Disability Narratives
Support from managers and department
Interview excerpt: Maeve was made to feel like a troublemaker and that she should just be grateful for her job at the University.
I got the computer in September. So, nine months after I got here. And I paid for it out of my research expenses. And I got the desk and chair. But yeah, took quite a long time. But I think part of this difficulty - I mean, I think a lot of it actually just comes down to the people in the institution. So I had heard my line manager one day over lunch, complaining about people who get good jobs, and then ask for loads of other stuff on top of that, and who never stop asking for things. And this is before I'd even asked for the desk and chair, and I sort of knew she wouldn't be very open to it. And I get the impression she thinks I'm a bit of a troublemaker for asking for this stuff.
And I spoke to the other people that share my office, and they - you know - We have really bad chairs and desks. And, you know, this could be bad for anyone, not just someone with an underlying condition. But they said they wouldn't - they wouldn't ask for stuff, they were too worried about how it would come across and yeah.
The attitude is, “you've got a job at Oxford University, and people would kill for this, and there's about three hundred people lining up to take your place, so you should just be grateful, and not ask for anything”.