Thursday 24 February 2011

Manufacturing Discrimination…

You wait ages for whinging disability advocates and then two come along at once!

This time, it’s the heinous crime of not doing 110% to ensure someone could overlook the fact that her disability wasn’t suited to her goals:
A student who suffers from the chronic sleep disorder narcolepsy is to have her case heard by the Court of Appeal in London on Thursday, following a six-year battle against what she perceives to be disability discrimination by her university.
Note that: ‘what she perceives’.
Ms Maxwell's story began in 2004 when she enrolled on a degree course at Salford University to study military and international history. She has a form of narcolepsy which means she is prone to falling asleep during the day and cannot concentrate for more than two or three hours at a time.
Discussions with the university led her to believe that assistance would be available to help her through the course. However, she claimed this was inadequate once she began her studies.
No matter what assistance she was granted, she’s still going to struggle. There’s no getting over that.
At one point, she needed somewhere to sleep during the day and was allocated an empty office. However, on a day when there was a fire drill, she was left alone indoors while everyone else was evacuated.
That’s bad, but it happened once. Anyone can make a mistake, or an oversight.

But I can’t see that this is tied to her disability – if there’s an evacuation, there should be a policy to check no-one’s left in the building regardless.
She was also given a tape machine to record lessons – but it was of little use because she was unable to stay awake long enough to transcribe the notes.
So, of course, she demanded that they provide transcripts (at their own cost). But who can guarantee that she’ll stay awake long enough to read them? Or to take any exams?
Salford offered to give her a print-out of all the lectures but by then, she claimed, it was too late for her to catch up.
At what point is someone going to say to this woman that maybe it’s just not possible, with all the assistance available, for her to do what she wants to do?
She filed a complaint to the university towards the end of her first year but was dissatisfied with the result. She then complained to the OIA, a body financed by university subscriptions which can – for free – hear students' complaints about the treatment they have allegedly received.
It took two years for it to issue a ruling, which stated that it could not issue a verdict on whether there had been disability discrimination. The OIA said it did consider her complaint to be justified and recommended compensation payment of £2,500 plus an offer from the university that she be permitted to repeat a year with proper support.
And is she satisfied?

Well…
Ms Maxwell, however, had started her degree at the age of 43 and did not feel able to resume it six years later at a time when fees had risen. She had also moved away from Salford to High Peak, Derbyshire.
*sigh*
Ms Maxwell said: "I am still in the dark as to whether or not disability discrimination took place. To have a definitive answer would mean I could embark on future studies knowing I should expect to receive a certain level of assistance from universities with regard to implementation of support packages."
What ‘future studies’? You’ve just claimed you can’t afford any future studies.

Unless, of course, you are anticipating a large payout?

20 comments:

Angry Exile said...

I began reading the linked article but for some reason I kept falling asleep.

PJH said...

Allow me to join the bandwagon:

"Ms Maxwell's story began in 2004 when she enrolled on a degree course at Salford University to study military and international history. She has a form of narcolepsy [...]"

I think most of us would have some form of narcolepsy taking that course.

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

"took two years to issue a ruling"

WTF?

I mean, WTFF?

richard said...

She's disabled. That means "not able" as in not able to study. So why the fuck is she trying to? Is she stupid? There are two words she could stay awake long enough to study; "fact" and "impossible".

Anonymous said...

Now I know why I kept falling asleep in meetings? I just thought it was because they were boring, pointless and called by people who liked to pretend they were busy and ultimately achieved sweet F.A.. I was disabled all along. I was unknowingly clearly suffering from narcolepsy. No where's my Yellow Pages for Mesrs Sue, Grabbit & Runne!

microdave said...

I haven't had a decent nights sleep for over 20 years - thanks to buggering my back at work. Did I demand compensayshun? NO.

I carried on working, and have spent a considerable sum since on various "alternative" therapies. I see a chiropractor every 6 weeks, and he helps keep me (reasonably) mobile.

Now, to add insult to injury, (pun?) I have a deteriorating hip to contend with. Put all that together with constant worrying about the sh1t state of the world and it's rare for me to get more than 4-5 hours unbroken sleep.

Obviously I've been foolish - do youthink I should make retrospective claims for a range of payments and assistance?

On the other hand I still have some pride....

Simon Cooke said...

Should I wonder how she stayed awake long enough to complete the claims for discrimination?

Dr Evil said...

I think people are led up the garden path by the all shall have prizes mentality in the education world. She has a neurological problem. This does not suit her for protracted study. She should have tried the OU with extended timescales for courses.

Anonymous said...

Amphetamine drip?

dr cromarty said...

Funny how they never try join the SAS or the French Foreign Legion, isn't it? I winder why?

dr cromarty said...

