Susanne

Susanne, early 40s, has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. Support workers help her with daily tasks including personal care.

In high school, Susanne was interested in studying media and photography.

Teachers and the career adviser told her those subjects wouldn’t help her ‘get a job as a wheelchair user’.

‘I was actually told that if I chose photography … they wouldn't give any assistance.’

Susanne wasn’t interested in the subjects she had to choose, and did poorly as a result.

‘That was my first confronting experience of ableism and I didn’t realise at the time,’ Susanne told the Royal Commission.

‘I do remember, though, a teacher coming up to me at the end of year and said to me, "Look, I want to thank you because," he said, "at the start of year, I didn't want you in my class. I didn't think a disabled person should be in the school system." And he said, "You have totally changed my mind."’

Following TAFE, Susanne contacted a disability employment service provider.

She told the caseworker she’d studied website design and multimedia and wanted to work in media and communications.

He told her she wouldn’t be able to get a job in these fields.

‘He said, "You need to take a good hard look at yourself, and realise what you can actually do."’

He told her he could get her a job at a government agency.

‘He organised a meeting … and said to me that I was not to speak at the meeting, that he would do all the speaking for me. And then I was just to say yes or no.’

Susanne worked at the agency for the next 20 years.

She said she only stayed in the role because she had no confidence in her own ability and ‘nobody else had any confidence’.

‘My mother, it was very much, “You have got this job, it is a secure job. Not everybody likes their job. Just be happy you have got a job.”’

Almost immediately, Susanne started to experience workplace bullying. In the mid-2010s, the bullying escalated significantly.

‘It was a toxic workplace,’ she said.

Susanne’s psychologist told her if she didn’t leave, she would die.

She asked for time off due to her mental health. The agency wrote back and asked her to take out the reference to mental health.

Eventually Susanne left, and signed up with another disability employment service provider. She told them she was interested in marketing and communications – she’d completed a degree while working.

The caseworker told her they would market her to employers in the area.

After about three months of turning up for meetings and applying for jobs, she asked the caseworker for an update about the number of local employers they’d contacted.

They told her they didn’t have any contacts in the area.

Susanne also discovered the caseworker had no experience looking at resumes or job application letters.

Susanne made a complaint to a person in head office who told her they would find another provider, but there were no other providers in Susanne’s area.

Susanne decided to set up her own consultancy helping businesses employ people with disability.

She has enough work to pay the bills and is happy working for herself.

‘Working for somebody else, because of what happened at [the agency], scares the hell out of me. I don't think I can trust anybody not to do what they did to me.’