I am an older, white, English, heterosexual, neurotypical woman.

Well.

At least some of that is true. See, I grew up in a time, not actually that long ago, when I just accepted things that I was told. Don’t make a fuss, don’t be different. Except actually, I always knew I was different – I just thought that was me, being weird.

I thought that because my parents were English, that was my heritage.

I thought that because I wasn’t severely learning disabled like people I knew who were autistic, I was neurotypical.

I thought that because I had a long-term relationship with a man, that I was heterosexual.

Funnily enough, it turned out that none of that was actually the case!

Finding out my heritage was a bit easier once there was DNA testing on family tree sites like Ancestry. Turns out that I am more Heinz variety than anything; lots of Irish and Scottish and all kinds of bits thrown in, including Romani.

The other things were harder lessons.

Having an openly bi (and later as they learnt more about themselves, trans) child, who also had a variety of neurodivergence, was probably the biggest part of me learning a bit more about myself too. I discovered I was dyspraxic when, sitting in an OT appointment with my eldest post diagnosis, I poured a cup of tea down my front and simultaneously threw my bag all over the floor. The OT looked kindly at me and said, ‘Parents often find out they have the same condition when their child is diagnosed…’. And it was true. As we went through some questionnaires, I realised more and more that I also identified with pretty much the whole thing – just that I had somehow learnt to put coping mechanisms around them, and to mask, mask, mask. As time has gone on, I have realised more and more about how autistic girls don’t get diagnosed, instead being seen as ‘highly strung’, weird, nerdy, whatever. And those girls grow into women ( – or sometimes non binary or trans masc adults!), who still find the world a confusing and frightening place. Women with ADHD are often misdiagnosed also, bipolar, anxiety, depression – yes these things are sometimes co-morbid, but actually, once you realise there’s a reason for things, somehow it’s a lot easier to work on and easier to occasionally even drop the mask. I have been asked why I pursued diagnosis so late – for me it was quite validating to know that yes, I am autistic, and there were so many things in my childhood and later years that suddenly made a lot of sense. Even in my assessment I was still clueless though – the assessor asked me ‘do you collect anything?’ and I said, no? No, I don’t think so.

Oh. I mean, unless you count – and as I was doing the interview by camera, I swung round to show him my Moomin cup collection, my tiny Moomins, my medium sized Moomins, my Moomin ornaments, my Moomins on the bed, my Moomin house – he sighed, and ticked a box…

I’m still waiting for my ADHD diagnosis (5 years now) but actually, knowing that there are things I can put in place to combat the chronic disorganisation and untidiness I have had my entire life; knowing that I can have mechanisms to cope with forever being late and always losing important things and forgetting things and flipping from one thing to the other, helps. I am forever being told by my partner to ‘show my working out’ when he says something and my mind leaps five steps away from that and goes in a completely different direction. Once, my eldest and I were at a Christmas market and the stall holder overheard a conversation between the two of us where we were both sparking off each other and in absolute hysterics. He said ‘I wish I could get some of what you two are on!’ But we were just being us. Because having ADHD and being autistic is not always a curse!

In terms of my sexuality, I have come to realise that it’s not about who you’re with, it’s about attraction too. And I am not actually only attracted to one gender, and not even attracted to people because of gender. I don’t get attracted to many people, but it’s regardless of gender. I therefore now say I identify as pansexual. I’m in a monogamous relationship, so I could easily ‘pass’ as heterosexual. But I know I’m not. Just like all those years I was trying to ‘pass’ as neurotypical.

Time for the masks to go.

I am an older, white, pansexual, neurodiverse woman with a rich heritage. There, that’ll do it!

The post Time for the masks to go. appeared first on Green Party Disability Group.

When Labour were elected, even under Kier Starmer, I hoped that they would remember they stand for the working classes, not just the “workers”. Instead, we’ve ended up in a strange upside-down world where disabled people are the first under fire.

We have significant concerns with the Welfare Bill being proposed. First things first – PIP is not an out of work benefit. For many disabled people who do work, PIP is the only thing that enables them to work. 

Disabled people spend on average £1000 a month more than their non-disabled counterparts. This is for things like mobility aids, costs of care, taxis to and from work – all sorts of things that aren’t factored in to their income without something like PIP.

The Labour Government have been consistently saying this bill is to get disabled people ‘into work’. Yet they plan to cut access to PIP – cutting many people’s access to work – and they also plan to cut Access to Work, a program that provides reimbursement for things like adapted office furniture, accessible programs like Dragon, and even personal assistants (which employs more people). They say it’s because it’s just costing too much – but it’s remained the same percentage of GDP consistently, even with the increase in applications in a post-COVID world.

Disability Benefits have already been cut down to the bone by well over a decade of Tory Austerity. Hundreds of thousands have died, many as a direct result of their benefits being stopped. How many more will die under the new direction taken by Starmer and Kendall?

We urge every MP to vote against this bill. Anyone who votes for it will have the blood of untold disabled people on their hands. But what can you do? Take a stand against the demonisation of disabled people and contact your MP, please. 

