What does working mean to me, a head injury survivor?

Disabled Benefit Scrounger!
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I am currently unemployed.
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I want to work.
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David Cameron, Theresa May, Chris Grayling all think that I need to be incentivised to work.
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As a counterpoint to that, I think that in reality the UK Business Community needs to be incentivised to let me work.
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Let me explain that to you.
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In 1991 I tried to do too much and ended up in a car crash suffering a very severe head injury as a consequence.. After an initial 6 weeks where I was "not there" I started my recovery. All the way through my recovery I held onto the belief that I was going to make a 100% recovery and that defined me. I wasn't disabled.
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Within 10 months I was back at work, much to my Doctors disgust. At first I am sure I was a challenge but went through a gradual rehabilitation program and over 3 months became productive again.
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Productive but different. After my accident my IQ still registered in the top 5%of the population but my memory recall was in the bottom 5%. Also, I was, as they say, "easy to wind up". As is common in Traumatic Brain Injury I suffer from behavioural eccentricities. My problem was that if somebody "played politics" with me the red mist descended if I interpreted their games as a personal attack. After a couple of slanging matches with colleagues which did me no good at all I worked out that the only way to deal with this was to keep my counsel which worked at junior levels.
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Also, I do not "play well with the other children". My brain injury effectively puts up a wall between me and everyone else. I have little or no empathy. I find it difficulty to relate to people in social situations and I can very easily say inappropriate things. Unfortunately, work is also a social situation!! Not disabled but weird!
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I returned to BG after my accident, which I had whilst at work, and they tolerated me for 5 years. But the first chance they got.......
My directorate was being wound up and we all had to apply for jobs in it's successor. There were more than enough jobs to go around! So, despite me being brain injured and disabled British Gas tried to make me redundant.
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Having convinced them of the error of their ways and getting myself  retired on the grounds of ill-health, I commenced a glittering career via PricewaterhouseCoopers which ended up with me as a very successful FC/CFO of a Billion Dollar Aircraft Leasing Company in Abu Dhabi till 2008.
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However, the higher you go, shutting up and keeping your own counsel becomes a less and less valid tactic. Especially, when other "operators" in the company pick up on your lack of political "games playing" skills.
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When I left BG they retired me on the grounds of ill-health as I effectively convinced them that my inter-personal skills deficit made it very difficult for me to secure appropriate employment. Sadly, since 2008 that has been the case. Before 2008 I would argue that my natural ability, charisma and ability to "bullshit for England" got me by.
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Since 2008 there has also been a change in me. Pre 2008 I firmly believed I wasn't disabled and approached life with that belief. Since 2008, when I believe my disabilities became a limiting factor in my career I have accepted and embraced my disabilities. That doesn't mean I let them define me and they don't stop me doing anything (badly!!).
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Yet, I believe that if my disabilities weren't  (and I hadn't kept them well hidden) I wouldn't have had the opportunities I have had.
Does that make me a traitor to disabled people?
I think not, because I didn't hide or deny my disabilities - I just didn't discuss them unless I was asked. Surely, my experiences would reinforce the message that the disabled are very able if you can see past the disability?
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The effect of that was that to other non-disabled colleagues I was different and eccentric but when it came down to the job I was "better than the average bear". Try Googling "Ian Jones TATA Oasis" to see some of my work.
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My catch phrase on Twitter is becoming Disabled People Need Equality of Opportunity, not just Equality of Treatment. What do I mean by that?
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I hate interviews. Equality of Treatment means that everybody gets interviewed in the same way. The Recruitment Department with their large budget would argue that the outcome of the interview process is that the best candidate gets the job. The interview process I generally come up against, involving social interaction and memory tests (Competency Based Questioning), I believe weights the process against me. I would go so far as suggesting that it would be like selecting the team for the Olympics (Athletics, Swimming, Cycling, Gymnastics, etc) by seeing who ran the 100m quickest. Horses for courses.
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Does my inability to interview consistently well mean that I am unable to do the job? No.
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Does my social skill deficit mean I can't do the job? I would argue no. Would people need to make allowances for me. Sometimes yes, although very rarely.
Is there a precedent for this? The Law, I believe, guarantees Physically Disabled people physical access to work. Shouldn't it also guarantee people with Cognitive/ Mental Health Disabilities/ Learning Disabilities access to work?
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Therein lies the a major factor in my continuing problem.
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I do not look disabled!
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People do not think I am disabled because I don't look disabled. I am just weird!
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People generally in my opinion do not make allowances for that which they can't see.
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Until the Government, Business and some of the Disabled Charities act to allow the skills and talent that are undoubtedly present in many, many unemployed disabled people to be put to fulfilling and productive use, they are guilty of ignoring an underused resource in the UK labour market.

