Fighting the odds in Year of the Disabled
I happen to have epilepsy, a disability endured by one in every 100 people.
It also affects many others: spouses, partners, children, parents, relatives, medical staff, employers, employees and friends. This illness cannot be described as self-induced, eg caused by smoking, drinking or over-eating.
This is not a personal moan. However, because of my condition, I would not be offered employment as a shelf-stacker, a road-sweeper, a hospital porter or anything else, partly because I am medically prevented from driving. I wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage to buy a house if I needed one because that would depend on my employment.
It doesn’t require much imagination to see that if I wish to work, I can only work for myself.
If I see an established business for sale or wish to start a new business, I won’t be able to borrow the start-up capital because any such loan is dependent on my earnings, which are affected by discrimination. Don’t imagine for one second that this is not the case. I have gone right through the Golden Pages.
There is a financial ombudsman who hasn’t been given the teeth to deal with the banking industry or with a national policy for financial institutions. He is just able to deal with one particular complaint about one particular bank.
While I am able to deal with the odds being stacked against me, I am still representative of a very vulnerable section of society who, through no fault of their own, are clamped into a nasty cycle of circumstances.
Still, there’s no ill wind that doesn’t blow somebody some good. I’ve no doubt that several people have obtained lucrative jobs with buzzword titles like ‘co-ordinator’ thanks to the European Year For The Disabled and I wonder if any of these are disabled themselves. I wish that one of them would explain to me how I will be better off on 31-12-’03 than I was on 01-01-’03, unless it is through my own efforts.
Terry O’Neill,
29, Haven Hill,
Summercove,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
