{"id":7103,"date":"2015-12-15T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T08:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7103"},"modified":"2015-12-15T12:30:15","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T12:30:15","slug":"lend-a-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7103","title":{"rendered":"Lend a hand"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In part 2 of our week-long series for Disability History Month, UNITElive speaks to Unite vice-chair of the South East region Ian Lidbetter. Having a disability that isn’t immediately apparent, Ian explains the struggles he and others face in work.<\/p>\n

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Ian Lidbetter is a hard working 67-year-old man, who occasionally needs a little help.<\/p>\n

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As a lorry driver tying on loads has become difficult, after a shoulder injury sustained in a traffic accident in 2002. During surgery his nerves were sliced, leaving his shoulder with only 60 percent mobility.<\/p>\n

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At work Ian asks for a hand. Surely nobody would refuse him assistance, right?<\/p>\n

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Wrong.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA lot of people help, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a few that turn their back on you. Sometimes I have difficulty tying my load.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe majority of people will give me a hand to do it. But some people say \u00e2\u20ac\u0098well you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a driver and should be able to do it. If you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be in the job.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey walk away from you even if you ask for help. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve experienced that,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Ian, who is Unite vice-chair for the South East region.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

‘You have to live with that’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a few bad apples wherever you go, though. Mean spirited types who wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care if the entire world was on fire, as long as they were ok.<\/p>\n

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Those sort of occurrences must be rare, like going for a dip in the sea and getting stung by a jelly fish. We all know it happens but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen very often.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen a disability isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t immediately visible all you get is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing wrong with you, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a skiver, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a scrounger, a parasite. You have to live with that. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had it from my own family. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been told by my own brothers I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got nothing wrong with me,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Ian said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt makes me feel down and disgusted. People aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t aware of the discrimination, humiliation and bullying that goes on when someone has a disability. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s others worse off than me, at least I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still working, so I take it on the chin.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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What Ian says is backed up by a 2014 survey of more than a thousand disabled people by the disability charity Scope, regarding their experiences over a twelve month period.<\/p>\n

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Forty-nine percent of respondents said that someone who had talked to them didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe they were disabled and 28 percent encountered people who refused to make adjustments for them.<\/p>\n

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Seventeen percent were called names and 21 percent found that people incorrectly assumed they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work.<\/p>\n

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Media to blame<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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What leads to attitudes like those is a complex question, but Ian is certain that there are elements within Britain that need to take some responsibility: namely sections of the media.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne of the worst things that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened to the disabled community are programmes like Benefit Street. When that came on everybody that was on a benefit, from disability benefit, to illness benefit to unemployment benefit, were labelled scroungers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Ian said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne show discriminated against every person who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on a benefit. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong. It makes me angry. Anybody can be made disabled. Something could happen in life tomorrow and you could end up with a disability.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The pattern Ian sees is like a malign Russian Doll, attempting to replicate ever larger versions of itself: The Tories setting an agenda to attack the weakest, followed by the right-wing media presenting distorted narratives to reinforce the Tory view, resulting in a growing public callousness as more and more people absorb the message.<\/p>\n

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Ian said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead of Osborne stigmatising the most vulnerable, he should be protecting them. But he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taking care away from them, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taking compassion away from our society. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comes from the top down.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role is so important, he says: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey defend the rights of disabled people and they fight to improve legislation for the rights of disabled people. Without unions we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d go back to the Victorian Age.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tomorrow (December 16), UNITElive speaks to Ceri Wright about another invisble disability — autism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In part 2 of our week-long series for Disability History Month, UNITElive speaks to Unite vice-chair of the South East region Ian Lidbetter. Having a disability that isn’t immediately apparent, Ian explains the struggles he and others face in work.   Ian Lidbetter is a hard working 67-year-old man, who occasionally needs a little help. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[172,379],"wps_subtitle":"When disabilities are invisible","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7103"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7103"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7113,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7103\/revisions\/7113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}