Lots of things have lead to this. No one specific article or person or situation. I’ve noticed a theme in disability content where it’s “we don’t want {compensation}, we just want to be included”. I feel like there’s a layer of internalised ableism here – that as disabled people we ask for SO MUCH […]
Author: Vanessa Smith
Respect My New Normal
The tagline for this blog is “because we’re all normal to ourselves”. My normal deviates wildly from everyone else’s. It will probably never return to what others consider normal. Most of the time, I can deal with it. But what I cannot stand, and what boils me into a pit of frustration, is […]
The Financial Loss That Accompanies Disability
Who’s ready for some depressing discussion!? Woo! As you may know, the place I was working (on a mega-project) went under* this year and there were mass “BYEEEEE”. I can’t even call it lay-offs because that implies that we were paid compensation for losing our jobs. Project staff were mostly labour hire through recruitment agencies […]
When Does CoDesign Become Consulting?
I recently wanted to apply for an art thing. Only it required in person attendance. Which, as a mostly housebound person… didn’t feel doable. I sent in a query about how to have a modified version of this so I could apply for the art thing. I received a thoughtful response, but it lead me […]
What Job Hunting Was Like
I know I’ve mentioned all over the place, and a little bit here, about what job hunting as a furtherly (technical term) disabled person was like. I’ve written about how I’m coming to terms with how long I’ve been disabled and what that meant when I didn’t know. But I never really summarised what […]
Learning and Unlearning
Learning and Unlearning Take a look at this reel: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Charlie Rewilding 🌻 (@charlierewilding)  It’s really good. It’s on the topic of burnout but I feel it’s really applicable for all kinds of chronic and fluctuating conditions. My health has never […]
Why Is It Important?
I saw this on social media – posted by a writing tool. It’s important to find ways to make your writing workflow more efficient. You want to ensure that you’re spending the majority of your time being productive. As I said, this was posted by a writing tool. Their motive is clear – […]
Take Care of Yourself
Take Care of Yourself The last three weeks have been exhausting. Mostly due to stress. I did briefly utilise EAP chat to talk about the stress of discrimination in job hunting but it basically came down to “I’m sorry that’s happening to you. It is wrong. Can you do craft?” I was hoping […]
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Apparently I’m An Advocate Now
Apparently I’m An Advocate Now At least for myself… As some of you may know, the project I was working on in my day job has had some issues, and the short story is that myself (and many others) had their contract cancelled. I was expecting another 6-12 months of working there, so […]
- This is my life
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That’s Not Merit
At the end of 2021 I had to start looking for a job. My contract wasn’t going to be renewed due to ongoing budget cuts. I want to talk about one particular interview. This was within the Australian university sector, the same sector I was in at the time. I had an interview […]