{"id":7101,"date":"2015-12-17T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T08:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7101"},"modified":"2015-12-17T12:02:34","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T12:02:34","slug":"stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7101","title":{"rendered":"Stand up"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In part 4 of our Disability History Month series, UNITElive speaks to Unite equalities rep Marina Gunn about changing perceptions that others have about people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

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Dry humour comes naturally to Marina Gunn, as does standing up for people.<\/p>\n

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The Unite equalities rep is quick to joke about the significant nerve damage to her leg, which was caused by a botched operation in 2011.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get my leg over,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Marina quips, leaving me attempting to stifle a grin.<\/p>\n

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Her husband Andy, who was born without a leg and wears an artificial one, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t escape without a ribbing either.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople would talk to me, instead of my husband and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say \u00e2\u20ac\u0098oh poor Andy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 while he was sitting there,” recalled Marina. “So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say \u00e2\u20ac\u0098well there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing poor about him and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bloody idiot. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always putting his foot in his mouth.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou should see people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faces when you say something like that. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like \u00e2\u20ac\u0098oh she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still people, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve still got a sense of humour. Compassion is fine, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice, but don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let it overwhelm you. I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lost my brain cells.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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‘It’s mostly ignorance’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Breaking the ice is one way to tackle the often difficult reactions people have towards those with disabilities. Sometimes, however, direct intervention is needed.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mostly ignorance,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 says Marina, but that can lead to needless obstructions for disabled people, who are often already expending extra energy just to carry out their daily lives.<\/p>\n

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Marina cites an example were a colleague repeatedly sat at her desk, which was signposted and positioned in a place that allowed her easy access to workplace facilities.<\/p>\n

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As Marina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disability is hidden and she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always use her walking stick in the office, her colleague refused to acknowledge the allocation.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne morning I said \u00e2\u20ac\u0098what do you want me to do? Do you want to me show you my stick?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 I explained everything to him and he was so sorry. It was because he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the problem, people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Marina.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bManagers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand that sometimes you might have been up \u00e2\u20ac\u0098til four or five in the morning \u00e2\u20ac\u0098cos you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re leg’s on fire. You hide it well, you crack a joke, but if you phone in sick, they think \u00e2\u20ac\u0098she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been off, I bet she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had a lovely time.’\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Andy suffered similar issues at the supermarket he spent 15 years working for. Once his bosses even wanted to discipline him for taking two days off, after painful blisters developed on his stump.<\/p>\n

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That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why Marina takes such an active role on Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Disabilities Committee \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she understands that disabled people need help if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re to be treated fairly at work.<\/p>\n

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‘We’ve got to change perceptions’<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

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Marina inherited her fighting spirt from her dad, Morris, who was a committed RMT member during his career with Transport for London.<\/p>\n

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Marina also saw how a lack of disability legislation prematurely ended Morris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 work-life. A diabetes diagnoses forced him to retire as Liverpool St Station supervisor in 1993 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c two years before the Disabilities Discrimination Act was introduced.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe law is better now,” Marina said. “If it had been in place for my dad, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d still be at work. There would have been reasonable allowances made.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Though there have been some improvements for disabled people at work, pernicious preconceptions and misunderstandings within society are still very much at large.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to change perceptions. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why Disability History Month is so important. People shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid to talk to somebody with a disability. They shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid to ask somebody about what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with them,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Marina said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not ashamed, with Andy, my dad or myself, about explaining our disabilities. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not my barrier – it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s yours.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In part 4 of our Disability History Month series, UNITElive speaks to Unite equalities rep Marina Gunn about changing perceptions that others have about people with disabilities.   Dry humour comes naturally to Marina Gunn, as does standing up for people.   The Unite equalities rep is quick to joke about the significant nerve damage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[172,379],"wps_subtitle":"'It's not my barrier - it's yours'","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7116,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions\/7116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}