I am a deaf and disabled cis bi woman living in the UK. I am interested in disability rights practice and law, assistive technology, cats (always cats) and I am fuelled by lots of tea.
Public Key
npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe Profile Code
nprofile1qqs80mq6s59cm3c6gxj3lmnqkxh2arampjpfdu7zas0kex6x2y5r9vqprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt36wf38
Show more details
Published at
2026-10-31T07:00:32Z Event JSON
{
"id": "5877846f795f63559516e781466de9ee97db03de895ff1085e75ee8a23630aec" ,
"pubkey": "77ec1a850b8dc71a41a51fee60b1aeae8fbb0c8296f3c2ec1f6c9b46512832b0" ,
"created_at": 1793430032 ,
"kind": 0 ,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://disabled.social/users/NatalyaD",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://disabled.social/users/NatalyaD",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"-"
]
],
"content": "{\"name\":\"NatalyaD\",\"about\":\"I am a deaf and disabled cis bi woman living in the UK. I am interested in disability rights practice and law, assistive technology, cats (always cats) and I am fuelled by lots of tea.\\n\\nMy profile picture is a red lizard for no reason other than I like it.\\n\\nReasonable Access (disability rights in UK charity): Founder/Trustee\\nPronouns: she/her\\n\",\"website\":\"https://disabled.social/@NatalyaD\",\"picture\":\"https://assets.disabled.social/accounts/avatars/109/327/284/425/145/650/original/6035c9243111557a.png\",\"nip05\":\"[email protected] \"}" ,
"sig": "a4952bb806f54793ccf7c880e9a98cb2e33aa23c81367c289630b01766bb45e9f5976104c0f9cb6e30d2b2abaf43d9a43ce7b7995795258a2625ee76c4405a77"
}
Last Notes npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I've been known to go to disability job recruitment fairs and tell the civil service group "I wouldn't work for civil service for Listsreasons" including lack of Access to Work entitlement and stories I've heard of very slow bureaucratic barriers in providing adjustments to employees. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I seem to recall the DWP had one of the highest employment tribunal rates for disability discrimination specifically from their staff https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/dwp-disability-discrimination-employment-tribunals/ npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I'm absolutely certain even before Martha's law that people who have an effective advocate get better care than those who don't. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I think quite a lot of our courses are doing mini exams or assessments throughout the term as well as big-things at the end. So not so much more coursework as more presentations with an associated 1500 word report/assignment that is linked. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I've been watching our uni courses with interest on the whole AI thing because as a disabled students' adviser I'm aware exams are one challenge (and coursework is another). npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD As a disabled person I wonder what the legal status of those jobs will be. Will the disabled 25% of "NEETS" be entitled to adjustments (and if so, who is obligated to provide/fund them?). If they are entitled to adjustments, but don't get them, who enforces that and what happens if person is booted off the scheme or unable to engage cos their access needs are not met. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I don't understand how this is even allowed with habeas corpus. Not even part heard/evidence in secret, but the actual allegation against the defendant. Completely unacceptable and unjustifiable. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Disablist as heck too. We already had to backtrack on forcing everyone to pass English and Maths GCSE before they were permitted to stop trying age 18 and leave education cos it just didn't work. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Everyone on the team wanted colleague to have compassionate leave while his wife/baby were sick. None of us wanted him not-paid or having to work while not able to focus. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Ironically these ex-NHS managers were the biggest and most blatant skivers (every accusation was absolutely their confession). npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD In many ways it's the standard stretched NHS attitude to sickness and sick leave in general. It's verboten and people who are off sick with anything less than CANCER or SURGERY are weaklings who should just work through it for the GREATER GOOD. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD this doctor didn't want to infect her patients who are largely elderly, vulnerable and already ill. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD The NHS also demands staff come into work while testing positive for C19 and I've heard direct claims from NHS staff online of being bullied to go to work even when feeling unwell. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD It's not even so much money management as 'the one crisis' (or multiple). npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Ugh the whole staff-student relationship thing is such an indicator of people's clue on this issue. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I got a Kindle copy in the UK, so I wonder if it is regional. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Labour is still cutting PIP in really stupid crass and crude ways which will cut even more people's care allowance as well. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Mainly for cis folk wanting to support trans people (acts of allyship) a trans lesbian woman Ruth Pearce has made a zine in both a visual and more-texty (accessible and screenreader friendly) layouts linked from her blog at https://ruthpearce.net/2025/05/26/pdf-zine-but-what-can-i-do-how-to-fight-the-trans-panic/ npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD A friend works for a public body that announced that trans folk can't use the correct loos/facilities anymore. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I work with disabled uni students and they often need to provide medical evidence of their disability. They often tell me x and y are not correct in the letters. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD The BBC seems to say Greens have 80 councillors not 850 Are they lying or just referring only to the newly elected ones, not in total which is misleading in itself... npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD UK #TransRights org Trans_Lucent has created a carry card with likely input from trans barrister Robin Moira White which they shared on Twitter. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Yep, and while £amount is up, the proportion of disabled people in population terms is not... Cunning misrepresentation with numbers there. