Disability Narratives
State support
Video clip: Although she did not use it, getting Access to Work funding helped Susannah feel validated about the seriousness of her condition.
So I did - I mean, the Access To Work actually I ended up not using, in the end. I did apply for it, and I did - I did get accepted and offered some support. Which I never ended up like claiming any. But at the time, it was almost like a safety net, psychologically, for me to know that it was there. So I had the option of them helping me to - if I needed to do things like get taxis to get home, when I couldn't safely get home on public transport. And I ended up never doing it. But it was always kind of - The knowledge that I could was kind of - again, it was like that psychological safety net. And again, it was almost like a little bit of validation, that I wasn't making it up, and that it was a valid situation that I was in. That, you know - that this kind of behemoth government system that everybody knows never gives any money out to anybody [laugh], was prepared to pay for a taxi for me. And there was some sort of like weird validation in that. Knowing that it's really - you know, that - yeah. That was, that was kind of a weird sort of thing. And then. So I mean the disability office initially gave me the kind of support to do the Access To Work application.