He replied, ‘Oh! Do you want me to get another Disability Employment Adviser for you?’
‘What is the point, you are all exactly the same’ I said. ‘Why don’t you learn British Sign Language?’
He shrugged and pointed his finger to the interpreter. I just thought enough was enough and walked out. I cried all the way home.
I thought I had better do something about it and I was thinking about making a complaint to the manager. I did not apply for the jobs he asked me to apply for. If I had applied for that receptionist job, my chance of an interview would be zero.
I dreaded seeing that man again. The next time I arrived he immediately said, ‘Do you want me to give them your mobile number?’
‘Who?’ I said. ‘I am not giving out my text number to someone I don’t know, why?’
‘That’s the booklet’ he said. He gave it to me with no explanation. ‘Right, come downstairs’ he said. He took me to another man at a desk on the ground floor and said, ‘From now on you sign here’. Then he left.
That was it. That was the last time I saw him. Why was I told to sign on down on the ground floor and not upstairs with a Disability Employment Adviser any more, I have no idea. It meant I was not going to have anyone helping me or getting any support to seek employment.
I did look up the Working Links booklet on the internet. There was no information about supporting deaf people. I searched and searched and there was absolutely nothing.
I now had to go to the Job Centre every two weeks to sign on the ground floor. I was supposed to look on the internet, apply for jobs, write eight letters and make several phone calls. I decided to complain to the manager and get help with this from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, because I needed help with writing and because of the way I had been threatened by the Disability Employment Adviser. I thought the Citizens’ Advice Bureau would be able to help with legal advice. They wrote a letter to the manager on my behalf, but I had to wait a long time before I received a letter from him saying my complaint would have to investigated, and they would then reply with the findings. Then after another long wait I finally received a letter saying that they had found that the Disability Employment Adviser was not guilty of any wrongdoing. I could not sleep, and felt so frustrated that nothing had been done to solve my problem. It seemed that no one took the Disability Discrimination Act as relevant to me.
I received a letter with the date to attend the ‘working link’ (work programmed) and it did not mention providing an interpreter. When I arrived and no interpreter was present, I waited and waited. Eventually a lady came over and I gave her the letter of appointment. I was to attend for three hours. She looked at the paper and said ‘Right, come upstairs’. I was taken to a room full of hearing people, where someone was supposed to give us all a speech and teach us how to get into employment. But because there was no interpreter, he said I couldn’t stay and I was invited to go home.
I could see that he was not capable and did not have a clue about deaf people. When he tried to interpret a sign in a mocking way, I found it insulting. I knew straightaway that he had never met a deaf person. Obviously he had been given the job and I just had to go there regardless of my disabilities, but I suspect he did not have the knowledge.
A week later I received another letter to say that it was my fault because I had not given them my minicom number and did not want interpreter present. This had come from the Disability Employment Adviser - he had passed that information on to them after the last time I had seen him. But on the top of the letter they had sent me was a phone number for hearing people, and next to it was ‘TEXTPHONE:’ on the top of the letter - without a number!
I arrived in dismay, knowing that I would not have the right person helping me. On the day of the appointment I had to sit on a computer with the interpreter with lists of questions I had to answer relating to jobs that had nothing to do with deaf people. I was forced to answer the list of question. I just clicked ‘NO’ all the way through without looking at the questions, and it still look an hour! Then I went home.
Then I received another letter informing me that I had to sit with a so called ‘Personal Consultant’ at the Working Links. When I arrived the Personal Consultant asked for my email address. I said I would prefer a letter. He was assertive and high- handed, and this was not in a private room but out in the open space where everyone could see me using British Sign Language. I was scared and felt extremely uncomfortable. He said ‘If you want me to send you a letter YOU go to college and YOU learn English, then I will send you a letter, the same as the asylum seekers and immigrants that come to this country’.
I started to get very upset, and my legs were shaking. He asked ‘Do you work?’ and I said yes, part-time teaching. He said ‘What is the part-time job? What other jobs have you been looking for?’ I got more even upset. He then pointed at the interpreter and told us both to go over to a desk and look for work on the computer. The interpreter’s job is just to interpret. Who did this man think he was?
I said no, I could do that at home. He then said he was going to call the manager and shouted for the manager, who came over and asked what the problem was. He told the manager what had been going on and what he thought of me and said I refused to look on the computer and only worked part time. The manager looked at me and said he hadn’t got a clue about deaf people and had never met one before!
He put his hand out to shake mine, but I refused. I was still shaking and extremely upset. I could not believe how I was being treated and that I had to put up with his attitude and this behaviour and aggression towards me.
The consultant then looked at the manager and said ‘I think there is a deaf awareness training course somewhere, but I can’t remember’. I didn’t think I could put up with it and I told the manager I wanted make a complaint. He said he would give me a name and address so I could write to them, but I said, ‘No thank you, I want to see the manager face to face with the interpreter.’
