Comments on: Michelle Dawson won her human rights case.

By: Disaboom | DayAlMohamed | Disability Blog Carnival #47 - Policy (Cross-Posted from www.DayInWashington.com)

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:24:28 +0000

[…] are Human Beings TooAmanda at Ballastexistenz is celebrating that Michelle Dawson has won her case. Dawson delivered mail for 11 years. In 1999, she told Canada Post she was […]

By: Ettina

Ettina — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:15:44 +0000

I think what they meant was to increase your tolerance for frustration. But I doubt they were successful in that!

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:33:39 +0000

It’s a common unstated goal of IEPs, but it is not even remotely normal for it to be written on them or directly acknowledged in any way. When they wrote it, they were not attempting to come clean about their own stated goals. They were just being unintentionally factual.

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:16:41 +0000

sanabituranima: Actually, I had an IEP throughout my educational career. Throughout at least most of it, increasing frustration levels wasn’t a goal.

By: sanabituranima

sanabituranima — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:13:21 +0000

No, increasing frustration levels is the standard goal of all IEPs.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:40:26 +0000

Probably a typo. I hope! (Reminds me of my IEP goal “to increase frustration level”, which was, well… honest of them, but not what they meant to write at all.)

By: Famous Flower

Famous Flower — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:14:21 +0000

“An employer has a duty to ensure”… “that ill perceptions about an employee’s condition”… “lead other employees to have negative and ill-founded perceptions about him.”

Doesn’t sound quite right!

By: Autumn

Autumn — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:59:30 +0000

I don’t think having to prove yourself not only comes with being disabled, but being poor. Being disavantated in some way. I’m proably asbergers but after a rather intersting life (most of it not in a school setting) I was diagnosed with ADD, CAPD (now called central audio processing something but not disease), dyslexia and one of the other dys’ that makes me say (and occasinally write) words out of order.
Most of these I can hide on any given day at work. But what really gets people is a) I look like I’m 14 and b) I’m fairly poor. I have to work very hard to get people’s attention, and to maintain that attention I have to work even harder not to make mistakes that are bound to happen becuase of my problems. I have a co-worker who finds it hysterical to mercisly rag on me becuase of this….even though I’m now her boss.

I hope more victories are won like this so people who are struggling in work (or in school) can be upfront and honest about disabilities.

By: Luai_lashire

Luai_lashire — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:12:13 +0000

Congratulations to Michelle!

I have also been the victim of the phenomenon you describe. I probably have exercise-induced asthma, but I don’t know for sure because my parents refuse to take me to a doctor. I once was forced to go biking with them, and when I collapsed on a long uphill stretch, hysterical, weeping, and unable to breathe, all at the same time, they prodded me with their feet and yelled, demanding that I get up and get on the bike again.
I also have dysmenorhia (I think that’s how it’s spelled), or excruciatingly painful menstruation, and I miss school every month because I can barely stand up. The school is not very sympathetic. Although I have a doctor’s note excusing me on any day I have my period, they don’t believe that it’s really that bad. As a result, a lot of the time I do try to go to school even when I really can’t, and end up having to come home halfway through the day feeling even worse.