*Trish McNamara
AN ENNISTYMON WOMAN has spoken out at the “unconscious bias” against people with disabilities.
Trish McNamara described herself as “new to disabilities”. She has Multiple sclerosis (MS), the autoimmune disease in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged, is an acquired disease.
For the past five years, she has been confined to a wheelchair and this way of life has been eye-opening. “Since I went into the chair I’ve realised how different people with disabilities are treated and I don’t think it is fair”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo at a protest organised by the Clare Leader Forum against the Green Paper on Disability Reform, Trish reflected, “For me it was very dramatic, when I was walking I had no problem getting work, I had a good career in hotel management and HR, then I went onto two walking sticks or two crutches and then into the chair. While I was on the crutches people saw me but once I went into the chair, nobody saw me and worse again nobody listened to me when I tried to speak. There is an unconscious bias out there against people with disabilities and unfortunately I have felt it, it is just not fair because we are human”.
She recalled her experiences of encountering unconscious bias. “I was a HR manager, I had responsibility for 150 staff in a four star hotel that I worked in, I never had a problem getting work but as soon as I went into the chair or showed up on two crutches they kind of looked and I could see it, I did interviews for years and you can see it. I got to a point where I was saying ‘I am in a wheelchair but I really want the job, these are my qualifications, this is what I’ve done and this is my work history’ but I might not have even got an interview. It is not everybody but we need to start changing people’s outlook on people with disabilities, it starts with the younger people”.
This has been “terribly frustrating,” Trish admitted. “One in five in Ireland are deemed to have a disability or will have in time, we’ve to think beyond the black and white, everybody has a purpose in life and everybody wants to work, if you get an employee that really wants to be there regardless of their ability but they have the will to do it, that is worth five or six of somebody who is just there to get the pay cheque and that is the way to start looking at things, if you have the right attitude everything else can be trained”.
Infrastructure for persons with disabilities have “improved dramatically” in Ennistymon, she acknowledged. “If there is something that I need the County Council have always been able to provide it for me so credit where it is due, they are very good and they are keeping that infrastructure mind when they are developing the town, the only thing we have to get is a bus stop which is wheelchair accessible, I can’t get a bus from Ennistymon to the Cliffs of Moher, I can get on at the Cliffs of Moher but I have to get off in Ennis”.
Her involvement with the Clare Leader Forum began three years ago. “I have to say they are a great bunch of people and I’ve learned a huge amount from working with them, everyone has something to add and every day is a school day”.
Trish is adamant that plenty of changes are needed to the Green Paper on Disability Reform. “It was done without thought and I’d imagine by a group of civil servants who felt this is the right way to go forward for the country, it might be for the country but it is absolutely not for disabled people, it is impeding and infringing on our human rights, it cannot be allowed to go ahead in its present state, it is not all bad, stream lining the payments is a good idea and getting rid of means testing is a good idea, the sheer thought that disabled people don’t want to work is misinformed, we absolutely do want to work but we need the supports in order to do that and we’ve got to get rid of the unconscious bias that some employers have. We are proactive and we will put in a submission for the 15th of March with some alternatives to what they have put forward, some of it deserves nothing more than being thrown in the bin but it is not all bad but it is certainly no good in its present state”.
“We’re stronger together, the more people that are aware of our struggle on this and the more support that we get, the more people that will listen to all support will be gratefully received,” she concluded.