‘Oh right, I’ll arrange an appointment for you’ he said. He could not understand why I wanted to come to the office and tell the manager personally rather than writing a letter.
I went home shaking and felt physically sick. I could not face the thought of having to sit down with this person, who wasn’t qualified or trained to help deaf people, week in week out, but I had to go or I would get no money for a month.
I next received a letter from the Working Links Performance Manager. She wrote, ‘We have searched for you and we would recommend you to go to the Work Deaf Centre which is an organization which is available around your area and I have passed this information to your Personal Consultant’. I already worked at the deaf centre! How pathetic! What were they trying to do? Trying to show that they knew what they were doing or doing something about it? I’m sure they thought they had better write something, so they sent me that pathetic letter.
I arrived to see the performance manager upstairs with the interpreter and was taken into a large empty room. Again the performance manager gave me the ‘never seen a deaf person before’ look. I could see that she was uncomfortable with me using British Sign Language. I told her that her letter was only fir for the bin! She did not know where to look. Then I asked her what a textphone was. She pointed at an ordinary phone. Then I showed her the letter I had received which carried the heading ‘TEXTPHONE’ and had no number with it. She said they would look into it.
I then explained why I could not sit with that adviser and felt he was not qualified to be a ‘personal consultant’ for deaf people. She said she would have a word with him. I said, ‘Have a word with him? Is this a joke? Don’t you have someone else who has experience with deaf people and can use sign language and who has had deaf awareness training?’ I also said that I felt uncomfortable sitting where everyone could see me with the interpreter using British Sign Language, and somewhere more private would be better. She was unable to answer, and quickly give me a leaflet about the customer complaints process. That was
it. I was still going to the Job Centre with lists of jobs I had to apply for and to the Working Links the following week.
At my next appointment I was faced with the same personal consultant! I couldn’t believe it after the way I had been treated. Didn’t the performance manager listen to anything I had said at the meeting? I straight away said I wanted to see the manager. The consultant was not pleased. Then the manager came over and said we could all sit and discuss it somewhere private. I said no, I wanted a private word with the manager on his own with the interpreter. The manager found a private room and I told him that the consultant had no respect for my language. I said I wanted to complain and showed him the leaflet. He agreed to arrange for me to make a second-level of complaint to another manager, this time the regional Business Support Manager, with the interpreter.
I arrived in the same room where I had had the first meeting with the performance manager, and noticed a carrier, a printer and computer on the table. I suspected she had done some work on it before I arrived. She said she had got another person to work with me to replace the other man, but before she went to fetch him the Business Support Manager wanted to tell me that the work programme had had some success. She tried to tell me that Working Links had made a success of helping a deaf lady into employment – she had a piece of paper about it. How pathetic! She then said that she had a replacement to help me, and I said I had several questions to ask her. I had written twenty questions. She asked me to give the papers to her so she could consult other member of staff, and I said no. She was not pleased.
She then went to fetch the lady and introduced her to me. I said to her, ‘I would like to work in an office but I am unable to use the phone, would you ensure that I got a textphone or minicom to be provided within the working environment?’ She could not give me an answer! I then asked another question: ‘Do you understand why it is important that I go for interview with an NVQ level six interpreter?’ She looked puzzled and again was unable to answer. At that point I knew she hadn’t got a bloody clue. Finally I said, ‘Can you explain to me how we should break down the barriers and challenges deaf people have to face?’ She couldn’t answer that one either.
Then the Support Manager asked her to leave the room. I’m sure she knew I was right and she did not want me to carry on asking questions. I then told her I was not satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and that she was not the right person for me. I explained that it was all about the employer making a ‘reasonable adjustment’ that would get me into employment, without it costing them a lot of money, so that I could work just like everyone else.
She looked at me, speechless. Then she got annoyed with me and I told her I wanted to carry on to the third level of complaint listed on the leaflet and she said coldly, ’If you want to carry on complaining to the third level I will stop your money, but I will keep checking that you are getting the right help and we will do something about the textphone. We are getting an engineer to put in a new telephone line’. She blamed the network for not having textphone set up.
I never did put in for that third level of complaint. I had to carry on going fortnightly with the woman. It made me physically ill to keep going to that horrible place knowing full well that I was never going to get the right help or knowledge from the Personal Consultant. She was actually a performance manager! She said my CV was very good, although actually it was rubbish. She said she would send it to every office around the area and they would see if there was any response. She was trying to be friendly, and saying she would like to learn British Sign Language. I did not offer any information, although that week was Deaf Awareness Week and there was an offer of free one-hour courses in British Sign Language.
The woman said she and other people were worried about their jobs. I couldn’t have cared less, to be honest. Overall I only attended for a few months. And I never got a response from any of the companies she sent my CV to.
I did receive a letter from the Job Centre with an appointment there at 4.10 pm, although my normal time was 11 am. The lady on reception told me to go away and come back at 4.10 pm because I was ten minutes early. When I returned there was no interpreter again and the lady at the desk asked if I could lip read!
