As a key worker during this pandemic, I have been proud to be on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus.

I am a third year pharmacy student at Kingston University and work part time as a pharmacy adviser at Boots, and it has been busier than ever.

Just like my colleagues, I am helping to save lives, and yet I have faced discrimination during my commute to and from work because I am disabled. 

I am a double amputee above the knee and I use prosthetic legs. I am also a wheelchair user. 

During the past two weeks since the lockdown, I have had to move home from my halls of residence and take up a new commute to work. While doing this I have been denied ramp assistance at various train stations.

‘Have you not heard the government’s advice?’ was one ignorant remark from a train attendant before I boarded the train to East Croydon. He was silenced when I told him I was going to work at a pharmacy.

Train staff have treated me as if I am going outside for no reason and assumed that disabled people do not work. It is clear they do not see me as a key worker. 

I’ve faced instant refusal of assistance on many occasions, without even being asked where I was going. No one else who was travelling was prevented from carrying out their journeys in the way that I was. 

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At London Bridge station, on the way home from work, a woman working on the platform said she would not bring the ramp for me to board the train. 

Apparently they had been ‘instructed by their manager not to assist disabled passengers because of social distancing’.

After a long discussion, they reluctantly agreed to bring the ramp. I asked for someone to help push me up the ramp but the man on the platform did not even want to touch the handles of my wheelchair and said as much.

The whole experience was very traumatic. I made a complaint, but the following weekend, a similar thing happened. 

‘One of the staff members caught the coronavirus after helping a wheelchair user and has taken three months leave’, was the ludicrous comment.

Because of the horrendous experience I had the previous week, my mum had joined me on the commute. Staff only agreed to bring the ramp for me to board the train after my mum said she would pull the emergency lever if they refused to help.

But disabled key workers should not have to travel with someone and keep persisting just to receive their basic rights. 

What if I was alone? Would the train staff assist me? The answer is no. 

I feel that the coronavirus pandemic has heightened the stigma against disabled people and exposed more negative views. 

It is sad that I am being denied assistance when I am going to work and putting myself on the line.

Regardless of the pandemic, many people view disabled people as insignificant and think we do not contribute anything to society. 

Research carried out by Scope revealed that around one in three (32 per cent) people think that disabled people are not as productive as non-disabled people.

I want to dispel this myth.

Disabled people are human beings, and we should be treated with dignity and respect. We are not the source of the coronavirus and we are not the only ones capable of spreading the virus, as some of the people I interacted with seem to believe. 

Paul Fenney is another key worker who shared his story with me. He is a below-the-knee amputee and works for Autism Initiatives as a support worker. He said: ‘Being a support worker, there wasn’t really an option for me to stay at home’.

The National Rail website has also stated that disabled passengers making essential journeys should receive assistance during lockdown. My experience shows that, in reality, that is not happening.

The coronavirus should not stop our kindness and empathy towards one another, especially towards disabled people. 

Key workers are all risking their lives to help others during this pandemic. 

We deserve to be recognised and treated the same, regardless of disability.  

Osayuki is a Scope for Change campaigner

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