If you’re a disabled person with high or specialist support needs, or if your job involves long working hours, or if you work abroad, there’s something you need to know – your career, your ambition, your potential are about to be capped.…

At the end of last week I wrote Access to Tears, a post describing how, after a long and upsetting process, Access to Work (AtW – the scheme that provides support for working disabled people) had decided not to fund the cost of my support worker’s flights and accommodation for a work trip to Canada, and that this meant I wouldn’t be able to take up this paid work.…

It was a relief to close my eyes and go to sleep last night – they were sore and tired from the tears I’d been shedding hours earlier.

This morning I’m in a reflective mood, determined to write about the circumstances that once again left me sitting at work with tears flooding down my cheeks while my non-disabled colleagues got on with what they were doing.…

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on a big funding bid at work for our inclusion project. In the process I’ve looked at a lot of research by some great organisations and it got me thinking about all the fantastic groups and services that have helped me and the families I support.…

As well as being a part-time superhero and working one day a week for Touretteshero, for four days a week I work as a project coordinator for a children’s organisation in London. My role covers three main areas:

1) Fundraising
2) Supporting volunteers
3) Developing new projects and services

I’ve worked there for four years and in that time I’ve:

1) Secured over half a million pounds in funding for the organisation
2) Supported over three hundred regular volunteers
3) Helped triple the services the organisation provides

I’m telling you this now not because I want to brag but to give you a sense of the work I do and because yet another Conservative minister has suggested that some disabled people are “not worth” the minimum wage.…

On Friday afternoon I sat in our sunny playground and cried. My colleagues were all busy doing their work in the office, but I couldn’t do mine – I was stuck on the phone to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), pleading with them to pay money owed to my employer for the cost of my support at work.…

I’m going to start with an apology for that dodgy pun, but I think it’s appropriate for a post about the many moments of pure joy I’ve experienced over the last few days, all thanks to my wonderful wheels.

Warmer weather and lighter evenings are usually associated with positive, hopeful feelings, but in recent years I’ve tended to feel frustrated and low at this time of year.…

Thanks to Access to Work I spend quite a lot of time in minicabs each week getting to and from work. Mobility-wise this has made things much easier for me, but cabs come with their own distinct set of challenges. There’s the hateful talk radio that accompanies most journeys and the occasional dangerous driver as well.…

Yesterday afternoon my colleague Sylvie, who manages the adventure playground where I work, asked me if I could cover for her briefly while she helped a child. I’m always happy to do this but yesterday I was raring to go. The reason?…

Thanks to Access to Work I’m able to take a cab to and from work every day. This is a longstanding, routine part of my working week and it’s usually pretty uneventful.

But this morning was a different story. For a start the cab waiting outside the castle for Leftwing Idiot and me wasn’t a car at all, it was a giant grey van with a sliding door and several rows of seats inside.…