I immediately asked to see the manager. She went to fetch him and he escorted me to a private room with paper and pen. I wrote that I did not have an interpreter. He looked at my ears and wrote ‘Do you wear a hearing aid?’
I was astonished, and have never felt so insulted. I asked him on the paper why no interpreter had been booked. He looked at the paper, then looked at me and wrote ‘can you use British Sign Language? He wrote ‘Wait here, I can get you one, I will book you another appointment. Do you want your bus fares?’ I could not wait to get out of that place.
A couple of months later another work programme was set up called Avatar. I had to attend, though I wanted to kill myself. I really didn’t want to go through all that again. When I arrived the lady asked me to fill in a form that had nothing to do with deaf people, but I had to answer those questions whether I liked it or not. I went through putting ‘NO’ all the way through. When it was finished I asked her what British Sign Language was and her face went bright red. I then asked, ‘Have you received any specific training regarding the barriers people with hearing difficulties face?’ She replied ‘No’. I asked another question: ‘Do you have any general deaf disability awareness training to access specialist help Access to Work for deaf people?’ The response was again no. I asked, ‘Have you received any training within the deaf organizations?’ She said ‘Yes, Royal Institution for the Deaf ’. I told her, ‘It’s now called Action for Hearing Loss.’ She replied, ‘Oh really?’
She got annoyed and uncomfortable with the conversation and said she was not going to answer any more of my questions. She went to fetch the manager, who came into the room with paper and pen. I asked if his staff had had any training for deaf people and he said, ‘We have had training courses for dealing with people with different disabilities’. I said DEAF people, and he repeated it I told him that was not good enough. He tried to reassure me by telling me he had two deaf friends, but he could not use sign language himself. I said ‘What does that have to do with me being here?’ It was obviously not going to get any better, but I knew I would have to attend or have my money stopped for a month.
At the next appointment she gave me a list of jobs to apply for, which included ’Call centre, chemical engineer sales person, barmaid and engineer! She said they gave that list to everyone. That was my help? She gave me a piece of paper and said I had to bring it back with details of jobs I had applied for. That was it.
I did complain to the Avatar head office. My sister wrote them a letter for me and their reply was ‘We have an interpreter for you, what is your problem? Equity Act 2010’. That was it. Nothing was resolved and once again I just had to carry on.
I asked the Advice Manager of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to write a letter on my behalf to the Independent Case Examiner and the Job Centre plus the Customer Experience Team about my complaint. Again I had to wait a long time to hear from them. When we finally had the meeting, the Independent Case Examiner, the Advice Manager of the CAB and I put my point across. I even showed her a letter I had received from the customer services people admitting that the Disability Employment Adviser had not done any specific training in how to deal with or help deaf people wanting to get off benefit into employment. She certainly did not like that one bit, and looked very annoyed with me. I told her how I was feeling and how it was affecting me physically and emotionally and the way I had been threatened and had felt physically sick, and could not carry on facing the work programme or the Job Centre without anybody be able to help me at all. She said ‘If you feel sick about coming here don’t bother, you don’t have to, you know’. Goodbye. That was it.
A week later I had to attend the Job Centre again. I struggled looking for the right job for me so I wrote them down. When I arrived with my list of jobs the l
ady asked me why I had not looked for work or got a job. I said I needed help and found it difficult to get suitable jobs, and tried to explain. She said ‘Right, no money for you, goodbye’. I received no money for a month.
I now had suicidal thoughts, and even thought of looking on the internet to see how many tablets I would have to take. I made an appointment at the doctors. I wanted to go onto another benefit called Employment Support Allowance, which would mean I would have to give up working as a teacher teaching British Sign Language and claim Employment Support Allowance (ESA) so I would not have to attend the Job Centre any more (there are two kinds of Employment Support Allowance). I did not want to do that, but I felt I did not have a choice. I knew I could not stay long at the doctors as my son came with me on his lunch hour from work and he explained how I was feeling and how I had been treated and was not receiving any help or support. The doctor didn’t seem to understand how it was affecting me and said ‘There is nothing wrong with you’. She advised me to go next door to see a lady in the Job Centre! I just wanted to die.
When we saw the woman at the Job Centre again my son again explained, but she just looked on the internet and said there were no jobs for me. She said she had learned sign language 10 years ago! My son explained about the money being stopped and she said I could appeal and gave me a leaflet to fill in. So going to the doctors was a waste of our time.
The thought of keeping on going to the Job Centre was just killing me. I went back to the Citizen’s Advice bureau to fight to have my money back, and I did get it back, about a month later.
I feel all these people have just got away with it. I strongly believed it was wrong, because of the Disability Discrimination Act. I asked for help from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau with a solicitor working with them, but they could not help because they only have trained solicitors who can only give 15 minutes. I thought, what am I going to do? Should I contact the social worker for the deaf? I did not want to, but I did not have any choice.
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