So today I spent a significant portion of time figuring out how I could do something in the most simplest way possible. The instructions for which would be pretty easy for most non disabled people to follow and complete.

I then decided I couldn’t do it, and so spent an even longer period of time seeing if I could justify paying someone to do it for me.

Exactly what I was trying to do is not important to this post. What I’m trying to explain is the general understanding that I as a disabled person often have to pay for things to be done that non-disabled people are able to do themselves, and can therefore do for free. The cleaners that I have come to the house, as I have written about in a previous post are one such example of this. But there are many of them.

This is known as the disability tax, or the extra cost involved when you live in an inaccessible world as a disabled person. In the UK the disability benefit known as Personal Independence Payments (PIP) is supposed to cover such costs. But unsurprisingly it doesn’t cover it, but it does help, and this is the reason you can still be on this benefit while in employment.

Sometimes it feels like everything falls into this category of “things I need other people to do for me”, whether or not I have to pay for it. And if I’m being honest today was definitely one of those days.

Sometimes the cost of the disability tax, of the Innaccessiblity in society, is emotional as well as monetary.