[access-uk] Re: action for blind people employment officers
- From: "Eleanor Burke" <eleanorburke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:52:51 +0100
I did. She told me that there was no way she would write on my behalf. This
sounds rather harsh on her point. I showed her the letter in which the
university made very serious allegations against me. I can assure everyone here
that the allegations are untrue but my NP said to me, there you are, it is all
clearly stated why you have been thrown out. I do not seen to be able to get
across to people that I an currently thrown out amd not one staff member of the
Open University has picked up a telephone to ask me what I have to say in my
defence. I an having to wait until 1 September to do this. I live in London.
The Open University has a regional centre in London, in Camden where I live amd
yet as a blind student I have to travel to Milton Keynes for the meeting. Now
do not tell me that stinks too. I believe all those who are going to sit on the
panel must be more severely disabled than myself. They have offered me that I
can attend the meeting by telephone but that would not be at all acceptable to
me though if they wanted to arrange a video link-up at my home I might give
that some consideration. Still not satisfactory as I can call witnesses etc so
ideally I would like to be in the same room as everyone. I do not want to be an
invisable blind student, a voice on a telephone line. Disgusting insult.
-original message-
Subject: [access-uk] Re: action for blind people employment officers
From: "martin wilsher" <m.wilsher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 30/07/2009 7:34 pm
Elinor, go to your mp with this. This is, in the face of it, clear
discrinimation.
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Eleanor Burke
Sent: 30 July 2009 07:08
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: action for blind people employment officers
I an very interested in this discussion on difficulty with access to
employment for disabled people. As a disabled student at the Open University
people might be interested to know that I was suspended from the university
on 17 July 2009 amd effectively thrown out. Did I get a Hearing? Certainly
not! I got a letter throwing me out. I also got a letter from the Regional
Director of the Open University in London who gave me a final warning amd
cut off my access to communication with Open University law students. Where
was the prior warnings? There were none. This person is going through my
file with the aim of dicipling me. All of this flies in the face of natural
justice. My offences are as follows:
I want to know the number of students who have sat 50 per cent of the third
level law course W 300 since its inception 9 years ago.
I want to know why Special Arrangements were not made for me as a disabled
student in the last course I did in 2008 which I failed despite having done
very well throughout the assessments over the year.
I an firmly of the opinion that the university threw me out because they
wanted to silence me on the issue of 50 per cent re-sit of an examination. I
discovered that students had been allowed to do this which was hush hush.
I an not now going to be able to sit an exam amd pass it this year as I an
currently out amd the way the Open University works is that assignments have
to be put in every month. My next one is due on 12 August but I will still
be out!
I have Appealed to the Senate of the University for lifting of my
suspension. Meeting not until 1 September. There are going to be 2 students
on the panel. I wrote today saying that one of these students should be
blind, female amd the same age as myself. What do others feel? In terms of
information technology I communicate with fellow students over the
university website but they have stopped me being able to do this. I have
been unregistered amd isolated. I an a disabled student amd thrown out amd
not one staff member within the university has given me an opportunity to
speak. So from 17 July until 1 September I an being punished without a
hearing amd my chance of doing amd passing my course this year are gone. I
managed to obtain my course material electronically but only after much ado
amd a written apology from the university. Someone wrote to the university
on my behalf about the course material in alternative format. This was
before I managed to get the material in alt ernative format. The university
wrote back to this Professor telling him that 2 senior members of the law
faculty visited me in my home! I had to get the Open University to write
back to the Professor to say the information that 2 staff members visited me
in my home was not true. A total case of discrimination. I can assure
everyone that I have not had gross misconduct which I have been temporarily
if not permanently removed for from the university. There is no guarantee
that my suspension will be lifted.
-original message-
Subject: [access-uk] Re: action for blind people employment officers
From: "martin wilsher" <m.wilsher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 30/07/2009 6:04 pm
HIBarbra and all.
I am in a similar situation to will, and have gone for job interviews and
also have gone on govt schemes to help get into work. Now let me relay aa
few stories. I went on the new deal for disabled people. The DEA basically
threw me at employers and said, the law says you cannot discriminate, so
employ him. Most employers were enthusiastic until they actually had to do
soemthing to help me over and above their usual, then they binned me, after
about three days in one case. Then I went on another scheme that afbp told
me was accessible to blind. Turned out they weren't, and that they were in
it for the EU money. I went in dressed in a suit, with laptop, copy of jaws
on pendrive, for SATOGO and SA weren't known to me then, and with NRA in
hand. I was first asked, where's your carer, then when I told them I'd
lived on my own for years, they dropped that question. I explained about
jaws for windows, and about what it was. They wouldn't let me install it.
In the end, I had to jobsearch with my own computer. They could not even
make the course amterials in accessible format. About the only thing this
place did was give me funding to do voluntary work with a riding stable.
Now they were meant to come to the stable to check I was actually doing the
work, and did they? No. They were meant to get in touch with my boss, but
tdid they? No. I spent six mmonths doing my part of the thing, while they
did nothing. This was another govt scheme btw, and at one point, they tried
to claim that giving me an ethernet cable to allow me to connect to their
intrnet was accessibily, and they'd complied with the Dda because of this.
Hmm, no. AFBP blew hot air at this company, but that was it. And yes, this
was new labour. I am going for an nvq this september, and I wonder if AFBP
will help me if I get into trouble with access? Probably not.
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