It is predicted that over 350,000 people will be forced into poverty because of these proposals, including children. We cannot stand by and let this happen.

In Solidarity,

Cade Hatton
(he/they)
Chair GPDG

The post Our response to the welfare bill appeared first on Green Party Disability Group.

I started working at a reasonably well sized and well established charity so I was confident that my troubles with past employers being inclusive was behind me. That put, it seems the size of the organisation was a key issue among many in my experience. These days I am pretty happy to be openly talking about my disability in job interviews, so I was glad when in offering me a job my manager had confirmed they’d already contacted HR about my needs. Even more delighted I was when I had occupational health not soo long later… So where did it go wrong? 

I had made it clear that I would benefit a lot from a large computer monitor as for me it particularly reduces eye strain and increases my productivity, as had my occupational health report. It was made very clear to me that this would be a possibility, and so I was directed to email the IT department which initiated an internal departmental pinball around the company. IT told me to email the internal occupational health team, who after a number of weeks had me fill out a particularly vague survey not focusing on my needs but asking subjective questions about my activities whilst sitting at a desk.

“Why do those at a disadvantage have to continuously actively fight for their own inclusion?“

Some weeks later this survey resulted in a specialist coming to visit me at home, they took measurements of me, sat at a chair and asked questions about my needs. So other than now knowing my sitting height this did appear like progress, so I’d thought. This had led me to another month of chasing IT, eventually I got told my equipment would be dispatched in a couple of weeks time.

At this point I was really getting fed up with having to chase people or ask for things to happen quicker. I know my managers felt the same and with no clear way of making a complaint or having a designated department to talk to, what was I to do? Eventually I found the email to our HR department and made a very strong complaint. And apparently that is all it took.

The HR manager got back to me very quickly, had a meeting with them the following day (getting a lot off my chest), and the following working day I got my equipment, That quick, that easily apparently. But should I have had to complain? If I knew that was the key I’d have done that day one.

Turns out I’m not the only person to have struggles with reasonable adjustments. The Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey 2023 presents some quite shocking statistics on this; I joined 78 percent of disabled employees who said that they, rather than their employer, had to initiate the process of getting adjustments.

And only 10 percent of disabled employees said it was easy to get the adjustments they needed!!! It gets worse as 1 in 8 disabled employees are waiting over a year to get the adjustments they need. Saddest of all however is that 58 percent of employees said getting the adjustments they needed was due to how assertive and confident they are to ask for that support. And it is this that rattles me, why do those at a disadvantage have to continuously actively fight for their own inclusion? 

A disabled comedian friend of mine made a great comparison, comparing reasonable adjustments to “riders’ ‘. In the same way performers have “riders” to ensure they can perform to their highest standard. Employees have certain reasonable conditions they need met in the workplace, to overcome the barriers they often face to ensure they can work to their highest standard. This really is a win-win-win for all involved, especially if viewed this way should be applied to all employees regardless if they identify as having a disability. It really is a surprise that organisations aren’t on top of this because for employers it means a workforce working at a higher standard, more motivated  and improved well being.

Hopefully this story of my struggle for reasonable adjustments is a clear representation of how disabled people are failed on a daily basis. I am lucky that with my complaining my employer has started to review its processes even admitting its mistakes. Sadly this won’t be the case for everyone, some will be waiting so much longer, others may even be unlawfully dismissed.

When complaining to myself one of the responses I often get is “Sorry this has happened”. As much as I appreciate the sentiment in these, I’m often overcome with both frustration and apathy. Frustration because well what does sorry do? It shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Apathy because it’s not the first time I have experienced it, and for many it won’t be the last.

This Voices article was contributed anonymously by a member of the Disability Group.

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As most disabled people do, I researched my journey options thoroughly and bought a return ticket from my home city of Leicester from the ticket office on Friday. Due to my condition, MS, I don’t know if I’m going to be well enough to travel, so I rarely buy train tickets in advance. I usually don’t book the access service either, because it doesn’t cater to my needs, as I don’t need a wheelchair or a guide, and don’t know in advance if I can travel; I just need reliable trains.

The journey on Friday was long, but bearable. I’d been told online, and at the ticket office, that there was going to be a bus replacement service on the journey back on Sunday, which I accepted. The bus replacement service was clearly marked on the train route planner, and I had no choice but to trust Southern and National rail.

However, on Sunday morning, I checked the national rail app train just before we set out, to find that it looked like no trains were running at all.

In a panic, I tried ringing the assist service, but couldn’t get through. I’d left over two hours to contact the assistance service as they’d stipulated online, and there was no information on the National Rail app, which just suggested we travel the next day.

Panicking, I had to walk to the station to find out what was going on, which took nearly an hour as I have to take regular breaks.

I was then told at the station that there were no replacement buses available. I was told I’d have to walk back to the bus station, catch a bus at my own expense to Barnham, and then take the train home from Barnham .