Frame a Directgov e-petition question

Through a friend I made on Twitter I got involved with a move to write PatsPetition2. 

Pats Petition called on the government to
 

"Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families"

This petition attracted 62,645 signatures as at 11am on the 8Nov2012 but is now closed.

Since this petition the Disabled Community has been asking what comes next.

To this end "Napoleon Wilson" (a nom de plume!!) organised a mass tweet on Tuesday night to brainstorm for new ideas. I have collected ideas left on two Blogs set up for comment.

• Lubottom
• Want a review enquiry Not a debate.
• Cuts fall disproportionately on women. (Evidence)
• GPs should be involved in WCA.
• 32 per week in WRAG dying.
• Benefit reduction equates to lost taxes.
• Cuts to medical services (MH, OT etc)
• 10 percent
• Repeal WRB
• Causing death and stress.
• Call for a free vote on abolition.
• Mike Sivier
• Current assessment system not fit for purpose.
• Engage wth all dis orgs including charities.
• Angus Curruthers
• See Irish rejection of WRB
• Lynn
• Point out what loss of DLA/PIP will practically mean to people.
• MH sufferers cannot handle the assessments.
• Gracie
• Approach Paralympians and 38Degrees and get them to do everything.
• PatWalker
• Free vote to repeal WRB
• Jane
• Engage with people on case study to get people to understand.
• Diane Maxfield
• Debate and discussion of how equality of opportunity could be achieved is way forward.

• Coffeecup
• Dame Carol Blacks report in 2008 outlines ideology behind finding people fit for work but the support she suggested is not being provided.
• Ambir
• Aim for 100k signatures
• Promote more realistic view of sick and disabled people.
• Gavin Saunders
• Welfare decisions should not be in the hands of a private company.
• EdwinMandella
• Equality of treatment is not enough. We want equality of opportunity.
• RickB
• Free vote in repealing the Welfare Reform Act to save 30-70 lives per week.
• Kimmie Stuckinscared
• Doctors… should be enough.

The trick now is to distil these ideas into an Action!

The rules of the e-petition are as follows:-

1. All e-petitions must call for a specific action from the government.
2. If an e-petition does not include a clear statement explaining what action you want the government to take, it will be rejected. 
3. If you collect 100,000 signatures, your e-petition could be debated in the House of Commons.

Personally, I suggest that the questions coming out of these ideas are as follows. There is a comments section below this Blog. If you think I'm wrong, please tell me.


My Interpretation of Suggested Actions following Brainstorming session.
 

1. Call for the repeal of the Welfare Reform Bill.
2. Call for the Work Capability Assessment  process to be re-engineered with a greater emphasis on professional evidence based assessment.
3. Call for the process to be "softened" for vulnerable people.
4. Call for serious discussion on how Equality of Opportunity can be encouraged.
5. Call for the Government to Provide the support identified and required to get people found fit for work back to work.

 I am very sorry if I have missed any that were Tweeted alone. Use the comments section to correct. Also, IMO, lots of the ideas and comments would feature as evidence given to support the e-petition specific action. The better the request for action, the more evidence we could load into the e-petition.


There were also many points about how the current process operates ("welfare decisions should not be in the hands of a private company" and calls for various people to front this campaign). My personal opinion is (and again use the comment section if you disagree!) this is all about getting the right requested action. An action so powerful, incisive, emotive and obvious that it cannot be ignored. Once you have the right requested action, to quote from "Field of Dreams", "Build it and they will come".



