And they think dysprexics are stupid

[yvonnel]

Moring All
Another long and ranting post I fear

I work for a disability organisation that is user led i.e. Run for and by disabled people. I have been here for 8 months most of my previous experience ( 20+ years) has been with people with learning disabilities and whilst I have always been aware of the hierarchy of impairments I think the last few months have shown what are acceptable impairments in some people eyes,
I manage a team that provides development opportunities for disabled people part of this is providing work experience for disabled people in the different teams in the organisation. This has been a bit of a struggle as people want finished products in their teams rather than offer a supportive environment where people want to develop.
So here’s the gem from this week . One of the teams has a young man with severe dyspraxia working in their team. His 18 and has had quite a hard time formally education didn’t work for him the school refused to take him back after he tried to a harm himself at school. He is very shy and has very low self esteem

Anyway they came to me on Monday to discuss some difficulties they were experiencing with him not appearing to fish tasks and day dreaming . I explained that he may have difficulty in following sequence tasks because short term, memory processing difficulties and forget some steps on the way and because of his previous experiences, under confident he may feel unable to ask people to repeat the instructions .m I suggested they put some templates of the tasks he does for them ( he does regular tasks) breaking it down step by step, So he has a guide to follow when he get lost. They initially agreed to this .
I have been just told by a member of their team there not doing this for him cause the problem is his lazy and has nothing to do with his impairment. And they know this as they have teenage boys so have a much better understanding of them that I would.

I have pointed out that just maybe I may have a better understanding of dyspraxia that they do.

[Osymandus]

Might also want to point out that what their doing is discrimination under the DDA and fines are unlimited

[yvonnel]

Believe it or not its the department who provide the Disability equality training that includes what was the DDA but is now the single equality act . They provide the training to all our staff and we sell the training to voluntary sector, private sector and statutory

We really are experts in our field

[Osymandus]

OMG hmm how much do they pay whistle blowers these days

[agsiul]

I don't even know what to say to that. It's desperate. A friend of mine would have been a brillant person to have on that team. When I started working with her she was brilliant. Broke down every stage and was very approachable when you were having trouble and when I was having troulbe I wrote down the stages myself and there was none of that sneering that'd youd get from other people....what a pity. Imagine how that poor fella feels. My heart really goes out to him.

[Osymandus]

I can . I used to work in teh city pre diagnosis and only really satrted to get major issues in the last placed a worked at if some people don;t want to respond or help you its difficult , im lucky in i am taking the legal route and teh outcome looks to be in my favor so one company has to change its attitude at least

[yvonnel]

The thing is everyone in the office agrees that these things shouldnt be happening ( I have not had an easy time there myself) but everyone seems powerless to stop this culture. It becomes were busy what i dont understand is we have no problem making reasonable adjustments for people with more visable impairments.
Yesterday I was told i was being difficult and just making a point when i said that receiving a 10 page report an hour before a meeting didnt meet my needs. Got told after the meeting that that at my level I should be contrbuting more

[Osymandus]

I would get a number of peopel together to complain then . They say you should contribute more ? Yet If thee was a blind person in teh office would they be asking them to increase their proof reading skills by sight alone . I think it sounds as if some of your colleges need a refresher course on what Dyspraxia is ??

[yvonnel]

No they wouldn't e expect that of a blind person ( one of my team is blind) as a Disabled peoples organisation over 60% of the workforce are disabled in my workplace . The point is there seems to be no problem making adjustments for people with more visual impairments . So my blind college has Jaws ( speech software) A PA ( paid for by access to work . And we ensure all documents produced are in a format that can be read by the software. The dwarf in my team has special chair . We have text phones for the hearing impaired. All our bathrooms are accessible and have hoists etc .

But then its ok to say someone with dysprexia is lazy hence my frustration

[Osymandus]

But its not , i really would call the Dyspraxia Foundation about this , its not on and as Dyspraxia affects teh higher brain functions , and obviously the ability to perform actions they are discriminating . It's really not on and very very ignorant

[Grackle]

Would it be possible to have a speaker come in and talk about learning disabilities in general first and then focus on dyspraxia and the workplace?
Perhaps they need it explained by someone who doesn't have dyspraxia.

[agsiul]

that sounds like a good idea because it will be less emotional and more factual

[yvonnel]

Thats a great idea. I think that makes sense it takes it away from being my issue .

[Osymandus]

that sounds like a good idea because it will be less emotional and more factual

Not strictly true , propably better to get someone with teh condition who is used to talking about it the Rev Alex Gowing-Cumber is one such man (doing a talk for Suffolk Police soon ) , might be worth asking the Foundation for him to come talk.