Sunday 18 September 2011

Being made to feel ashamed for being disabled.

Obviously, becoming disabled was not only devastating for myself but also my close family around me. Everything got turned upside down around me, no longer did I feel that I could protect my family or provide for them financially. Even though I had to give up my job, I was lucky that I didn't have any major financial commitments such as mortgages or loans at that time. My outlook on life had to change from planning and saving for the future to getting by and trying to have a half decent quality of life for me and my family.

Even now, a few years on, it can be hard to accept that it us unlikely that I will be able to get a mortgage for a house of my own, but instead having to rely on social housing. It can be very difficult to buy costly items as banks are reluctant to lend or offer other credit services to disabled people at this time.

Mentally it has been very difficult becoming disabled, but in recent months I have almost become ashamed of myself being disabled and have felt like a drain on society. Most of these feeling have stemmed from recent media and government comments and acts. We have been portrayed in the media as scroungers and are just lazy, where as in reality many of us are in a very vulnerable position where we have to just get by in life and don't know what the future holds for us.

At the moment the government are steam rolling through their Welfare Reform Bill, which in part are I agree with but on the whole am scared what it is going to do to some of the most vulnerable people in society. Do people honestly think that people with disabilities want to have to rely on the state for support?  Cuts are being made in all directions, many of which will hit disabled and vulnerable people hardest. These people will suffer and then things will become worse when they try to rely on services and charities that should be there to help, as they are also having funding cut so will not be able to help.

Thanks to this government, the future is looking bleak and scary for disabled and vulnerable people as well as the family around them. I fear that some people in society are going to face some severe poverty and suffering thanks to David Cameron and the coalition government. They should feel ashamed of the spin they have put in the media to encourage the public to dislike the fact that these people require help, at times this has made it hard for me to be seen out in public in my wheelchair in the day, as I was paranoid that people were looking down at me.

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