I have just glanced at Twitterand picked up this Tweet, which to me is very pertinent.

Nick @Mylegalforum

What we need to do is smash a few of the #media myths which surround benefit claimants, correcting public perception is key #patspetition

If we build the right request for Action with the right evidence I believe we will smash the ConDem lies and change Public Perception.

My final point is, we need to construct the killer request for Action  which may be one or an amalgamation of the suggested Actions above (or may be completely different if I got it wrong!)

You know where the comments section is! 

Links

Help us Frame an e-petition question http://wp.me/p2S5Ri-4  via @wordpressdotcomHave duplicated forum on Wordpress. You have no excuse now!!  

Help us Frame an e-petition question http://napoleonspetition.blogspot.com/2012/11/help-us-frame-e-petition-question.html …

 

How Can Disabled People get their voice heard?

I have had a very interesting TwitCon this morning which in my opinion outgrew Twitter as a medium for discussing it 3 others and myself started by discussing Labours culpability for ATOS and the Work capability Assessment (WCA) and progressed to a "guerilla" campaign against marginal seats at by-elections. I have copied this conversation to the end of this Blog for completeness.


In my opinion the conversation was about how the disabled can mobilise to act as a political force and we got to the point where we started to discuss ideas.

My position.

• I do not believe the disabled are represented adequately by any organisation. Each organisation has it's own agenda and there is an "I'm alright Jack, don't want to rock the boat before my honour for Services to the Disabled is announced attitude" amongst the leaders of our Charities/ Organisations.

My ideas are as follows:

1. What should a disabled candidate at an election for parliament stand for? The choice is to either stand as: 
1. A candidate with a manifesto covering all areas of Policy; or 
2. A Single Issue Candidate standing on a platform of fair play for the disabled.
2. What is our manifesto? What do we campaign for? eg. If we campaign against ATOS and the WCA what do we replace them with? If we campaign for a fair share of government funds for disabled issues what is fair and where does the money come from? These are answers we need to have.
3. Can we defend the share of the welfare budget that supports disabled people and can we dispel the myths surrounding government support for the disabled and contrast this to support of non-disabled people through eg. housing benefits/ support of the old through pensions etc.
4. What are our key manifesto commitments?
1. What benefit levels and qualifications for access to them do we propose?
2. Do disabled people have adequate access to society (eg Premium rate phone lines for tickets to the Paralympics). What do we suggest?
3. Do Disabled people have appropriate access to the job market. Is equality of treatment the right measure or should different requirements be considered for disabled candidates? Isn't equality measured better by equality of access rather than equality of treatment?
5. Can we paint a compelling picture for the Daily Mail reading public of just how the benefit changes are affecting disabled people. Can we personalise our issues (with permission!!). C4 made a start!!!
6. Can we both find candidates to put up for election that will be able to get our message across and will we be able to raise the necessary money to fund the campaigns.
7. What disabilities are we concerned with? Invisible disabilities and mental health issues are invisible and the public doesn't seem to understand or want to support them. Are we going to highlight this issue in phase 1 or is that a phase 2/3/4 issue?
8. We are having this conversation. DPAC are fielding a candidate at the Corby by election. I don't care who leads us but in my opinion we need to have an inclusive organisation that can organise the response of Disabled People.
9. Do we have any "Rock Star" supporters that would be prepared to give us the PR edge. Are any Paralympians prepared or able to put their heads above the parapet to launch and support us.
10. Do we want to organise at a National level or do we want to organise at a local level with some kind of "franchise" providing support/ assistance and consistency of message?

I hope this is enough to kick start the discussion?

Please leave comments?



TWITTER TIMELINE
Eugene Grant ‏@Eugene_Grant

Far from scoring political points, #Labour is correct to blame Govt, not #Atos, for #WCA shambles. Govt designed test and oversees contract.

Ian Jones ‏@edwinmandella

@Eugene_Grant but #Labour designed and introduced #WCA and #ATOS so some of the blame is theirs!

@edwinmandella Absolutely. But both govt used #Atos as shield - outsourcing services also means shunning responsibility for wider failures.

