Battles and fights

Access to mainstream life for disabled people is far from easy. I know my parents have battled with negative views and bureaucratic systems for most of my childhood as they fought their way through every stage of mainstream education for me; from the infant to the junior school, from the junior to my secondary school through to a levels and access to university. As I got older I began to fight my own battles and I'm still fighting. But I was lucky, I've always had supportive parents and family who will fight as hard as they can to help me achieve but it shouldn't have had to be dependant on this fact. One of the more recent battles was with my local authority to fund full time help at uni, for which the fact that I couldn't walk and needed help with daily tasks was not considered a valid justification to needing 24 hour care. I faced questions such as "why can't you have someone come in in the morning leave you a sandwich for lunch and leave?" to which my response to my social worker  was "because I'm not a dog" which I think completely shocked her. But I'm too determined to be told what I can and can't have access to and because of this I will never give up the fight. I know that I am worth much more than the implied lifestyle that people present to me, it doesn't mean though that these opinions don't bother me cause they do but proving people wrong is so bloody satisfying! I do hope though that this dramatically improves and that disabled children do not feel as surprised as I do when people make it easy for them and naturally consider their needs. We have a long way to go.