Isabela
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Isabela is Deaf.
At school her teacher forced her to speak, and hit her if she used sign language. As a result, Isabela didn’t learn Auslan until her teens.
‘I was badly treated in primary school,’ she told the Royal Commission. ‘I have missing gaps in my life that make life hard at times.’
Isabela said she was bullied at work and fired because she was deaf. She now relies on the Disability Support Pension.
‘I am not employable due to my deafness and eyesight issues,’ she said. ‘A job is not that easy to come by.’
Isabela is an artist. When she travelled overseas for a project, she returned to find that her pension had been stopped because she had been out of the country for more than four weeks.
‘I had to be overseas … for a major project that I could not back out of,’ she said. ‘I came home to a mortgage in serious arrears, bills unpaid, unable to buy food, etc, and I was left wanting to kill myself.’
Isabela said she had to sell her home.
‘A person with a disability may have a special opportunity to do a workshop, project or program overseas that goes for say, three months or six months. And how are they supposed to sustain themselves, eat, etc when they have no income?’
She had since had her pension reinstated, but wants the law changed so people with disability can travel for longer.
‘Disabled people need more time to travel and see things as they can't do things in a normal amount of time that most people can.’
Isabela also described being financially exploited by a housemate, who stole her identity to receive a government payment.
‘I was demanded to pay a robodebt back that was not even a real debt and this was found out two years later to be a fake debt by a hearing person who posed as me and spoke on the phone.’
Isabela said before the debt was waived she had to convince a tribunal that she could not have made that phone call because she could not speak or hear on the phone.
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.