Ian Jones ‏@edwinmandella

@Eugene_Grant < exactly, but the problem becomes who has the guts to sort it out. My MP has written to both Yvette Cooper & IDS #gutless

Eugene Grant ‏@Eugene_Grant

.@edwinmandella a key thing here is that political parties don't see #disabled ppl as voting bloc to appease and please, unlike pensioners.

Tanni Grey-Thompson ‏@Tanni_GT

@Eugene_Grant @edwinmandella agree. Disabled people not seen as coherent voting group

Tim Murray ‏@TimMurray16

@Tanni_GT @Eugene_Grant @edwinmandella Unseating or the threat to unseat a marginal does matter to all parties. Orginising is the all.

 Ian Jones ‏@edwinmandella

@TimMurray16 @Tanni_GT @Eugene_Grant we gave a DPAC candidate in Corby, #@Adam4Corby Adam Lutun but it has gone quiet. Organisation???

Tim Murray ‏@TimMurray16

@edwinmandella @Tanni_GT @Eugene_Grant I don't think putting up candidates is the way to goHe she will lose. Lobby and influencing mp is all

Tanni Grey-Thompson ‏@Tanni_GT

@TimMurray16 @edwinmandella @Eugene_Grant lobby locally o believe is answer

Eugene Grant ‏@Eugene_Grant

@Tanni_GT @TimMurray16 @edwinmandella even if they did, still need majority of MPs to see #disabled ppl as a powerful voting bloc like OAPs.

Tim Murray ‏@TimMurray16

@Eugene_Grant @Tanni_GT @edwinmandella It is not impossible...Even Simon Hughes is in danger. He has input in his own party.

Tanni Grey-Thompson ‏@Tanni_GT

@TimMurray16 @Eugene_Grant @edwinmandella need to target a number of constituencies. Not all

Tim Murray ‏@TimMurray16

@Tanni_GT @Eugene_Grant @edwinmandella Exactly it must not be seen in any way as political. Our politics will differ anyway. One reason only

Somebody Help Me out!

I've retired, or at least for 2 years until my youngest is a bit older. However, I can see me getting bored within that time frame so I thought I'd try to build up a network of people that could spring into action and find me a job when I wanted them to! RADIATE is an organisation that develops NETWORKS for disabled high flyers and although I feel a bit old in the tooth to be called a "high flyer" I thought I'd try them.There is an event tonight organised by RADIATE with Chris Holmes (the LOCOG Director of Paralympic Integration) speaking. I personally, feel there have been some bloody big anti-disabled people cock ups at the Olympics (disabled having to use a premium rate services to book seats, wheelchair users not able to sit with more than 1 of their family, The Royal Mail with the support of the British Paralympic Association discriminating initially against gold medal winning Paralympian's) but I wanted to hear his views as to how it went.

So I tried to book a place at this event.

RADIATE sent me back a registration form which I filled in and returned.

RADIATE called me and said I hadn't filled in the bit concerning my employer. I explained I was currently unemployed. I might well have called Agnes a bigoted useless interfering jobs-body because I got immediately excluded  RADIATE is only for those in work!

I did two things then. Firstly I checked RADIATE's web-site. I cannot find any requirement on the website to be in work! Secondly, I phoned Disability Rights UK (Disability Rights UK was formed through a unification of Disability Alliance, Radar and National Centre for Independent Living on 1 January 2012. They aim to be the largest national pan-disability organisation led by disabled people (in the pockets of the ConDems?). RADIATE is a spin off from RADAR) to ask them is they knew of an organisation that could help me.


The Chief Executive of Disability Rights UK is Liz Sayce. Liz Sayce prepared the report for the CONDEMS suggesting they close Remploy.

Disability Rights UK said they have no funding to do this but suggested I contact, yes you've got it,

Remploy.

I need to start planning my return to the workplace in 2014 now. Has anybody reading this Blog got any ideas what I could do! #justasking !!!

