That's a disability?

[smileyeagle1021]

Okay, something that has been bugging me since starting the relay job and actually having to handle these calls and them no longer just being urban legend.
Seriously the BS that the Social Security administration will pay out for is staggering.
Full disability for being deaf, are you fucking kidding me? No, I'm not making that up, there are people receiving full disability for being deaf, despite that fact that there are a shitload of jobs for which being deaf wouldn't require ANY accommodation and a shitload more that would require minimal accommodation, you can't possibly tell me that these people are incapable of getting a job because of being deaf.
Being in a wheelchair... kiss my ass. When I was at the reservation center I had a coworker who was completely missing one leg and the other leg only went to the knee (war injury), only accommodation needed was a desk that was at a different height (and the electric doors that are required anyway). Practically any job involving a computer can be done just as easily sitting in a wheelchair as sitting in a desk chair.
Being blind? Oh, I know a blind guy who will kick your ass if you try to claim blindness is debilitating, he's right now studying to be a paralegal and last I checked was doing damned good at it.
Being diabetic... okay, I know for some people it is so bad that they need to have constant medical supervision, but I've had a half uncle claim it just for having diabetes, not even being uncontrolled.
Do I think people with disabilities should be helped, absolutely. But frankly, my student aid is getting cut because of the budget crisis, the services I get with my increasing student fees and tuition are decreasing, my taxes are just as much as I can afford, and we're just giving money away to people without any expectation of them even trying to help themselves. I'm sorry, but that's bullshit.

[telecom_goddess]

I don't claim disability for anything I work for my money but I can claim some things like reduces public transit fare, based solely on having sleep apnea.

I would have to be really messed up to claim disability.

[Andara Bledin]

Don't blame the people.

Many of them are afraid to try because if they try and fail to be able to work due to their disability, they still lose their benefits.

Also, just because you know people who thrive despite having a disability does not mean that it's not a disability. It just means it's not a disability to them.

^-.-^

[DrFaroohk]

There's also the availability of said jobs. Sure, the legless man can work at a desk. If he's educated enough to do that desk job. Not all desk jobs require an education, but it helps. If he didn't have the education and then lost his legs, wtf is he supposed to do? Where I live, it's almost all fishing jobs. Blind man gonna work on a fishing boat?

It's not all black and white.

[bainsidhe]

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this topic. I had a few deaf coworkers when I worked at *big box retail*. One used to have a long-time administrative job until he was laid off. Because he was deaf, he was limited in what jobs he could work and landed in retail. He finally found a better job...five years later. I'm not knocking retail, but most of the more highly-paid employment he was qualified for required phone work, which he obviously couldn't do.

At the same time, part of me wants to have a knee-jerk reaction and call foul. Shortly before my mom passed, she was denied disability even though she suffered from congestive heart failure and only had 15% use of her heart. She was denied partly because she hadn't been working a full five years before falling ill (she had been a homemaker while we were growing up and started working four years before). Because of this, I'm deeply resentful of anyone I think is playing the system and it's hard to be objective.

[telecom_goddess]

My bf is in this stage right now...chf and about 15 percent of his heart. But he's working and hasn't tried to claim disability. (I think I would go completely insane if he was around the house 24/7 though)

[bainsidhe]

My bf is in this stage right now...chf and about 15 percent of his heart. But he's working and hasn't tried to claim disability. (I think I would go completely insane if he was around the house 24/7 though)

I'll be honest, that's scary as hell. I give him my best towards health and warm wishes towards improvement.

[Racket_Man]

at my pizza place we actually hired a deaf woman as a delivery driver. she carried a little lamianted card so she could write the order total on it to show to the customer. she stayed with us for about 9 months.

[patiokitty]

I'm hearing impaired - not completely deaf but definitely impaired - but I have rarely ever played on it. About the only real requirement I had was when I worked at a call center because without noise-cancelling headphones (I couldn't even get away with using one of those single-earpiece ones) I couldn't turn the volume up on my phone loud enough to hear and block out any of the constant murmuring going on on the background.

I attend full-time university and it's only if I tell my profs that I am having difficulties in hearing them that they realize I'm hearing impaired at all - certain frequencies simply do not register, sadly. I've been asked if I'm getting special benefits and student loan bonuses as a result and my answer is truthfully no because I couldn't see the need unless my hearing is much worse than it is.

My brother on the other hand...got special bonuses because he stutters. He managed to claim it as a disability and got a fair bit of his university degree paid for through special programs. Um, I stutter too but I never once would have called it a disability and I would never have played the disabled card with it even if I had known it was possible before! Yes, it is a severe stutter but no worse than the one I had been dealing with up until I went through speech therapy to learn how to deal with my stutter. At one point I would have said I was actually worse...but he refused to go through with speech therapy and turned his stuttering into a case for disability. Um...yeah...

