Over the past few months, my husband and I have encountered a recurring challenge while searching for a new home: many landlords insist that both of us must be in ‘traditional full-time employment’. This has been quite an obstacle for us. Despite my nearly seven-year career as an author, landlords always seem wary when they learn that I receive PIP, while barely sparing a glance at my husband’s long-term employment history.
With our current landlord asking us to find a new home by the end of March, we’ve found ourselves having many alate-night conversation, trying to figure out a solution. I suggested that I explore alternative job opportunities that were disability friendly. In the early stages of my career, I used to write only during the night – while not ideal, it’s a balancing act I could manage again if necessary.
However, navigating the job market presented new challenges. While remote work was widely advertised just a few years ago, many companies now require office-based or hybrid roles. For me, a fully remote job is currently necessary due to my reliance on physical assistance to leave my home.
The more we talked about these issues, I kept coming back to the same questions:
What exactly is ‘traditional’?
If our household income meets your requirements, why should my disability or my job title matter?
At the moment, we don’t have a solution. There’s no magic fix. In the meantime, I plan to continue documenting these interactions and hope that we can make progress towards more tolerance and equality in society.
Dystonia and Me 