Wonder. Obviously.

Anonymous said...

I've just read this load of tosh on my local paper's website. Just what did this silly cow see? Why is she so TRAUMATISED?
----------------------------------------
Witness left shocked by man falling under train
A TEENAGER was traumatised after witnessing a man fall under a train at Otford station.
Jodielouisa Dillaway was a passenger on the train that hit the 26-year-old man on February 2.

She told the Chronicle she has been unable to think of anything else since.

The 17-year-old, who attends K College in Tonbridge, said her train came to a halt suddenly in the station and passengers were unable to open the doors.


She said: "Just then another train in the station switched its lights off, so it was dead scary.

"We were all wondering what was going on.

"But then they came and opened the doors and we realised there was a guy under the train."

Miss Dillaway glimpsed the man's arm and shoulder as he received medical attention on the track.

She added: "There was an off-duty paramedic on my train who wanted to help, but the train staff wouldn't let him down because they were trying to switch the lines off.

"But then there were loads of police and ambulances."

She said she had heard a paramedic say the victim's name was Archie.

Miss Dillaway added: "I've been having nightmares and all sorts, but I felt a bit better when the Chronicle told me he was alive and all right."

The British Transport Police describe the man's current condition as poorly but stable.

Do you know anything about the incident or the identity of Archie? Contact the newsroom at reporters@sevenoaks-chronicle.co.uk or you can call us on 01732 228000.

http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/where/tonbridge/Witness-left-shocked-man-falling-train/article-3230622-detail/article.html

What is wrong with these people - she saw fuck all and yet is traumatised and having nightmares - not even Injury Lawyers 4 U would take this one on......or would they?

Captain Haddock said...

"Why is she so TRAUMATISED ? ....

Jodielouisa Dillaway .. "

FFS .. a name like that is enough to traumatise anyone ...

English Viking said...

I was discriminated against recently.

I applied for the job of Head of Neuro-Surgery at the local hospital, but they refused to even interview me, saying that my fork-lift-truck driving license was not sufficient evidence of my abilities.

Just because I am utterly untrained, unqualified and unsuited for the job, they turned me down!

microdave said...

"Miss Dillaway glimpsed the man's arm and shoulder as he received medical attention on the track."

Maybe the arm & shoulder were no longer attached to the victim? That might give some grounds for feeling a little queasy.


"The British Transport Police describe the man's CURRENT condition as poorly but stable."

Presumably by that time Network Rail had turned the power off...

dr cromarty said...

The old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch involving Mr Spigot the one-legged applicant for the role of tarzan doesn't look so funny anymore.

Angry Exile said...

ranter, you'd probably throw a fit if you saw the current anti-speeding ad campaign in this part of Oz. The tagline is "Everybody hurts" to suggest that speeding, here being conflated with fatal collisions, hurts everybody, and also presumably to play a few seconds of a highly recognisable REM song (I imagine the Victorian taxpayer is having to cough up some money for royalties for it too). The example that nearly caused coffee to be sprayed across the room was - and you're going to think I'm making this up - "witness's mum".

JuliaM said...

"I began reading the linked article but for some reason I kept falling asleep."

:D

"She's disabled. That means "not able" as in not able to study. "

I think in some quarters, 'differently abled' is preferred. By those who think if you have a 'nicer' word for it, it'll help.

And by 'those', I mean idiots.

"On the other hand I still have some pride...."

Pride, like shame, is a very rare thing these days. Cherish it.

"Should I wonder how she stayed awake long enough to complete the claims for discrimination?"

LOL!

JuliaM said...

"I think people are led up the garden path by the all shall have prizes mentality in the education world."

Increasingly, this and the discrimination lobby are leading people to assume that all kinds of things should be open to them with enough support.

Which is not to say support shouldn't be provided, within reason. But common sense should apply.

"What is wrong with these people - she saw fuck all and yet is traumatised and having nightmares..."

Once, she'd have talked it over to her friends and relatives, or a priest. A few years ago, it'd have been a counsellor.

These days, it seems it's the local media!

"FFS .. a name like that is enough to traumatise anyone ..."

It's a doozy, isn't it?

"Just because I am utterly untrained, unqualified and unsuited for the job, they turned me down!"

It's an increasingly unfair world, isn't it? ;)

JuliaM said...

"The old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch involving Mr Spigot the one-legged applicant for the role of tarzan doesn't look so funny anymore."

I hear some hair-raising stories from friends in the public sector, including a blind chap who was supported (by his union, under disability grounds) in hid attempt to be a front-line customs officer!

At least, until the transport authority intervened and said 'No way Jose!'

"The example that nearly caused coffee to be sprayed across the room was - and you're going to think I'm making this up - "witness's mum"."

/headdesk