst I don’t have my hearing aid in because I’m getting a new mould fitted.

Then they the nerve to be annoyed because they have to repeat themselves

I was sacked by my NHS job because they wouldn't discuss any adjustments for me - everything I suggested was refused straight away without them even considering it. My current non-NHS healthcare job was initially good, but recently they've started seeing me to work at other locations that aren't accessible to me. On one occasion they phoned me in the morning as I was getting ready to tell me I was needed elsewhere, and that the venue didn't have parking but it was "just a 20 minute walk from the train station".

During lockdown I couldn't go shopping, as I don't look disabled enough to need anyone with me, but at the time I couldn't lift anything so couldn't do it by myself.

@chelle0 my PRC has been brilliant. I have limited movement and strength in my wrist, but my pain is so much more under control. I'll probably need further surgery in future but currently I'm discharged from the consultant as there's nothing more they can do for me.

I have a lot of conditions including a rare genetic skin disorder, ehlers danlos, dyspraxia and arthritis.

I have had the disbelief from employers, apparently 22 year olds are immune from disability, even the disabilities they were born with. Apparently I faked my results to fool the doctors including blood tests, xrays and ultrasounds.

Even when I explain my needs there's always someone who says 'but can't you just this one time?

I had an assessment centre for an admin job at a law firm about 10 years ago. I had agreed extra time for the tests with the agency. When I got there the invigilator was awful. She tried to refuse me the adjustment as I couldn't provide a statement of SEN from school (I was diagnosed at 21, after graduating). She argued with me for ages (in front of the other candidates, who all looked very uncomfortable) before finally relenting. When she told the others they had to stop she said 'you all need to stop now, except Demelza who gets more time than you for the same test'.

When I went for my results she told me triumphantly that I'd failed all tests, despite the extra time. I insisted on seeing my papers as I was confident I hadn't failed. She then "realised" a mistake had been made and she'd mixed up my results with someone else's and I'd passed them all and she had to invite me to interview.

Awful woman. I was much younger then and if it happened now I would have been much bolshier.

#When I used a manual chair, I have been MOVED by randomers, without asking me... both times I was browsing stuff on a rack and suddenly I am moved away and then someone gets in front of me to look at what I was looking at - the second time I had had one hand on a wheel and my fingers caught in the spokes so I let out a very loud swear word and the woman TOLD ME OFF FOR SWEARING.. and said I was over reacting, she just wanted to get in front of me!...

Twice I have had people allow children to climb on my powerchair when I have left it parked in a restaurant somewhere 'not in the way' and transferred to a normal seat (this is because my chair is generally too high for restaurant tables) - on both occasions the parents were busy beaming at their precocious child and objected strongly when I asked them to remove child. On one occasion apparently it was OK because the NHS loan me the chair so 'in effect we've paid for it'... (they hadn't, it was my privately funded chair, not my NHS one but even if it had been... ugh!).#

This drives me insane. To the point I don't put the handles on the back of my self propelled chair so people can't bloody do it. How fucking dare they just move me. You wouldn't lift and move anyone else, so just because I'm in a wheelchair that gives licence to be moved. Grrrrr

Power chairs- even manual chairs are expensive and mostly the NHS ones are crap. They are not toys and no you child can't just sit on it for a second. Disability is not a funny playtime matter.

I've also been asked if the children I'm with are mine- because being disabled means you can't have any- for some unknown reason.
Also, I'm being selfish having children. I'm not giving them much of a life and they will only end up the same. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Blue badge standoff. I've had loads. Been told I shouldn't have one, that I don't need one, I'm too young, just because I have children doesn't mean I should park in a disabled space. Mr walking stick following me, telling me it's not on using someone else badge. Blahh blah.

Always needing doctors notes for access to this that and the other. Price this/ prove that. Always has to be an original so I have to pay £30. everytime I need to ’prove’ my condition and disease.

I'm not disabled. But I think about disability matters, at the moment it's visible disability. eg in all the years I have worked in my life I have never had a work colleague who is wheelchair bound. I'm late 50s and have worked since I was 16. So...why?

Also feel as if 'invisible disability' is all that's spoken of now so I do wonder.

Either way and whatever the disability whether visible or not, the discrimination and lack of thought towards disabled people is a disgrace. As long as you have a nicely worded disability policy that seems to be enough, no need to action it. DP has mobility issues & Blue Badge so I see a lot of the discrimination first hand.

Late to posting, but wanted to contribute anyway:

Being dismissed from a role due to my disability-related absences, whilst a colleague had more absences than me due to general illnesses (think stomach bug and sore chest). This person did not have a disability and was not dismissed, but I was.

Been told my a GP that the Integrated Autism Service would “send back” my referral for Autism because I was in a relationship and was employed.

Got told in an internal interview that I needed to “sort my head out” before being promoted. The role was given to someone who was less experienced in the role than I was, and hadn’t carried out the extra training, which I had.