Everyday Barriers: A Personal Account of Disability and Work
I’m 60 years old and live with profound hearing loss, mobility problems, depression, and autism. These conditions overlap and affect each other in ways that make everyday life more complicated. Small tasks that most people take for granted can take me much longer. Getting around, communicating, or keeping steady in my routine often depends on how each condition is behaving that day. Some days are manageable. Others are exhausting before they even begin.
I now wear hearing aids in both ears. They help, but in my right ear I have hardly any hearing to amplify. My mobility has deteriorated over the last two years, from relying on a crutch to walk to using a mobility scooter for the last few months, and now a powered wheelchair. When travelling outside Edinburgh, I couldn’t take my scooter, so until I had the wheelchair, I had to walk.
Waiting for buses, even using a crutch, can feel like torture. The bus stops closest to my home have no seats or shelters. If I wait even as long as five minutes, my legs and back ache like hell because there’s nowhere for me to sit. By the time the bus arrives, I am often in agony. Getting around the Edinburgh streets is a challenge in a scooter or powered chair. I can plan my route but often have to make detours due to high kerbs or pavements that are too narrow.
I can take the powered wheelchair on buses and trains by using ramps, but that brings its own challenges. I can’t travel on many of the buses because they don’t have wheelchair spaces. It’s hard to steer the chair straight, so I am at risk of falling off ramps when boarding and alighting from trains and buses. Backing my chair into a wheelchair space on a bus is very difficult and takes several attempts.
Reasonable Adjustments at Work
a) Failure to make a reasonable adjustment
I applied for promotion in 2016. My interview seemed to go well, but I was told I hadn’t been successful, so I asked for the interview notes. These showed that I had been marked down because, even though I had given all the evidence the interviewers wanted, I had given it in a very systematic way. My employer has long been aware that my autistic traits mean I put across information in set formats. I submitted a complaint. After three months, my appeal was upheld and I was promoted.
b) Reasonable adjustment in connection with effects of hearing impairment
My work involves interviewing members of the public face to face and over the phone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, my employer placed screens on the desks for safety reasons. I was unable to hear through the screen, so my duties were adjusted to phone work only.
c) Reasonable adjustments in connection with effects of mobility impairment
My workplace has a lift, but access to the lift through either staff entrance requires first negotiating a flight of stairs. The rails on the stairs were only on one side, so I couldn’t manage them while using my crutch. As an adjustment, the employer placed a rail on each side of the stairs. When I started using my mobility scooter, my employer agreed that I could bring it into the office through the customer entrance, as this has a ramp. This also meant adjusting my working hours to fit the times this entrance is open.
The fact that the majority of staff in my office are members of PCS has made it much easier to get the support of workmates and to apply pressure on my employer to comply with the legal duty to make reasonable adjustments.