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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