Desiree
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‘Employment is a big thing for me. It's not easy being an older woman with a disability … ’
Desiree is in her mid-50s and was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) about two decades ago.
Desiree told the Royal Commission her childhood ‘wasn't always very easy’.
‘I felt a bit like the ugly duckling and a child with special needs. And when I grew up we didn't have any of the inclusion and help that kids get nowadays. I didn't have that understanding and help and because of that, in my 20s, I had quite bad mental health.’
Nonetheless, Desiree went to university in her 30s and studied law. She was on a Disability Support Pension but wanted to be as independent as possible. However since graduating, she has faced exclusion in the workplace due to ‘a lack of empathy and respect for neurotypical and neurodiverse people’.
A few years ago, Desiree participated in a public service traineeship program for people with disability. On completion she was placed in a government department where she requested ‘a list of adjustments fairly standard to someone with Asperger's syndrome and ADHD’.
‘Help with sensory things … not too loud noises and, you know, bright lights and smells … If it is an eight-hour day, I would actually need 10 hours. My doctor had done a report suggesting certain things, but they just decided to put that in the bin and bring in their own person who had no health qualifications, who was just an HR person. She decided she was going to redo the report.’
That turned into ‘a very lengthy process’. After almost a year, Desiree said, there was still nothing in place.
‘And I got very stressed because I felt I had the capacity to do the job but I needed some proper reasonable adjustments. And also there were some poor behaviours. The issue of proper respect and zero tolerance of any social bullying or discrimination, that just didn't happen.’
Desiree ended up with anxiety disorder and was hospitalised for weeks. She felt she was ‘collateral damage’ after this ‘bad experience’.
Desiree came out of hospital to find her NDIS funding had run out.
‘There was no support … And I felt that was terribly, you know, inhumane. They had said that they would help me.’
Desiree went through a tribunal process to increase her NDIS supports.
‘I felt the funding was important for my main goal which was finding and keeping a job,’ she said.
‘There are a lot of people out there with disability who would like to be working who are not able to.’
Because she feels excluded in the workplace, Desiree ‘looks to support workers’ for help with social participation. She feels they require ‘different skills for dealing with psychosocial disability’.
‘I'm quite shy socially, but I don't like to be too alone. And if they could just kind of help me bridge the gap … They're not always able to do that.’
A career coach she’s accessed through the NDIS has ‘really helped’ with employment capacity building, but Desiree says she still has to overcome attitudes.
‘The workplace in Australia is still not really tailored to people with disability and that was definitely my experience. The public service or the private sector, wherever it is, needs to train their employees to be good towards people with disability.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.