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD They won't save money cos it'll cost a lot and people will fight back (and others will get distressed, be expensive in other systems or die)... npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I need to carve out some time to give some scathing feedback to the "listening exercises" which I'm sure will be ignored but they can't then say "we didn't know" "we weren't told". I've been collecting off-site receipts all the way down. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Sounds familiar. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I've worked for 3 unis now and I'm increasingly cynical (esp re HR) while recognising my skills are annoyingly uni-specific. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD it was actually universities who I sued a lot of. My expertise is in student disability advice so it was uni HR/student-disability depts who were discriminating against me (ironic much?). npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD And we disabled claimants are the problem? Not the structures and systems that surround us. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I sued 2 employers for recruitment discrim and should have sued 3 more. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I struggled to get work as a teen, which then was the 'excuse' used to not give me jobs as a graduate "no experience" & no willingness to make even TINY adjustments. I got into a disability exploitment scheme which got my foot in employment's door. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD There is also a healthcare success factor. People like myself born with conditions that we wouldn't have survived with 5/10/20 years earlier. Think also premature babies, surviving earlier and earlier but can be left with life long impairments which need support/care. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Isn't this just likely to push house prices EVEN higher as well as cause scary debt issues... npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Sounds familiar. I struggled with the vast number of different people in/out of the room. I didn't know who anyone was, what their role was and the uniforms were neither consistent or decoded anywhere (I remember 80s wards where staff uniforms were really clear). npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I think what used to be auxilliary nurses are now Healthcare Assistants but they also do a lot of jobs that used to be nurse only and now nurses won't do those cos HCA's job and nurses are run off their feet. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD the hard way, I lost my job but did make them pay... npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I have also pointed at a lot of the #MeToo stuff for NDAs when challenging them saying this applies very similarly and that it isn't me being "legally unreasonable" (lawyers rarely grok it) but knowing I won't keep to it, so shouldn't sign up to it. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I'd ban them for discrimination too, cos universities widely use it to shut people down and the power imbalance stinks. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I keep hoping some lawyers will take a sex discrimination claim against the MoJ and their agents who do the tagging for this. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I notice no attempts to increase Covid-safety in hospitals by improving ventilation and going back to masking for some staff/patients where possible... Nah, just let them catch Covid while admitted... npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Same, my vision issues aren't fully explained but I haven't been able to read significant print since 2015ish, so e-books are amazing and non-DRM ones I can view in a reader with full colour, font, size, spacing controls has enabled me to read voraciously again. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Yep, was talking to my mum about this cos she's got too many rich Tory friends who sneer at "benefit scroungers" with no clue about insecure gig economy work. My mum's first Q was "but how do you do childcare?" and remembering a case of 2 policewomen who got sacked/punished for swapping childcare cos it counted as a child-minder arrangement in law but they had no other choice for flexi-childcare... npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Well done and thanks for sharing the journey with us all. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Sounds good. There has been a definite improvement in the last 2 or 3 years for sure. In 2017 everything was doing my head in. Now I need to wait for the older stuff to be replaced npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Lots of people can't use FB cos of the real name policy or it making you visible to stalkers/harassers or similar. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I wonder what they're like for flicker which most people can't see but kills me (I have flicker detection superpowers which is a rubbish superpower). npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Either our banks are joined up or they're not... Just feels like mere mortals have great difficulties getting an account yet scammers continue. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD But surely it's possible to trace that web of accounts back to the scammers and we should have some kind of international scheme to deal with offshoring... npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I don't understand how scammers get away with it? Surely the banks can trace the accounts the scammed money went to? And can flag those to police for 1) freezing, 2) tracing payments to other linked accounts and 3) who the scammers are. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Yep, my view is we need something like the Food Standards Agency for disability discrimination, who can demand evidence and rule if discrim has happened and more importantly remedies that have to be implemented within a set time or it goes to a court order. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I've had it before when I've complained about phone-centricity and refusal to treat email/SMS with equivalence for me as a deaf person. Not always successful on their parts, but it's very common. npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Yeah, I think wheelchair users get some of the worst everyday discrim in the 'everyday' environment, pointless barriers like steps and no ramps, and bad attitudes "what are you doing out". npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD Couldn't agree more. Labour's constant anti-welfare rhetoric is why I've never been able to vote for them since eligible in the early 2000s. I am disabled and I experience frequent discrimination in recruitment (and from the DWP). Access to Work the government disability-funding support scheme is now taking 6 months to process new applications and is not known for its inclusive and accessible behaviour towards disabled people (I'm about to sue them for disability discrim). npub1wlkp4pgt3hr35sd9rlhxpvdw468mkryzjmeu9mqldjd5v5fgx2cq6qdrfe NatalyaD I managed to visit at their Camden venue in late 2019 I think before Covid happened and legs gave up on me. I really liked it, lovely vibe and people.