I see nothing wrong with hiring differently-abled folks provided they can do the job at hand. I plan on teaching when all is said and done, regardless of my hearing issue. I've done call center work - actually taking calls and working on the mentor line - with needing little more than a good headset.

I have worked with people with sight difficulties - including one in the call center whose main requirements were a huge monitor with a powerful backlight so that she could blow the resolution up so she could read. Did she cry disability? Hell no.

My sister has spina bifida and is in a wheel chair - she volunteers at her local library. Yes, she does get disability payments but only because she can't get a regular job in her town. Hell, if she were able to she'd be happy being a Walmart greeter because she doesn't feel that she is too disabled to get a real job but the town she lives in seems to feel that way, sadly. Yes, it's discrimination but she can't absolutely prove it or she'd do something about it.

I think the main issues are the attitudes of people - both the differently abled person and the people around them. Some disabled people feel that there is nothing out there for them and give up, preferring to live off what the government gives them...and some of them have been conditioned to remain victims by their families and support network. Others want to get out there and show the world what they can do and are held back by their communities. I'd hazard a guess and say that the ones that get out there and work for a living are a minority, unfortunately.

[Kimmik]

I am on disability due to mental problems, but also i suffer from nerve damage in the left arm, severe arthritis in the lumbar and my c-spine is so borked I had a specialist look at my chart and actually tell me, "Oh Damn your neck is really messed up". But I tried to work at wally land.. but after some hard times i had to quit because i had a series of bad luck. It is never a good sign when you out of the blue have the thought that maybe you should put on make-up and go kill someone.

So because of that I am stuck at home. I would love to be able to go to work again.. i was so proud that i had gotten a job after 13 years.. then I lost it. Please don't judge people on disability, disabilities do not affect everyone the same.

[Eisa]

Please don't judge people on disability, disabilities do not affect everyone the same.

This. I'm not on disability or SSI...mostly because I keep wanting to move soon and don't want to go through the hassle of trying to get on. But I've got physical and mental disabilities. I want to work...but it's hard when I can barely stand for an hour and when the thought of being on the phone with strange people is enough to give me a panic attack.

[Kimmik]

This. I'm not on disability or SSI...mostly because I keep wanting to move soon and don't want to go through the hassle of trying to get on. But I've got physical and mental disabilities. I want to work...but it's hard when I can barely stand for an hour and when the thought of being on the phone with strange people is enough to give me a panic attack.

OOo I have also had people tell me to just "grow-up" and that I could work if i wanted to... *sighs*

[smileyeagle1021]

I'm not judging people on their disabilities, but their lack of even trying. Yes, there are a lot of people out there who legitimately can't work, I will gladly support those people. I recognize that this may be a problem with the system and not the people, but seriously, watching how easy it is for some people to get disability for things that really could be overcome if they just put some effort into it... I could be so lucky to have been born with such a disability.

[Kimmik]

I'm not judging people on their disabilities, but their lack of even trying. Yes, there are a lot of people out there who legitimately can't work, I will gladly support those people. I recognize that this may be a problem with the system and not the people, but seriously, watching how easy it is for some people to get disability for things that really could be overcome if they just put some effort into it... I could be so lucky to have been born with such a disability.

Actually you are judging,

but seriously, watching how easy it is for some people to get disability for things that really could be overcome if they just put some effort into it

.

I have been told that I should just get over it and go get a job because the primary reason I am on disability is my inability to work with people. My deaf cousin works as a teacher last i knew, yet i had a couple of college classes with a deaf friend who was terrified to go out by his self because his older brother use to like to scare the hell out of him since he couldnt hear.

How dare you say,

I could be so lucky to have been born with such a disability.

I have been told my whole life that i dont have a "real" disability because people cant see it. Federal Disability is not ease to get, it is not handed out cause someone has a hard time. I would trade the crappy 700 a month i get for the ability to work..

Being Deaf,blind, or in a chair, where i live would be a nightmare, it is a state capital and not all of it's roads have sidewalks.

How dare you presume to know what is disabling to someone, being deaf IS a disability as is being blind.. because you can't just walk into 99% of the places and get a job.

I am so pissed i am seeing red.

[KellyHabersham]

My daughter's father somehow managed to get on disability for having either ADHD or kleptomania - not sure which it was, and don't know the details......only that supposedly the person who was processing his case had to "work" the system to get him to qualify. (from my viewpoint, he is NOT disabled)