I started walking at 9 o’clock, leaving plenty of time to pick up the bus replacement service scheduled for 1021. However, I can only walk very slowly, especially as I had to double back on myself. Therefore, I missed the first public bus.

The bus we caught had multiple stops, so took far longer than a bus replacement service, so I missed my next connection…and from there the journey got worse.

I ended up travelling for over eight hours for a journey that is advertised as 3 1/2.

Near tears, I rang the Assistance Service again, and asked why I’d not been able to book Assistance, and what would they have done if I had booked it? I was told that because the bus replacement service had been cancelled for everyone, there was nothing they would have done, because, as a disabled person, I wasn’t being discriminated against.

This absolutely horrendous experience shows how broken our transport system is, and how rail company inclusion policies are often just fiction.

Disabled people can only use transport if they’re confident it’s going to work effectively, that they run bus replacements if needed and that the Assistance Service will help if there is an issue.

I have complained and asked that my comments to be passed on to the assist group so they are aware of this issue and my complaint formally logged and looked into.

It was a farce. It was cruel. It was unnecessary and illustrates why disabled people are often frightened to trust in public transport.

But what will my response be? A Fulsome, apology and assurances it won’t happen again, or a vanilla bland pat on the head. I suspect the latter, and it’s infuriating and ablest. We deserve better.

Mags Lewis is the Green Party’s Disability Spokesperson. She cares passionately about the environment and the need to hear from, see and respect disabled people.

The post Abandoned by National Rail appeared first on Green Party Disability Group.

The three-week consultation has been over proposals to close most of England’s 1,000 station offices, including at Bristol Temple Meads Station.

Carla said:

“Stations in and around Bristol are vital transport hubs for thousands of people and the ticket office staff there are often the only source of advice for people trying to navigate the ticketing system. 

“Having a human presence at a ticket office is especially important for disabled and elderly passengers who may have additional requirements. 

“The fact that our trains are operated by different, privatised companies already makes ticketing overly complicated, making ticket office staff crucial. And, in our current cost of living crisis, they are invaluable to helping people find the cheapest route to get from A to B. 

“This is all part of the Government’s lack of investment in public transport in recent years to the detriment of people and communities, particularly the disabled and elderly who can become isolated without these crucial services.

“If the Government wants to save money on the subsidies it gives to private train operating companies, it should do what the Green Party has long proposed, return the franchises to public control when they expire so that money spent on trains goes back into trains – and ticket offices – not into the pockets of remote shareholders. 

“Public transport should be run for people, not profit. I hope as many residents as possible are able to take part in this consultation before it closes today and make sure their concerns are heard.”

ENDS

Appeared first on the Green Party news page

The post Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer makes urgent call to save rail ticket offices appeared first on Green Party Disability Group.

“Any decision to close station ticket offices would be another short-sighted decision by a government that does not care about people who use public transport to get around.”

Edwards, who is also Leader of the Green Party Group on Bradford Council, added:

“Anyone who uses the train will know that the machines at our stations are not reliable and they don’t always make it clear which ticket is the cheapest ticket to buy. This will also make it more difficult for people who need to pay for tickets with cash.

“Being able to speak to someone is vital for many passengers and plans to close ticketing offices will make travelling by train more different for thousands of passengers – especially passengers with disabilities, those with limited mobility and parents travelling with children.

“Instead of another needless fight with unions and passengers, the government should be focusing on getting services running on time, dealing with overcrowding and making travelling by rail more convenient and affordable. Closing ticket offices will achieve none of that.”

This statement originally appeared on the Green Party Press website. View it here.

The post Greens call for rail ticket offices to be kept open to support travellers appeared first on Green Party Disability Group.

As they continue to smash the NHS into thousands of disparate pieces, and fail to protect the environment or workers’ rights, they also leave us all to the mercies of a badly regulated and dysfunctional energy market.

Whilst pressures on all of us continue to mount, the consequences for disabled people are even more acute. 

For example, many disabled people rely on energy, both to keep warm (more disabled people are housebound and need to keep warm due to their conditions) and crucially, to power their essential electronic equipment.

Keeping warm and keeping equipment going are pretty basic needs, but recently there have been heartbreaking cases where this has been impossible. For example, a family in Wales can’t afford to keep their house heated overnight, so have lost overnight nursing support for their profoundly disabled child as staff can’t safely work in areas below 16 degrees. 

Another example of the consequences to the disabled community is the astonishing decision by our energy Minister Grant Shapps to leave planning energy blackout emergency planning to individual disabled people. 

Bearing in mind many disabled people need vital equipment like dialysis machines and oxygen machines to actually stay alive, leaving this to personal choice or whatever the phrase of the day is cruel, ill-thought out and will lead to deaths. 

This article appeared first on Green World. Read in full here.

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The party said the proposals would put social care “on a par with the NHS”.

The policy motion (see page 112) passed by party members calls for all social care, support and independent living services to be free at the point of use and “fully publicly funded”.

It appears to mirror proposals put forward by disabled people’s organisations for a National Independent Living and Support Service (NILSS).

This article appeared first on the Disability News Service. Read in full here.

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