RT @christineburns: The lesson of the Paralympics is of what people can do if you redefine the rules to enable them, not about what they can't do if you don't

Life has a way of simplifying itself, doesn't it. I can imagine at schools up and down the country little girls and boys in wheelchairs will be seeing their career advisors about their career choices.



"Well, what do you like doing, Johnny/ Julie?"

"Well sir, I like maths/ English/ science and would like to be a banker/ journalist/ pharmacist."


"All very commendable but the only thing you are allowed to be is a Paralympian so spend the afternoon pushing your wheelchair round the playground for me."


OK, maybe a touch oversimplified but it seems to be the mood of the country? - "Look at all those Paralympian's doing amazing things. Why can't all the disabled benefit scroungers be like that?"


I'm just a run of the mill normal invisibly disabled person.After my accident I didn't consider Paralympic Sport because all I wanted to do was play normal sport again. My choice and I don't regret it.
Having tried and failed, I thought if I can't excel at sport I'll excel at work so over the next 17 years, by not highlighting my invisible disability and allowing people to think I was eccentric because I did things slightly differently, I ascended the tree to end up at Executive level.

I tend to think I ascended to the level where my disabilities matter because since then Nada, nothing, zip. It takes me time to develop relationships with people.When I'm thinking you can see it on my face. When I get angry no matter how I behave my face (through its involuntary twitches etc) makes it clear. I can control the way I consciously act but I am eccentric.

The world of sport is not equal. If it was Paralympian's and Olympians would at a minimum compete in the same games and ideally in the same events. As this isn't completely achievable the Paralympic Games is run in Parallel to the Olympics (hence the name!!) and the events are designed to allow the athletes to demonstrate their ability and high level of achievement.

Unfortunately, when you apply for a job their isn't a special category of jobs for the disabled to apply for. There are no "T34 CFO Jobs" advertised. In our dash for equality we forgot that we are different. That is not a bad thing, but if you put me up against a non-disabled person for a job I have to compete on his terms. No allowances. You can ask for reasonable adjustments but when you do they often get refused because they would give you an advantage over non-disabled candidates. All quite reasonable within the law.

But it's worse than that.

There is a wide ranging and rich diversification of disability out there. We are not all the same! Consider this scenario.

A company decides that it will recruit solely by telephone interview. There are 2 candidates, a candidate in a wheelchair and a head injured candidate. They know exactly the same things and are equally as qualified. They give exactly the same answers. Who gets the job?

Before you answer that be aware that under the stress of the interview the head injured person's speech became slightly slurred and he took longer to begin to answer the competency based based questions as his severe memory impairment impacted on his speed of recall of the exact circumstances surrounding the example but still gave exactly the same answers.

Now who gets the job? A lot of interviews are decided upon "soft" criteria and "Who is most like me?" You may think that is OK because the candidate in the wheelchair presented better at interview. Are you saying that an interview is the only way of selecting people for jobs? Does an interview itself not run the risk of being discriminatory purely because you are seeing how people perform in a situation which in the main bears little resemblance to the day to day job being interviewed for? What if there is a cognitive problem that causes problems at interviews but is rarely an issue in day to day life (don't laugh, they do exist - I have such a problem (spasticity caused by brain damage in my frontal lobe))!

So what do we do? Starting from the premise that the interview system will never be perfect what about instead of treating people equally make positive allowances to minimise the effects of any disability? But that will advantage the disabled over the non-disabled - NOT FAIR!


There is a current feeling of pride in our Paralympian's for their achievements. But haven't we made positive allowances by changing the events they compete in to minimise the effects of any disability. Doesn't this disadvantage the non-disabled as they are excluded from competing at the Paralympic's whereas the disabled can compete at the Olympics - Oscar Pistorius.

Why is Sport different from Work?

Celebrate diversity!

By the way, I do not rule out the possibility that I am not good enough to get the jobs I go for and I am unmanageable and thoroughly unpleasant but will leave it to others to Blog that!!

RT @christineburns: The lesson of the Paralympics is of what people can do if you redefine the rules to enable them, not about what they can't do if you don't

Where Do We Go From Here?

