Intacsno worked.......graft in next 6 months/employer hassle

[alison falshaw]

Hi Folks,

Not been here for a while as so much going on for me with my mam and also my nanna in hospital etc.

As some of you know I had intacs in my right eye in March. By May we were beginning to come to the conclusion that my sight was not going to improve and that a graft was becoming envitable. I can now say that at my last appointment about 4 weeks ago I was placed on the waiting list. The waiting time is3 - 6 months. Extremely nervous as to the recovery etc and also I have had one operation which hasnt been successful.

Since May I have been in contact with Action for Blind People. They have been very helpful . We have done a basic assesment at their resource centre and have a rough list of to the aids that would be beneficial to me at work. I contacted my employer verbally in June to propose my return to work, with the help of aids that could be funded via Access to Work.
I received no response, despite me chasing it a few times. Since May there have been various resignations including my line manager and the person I contacted regarding returning to work. I gave up calling them and wrote them a letter beginning of Sept. The long and short is that they are trying to make me redundant - all though they are going about it in an unprofessional way - but they havent done it yet. I have been invited to another meeting tomorrow.

For all this time they have not been in touch with me, nor offered any help whatsoever. The strain of going through the op which hasnt been succesful and been financial broke is more than enough to deal with and now am dealing with a legal case....all because of not being able to see!!

I have sought legal advice and been advised to raise a grievance on the grounds that they have not made modest adjustments before now, hence loss of earnings etc. The solicitor has drafted me a letter which my employer will receive today. My solicitor has asked me to start preparing a statement of how my condition affects my day to day live. I know its easy for me to sit here and share it with others but its a tad difficult trying to write it down and explain to a non medic etc. This statement maybe be used if the grievance goes all the way to a tribunal......scary scary.

I was wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation and how did you deal with it? Or can any of you clever folks offer any help with this.....

Your thoughts and comments are all appreciated.

bye for now ALi

[Andrew MacLean]

Alison

A good place to start would be the leaflets you can download from this site
http://www.keratoconus-group.org.uk/sit ... tions.html

After you have downloaded the relevant parts of this (perhaps fact-sheet 2 is most relevant to your situation), you could put together a dossier of information from the www and then add some commetns about your personal experience. I'd group these under headings:

Visual problems
Additional problems due to an unadapted world
Help that is available (this includes things like clear monitors for computers with text magnification facilities, document scanners and readers, video magnifiers and split screed presentations, colour adapted displays etc.)

Then go on to rehearse the difficulties you have had with your employer and their unwillingness to comply with the DDA.

All the best

Andrew

[Lynn White]

Hi Ali,

I would be happy to guide you through the technicalities of this. Could you email me at lynn.white@lwvc.co.uk and let me know more about the specifics of your vision and I'll help you draft something.

Lynn