Jaclyn

‘There seems to have been no repercussions for the teachers who didn’t believe me … It just seems like they get away with it. As a child it’s very upsetting.’

Jaclyn, early 20s, started experiencing severe pain when she was in primary school. She was diagnosed with arthritis and a genetic condition that affects her health and mobility.

Teachers didn’t believe she had a disability and dismissed her symptoms.

‘I would have notes from my GP, my rheumatologist and my immunologist,’ Jaclyn told the Royal Commission, but it didn’t make any difference.

Teachers told her if she didn’t do what everyone else in class was doing she’d be in trouble.

One time, Jaclyn sprained her ankle because a teacher forced her to participate in a basketball game.

Sometimes Jaclyn would become so unwell she would ask the teacher if she could go to sick bay.

‘A lot of the times they would say in front of the entire class, “You're just making it up again. You're just exaggerating it again … You can’t be sick this often.” But I was and I am.’

Jaclyn’s parents made several complaints.

‘They had meetings and everything. Nothing happened.’

Her parents moved her to different schools but teachers continued to doubt her.

Jaclyn’s mental health deteriorated and in year 11 she left school.

Jaclyn said the health system is just as bad.

While her regular GP and specialists have always treated and supported her, other doctors told her she was exaggerating.

‘I had one paediatrician who told me I didn’t have arthritis and all the pain was in my head … I was seven years old.’

The paediatrician prescribed her antidepressants and her parents ‘fired him’.

In her teens Jaclyn developed an eating disorder that went undiagnosed.

‘It was completely untreated and spiralled to cause quite a significant amount of harm to my body.’

Jaclyn has experienced similar treatment in the workplace.

‘I was told that I wasn’t working hard enough, that I was faking it, you know, chucking a sickie, when I would have to take days off work because I physically was unable to work. I wasn’t believed.’

One boss would be ‘quite rude and short’ when Jaclyn returned to work.

‘It made me quite upset and it actually made me quite anxious and scared that I was going to lose my job. There really wasn’t a way for me to deal with it.’

After a while Jaclyn felt she had no choice but to leave.

Jaclyn’s mobility has started to decline and she needs to use a wheelchair more often.

Some days she is unable to leave her house because her suburb is not very accessible.

‘I can’t move the wheelchair on the grass. That just completely leaves me at home and takes me out of the community and isolates me.’

She also finds it hard to access mental health clinics.

‘There have been quite a few mental health appointments that I've had to go to … I have to go up a flight of stairs, and there is no lift or disability access available whatsoever.’

Jaclyn believes people with disability need to be involved in city planning.

‘I live in a very poor area. It’s just ridiculous that there’s such a high concentration of disabled people in my area, and it just seems as if no disabled person was involved in the planning of the area.’