As I write this the Paralympic's has just about finished and I am thinking what are my memories of it? Sporting memories will be covered in depth elsewhere so here are my slightly funky memories:

1. The Royal Mail decided that disabled people were less worthy than non-disabled people and initially planned to offer disabled gold medal winners less recognition that non-disabled gold medallists. A public outcry followed on Twitter and the decision was reversed but amazingly the British Paralympic Association fully supported the decision to discriminate against disabled athletes.
2. LOCOG thought it reasonable to charge disabled people a premium to access the Paralympic's through a Premium rate phone line. Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson is reported to support this position (I will happily edit this post if I am wrong) but it seems to me that we are suggesting it is OK to charge disabled people a premium to access services compared to non-disabled people who could book on-line without needing to use a premium rate phone number.
3. It appeared to be difficult for disabled wheelchair users to secure "Olympic" seating with their families.Some reported on Twitter that staff at the venues bent over backwards to allow families to sit together but should the disabled have to rely on Charity in the 21st Century?
4. Oscar Pistorius had a "hissy fit" and made life difficult for all of us that need "reasonable adjustments" at some time. Him of "blades fame" complained that a competitors blades were too long and gave him an unfair advantage. The blades in question were legal for Paralympic competition but illegal for Olympic competition. This gave support to the argument of "ablists" everywhere that the disabled ask for adjustments just to give them an advantage, NOT to level the playing field.

Glass is half full kind of memories. Maybe, but enough people are celebrating the achievements!

So what should be the legacy of the London 2012 Paralympic Games? I read a Tweet today from Christine Burns that to me encapsulated all I could hope for. Having asked permission to quote it hopefully you can see the magic in it.

RT @christineburns: The lesson of the Paralympics is of what people can do if you redefine the rules to enable them, not about what they can't do if you don't.

Redefine the rules to access: Employment; Schools; Parliament; Shops; life?  

Just What Do I Stand For?

I'm confused.

At this moment in time I hold in my head 2 opposing views.

The 1st is a long held view that British Paralympians will be betraying the UK's disabled by performing like monkeys for the genocidal ConDem Government at the forthcoming Paralympics. This government is killing disabled people by design. It is not OK.
Someone pushing a wheelchair round a track, whilst impressive on a personal level, does not make this OK.

The 2nd one is, it is discriminatory, against the laws of natural justice and quite possibility the Equality Act (although, as this Act WAS NOT drafted to protect the people who risk being treated in an unfair way I doubt it!!), for the Royal Mail to issue stamps for each and every Olympic Gold Medal Winner but only offer Group stamps to the Gold medal winning Paralympians.

I spoke to the British Paralympic Association this morning to ask them if the Press Release I had seen suggesting that the BPA supports this decision was true. Eventually, having had trouble making myself understood to the telephone receptionists (word of advice - when you are likely to be called by people with speech impediments try to staff your telephone front line with people who can speak English like a first language! (Unless the British Paralympic Association does not want to talk to the disabled - I could be on to something there!)) I spoke to a Press Officer who explained to me that the BPA had agreed this with the Royal Mail as it was not possible to issue stamps for each individual Gold medallist as we would be winning too many.

We're too successful to celebrate it properly?

As I could see a glimmer of their side of the argument but was also worried that by depersonalising the Paralympian Gold Medallists this decision could dehumanise the disabled I asked what Charities they had consulted in making this decision.


None, Zip, Nada.

There we have it, the British Paralympic Association speaks for all disabled people.

What a message that would have been. Gold Medal winning Paralympian's treated identically to gold medal winning Olympians. Instead, like all Disabled Charities The British Paralympic Association appears to be staffed by people paying lip-service to the disabled and waiting for their honours. How patronising this must be to the Paralympians - forget what you have had to overcome to be here (including betraying the wider disabled community) but your achievements are secondary to the proper Olympians who get their own stamps.


More evidence that the Paralympic's is a side show not being taken seriously.

Stamps don't matter.
Sport doesn't matter.
International Aid (Which opens up business opportunities for the very rich) doesn't matter.

Looking after people that can't look after themselves in a humane manner and giving them an opportunity to live a fulfilling life matters.

That's all.