“Luckily I can defend myself”

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“The principle of disability insurance ‘integration before retirement’ is a joke!”, says Barbara Müller (59). The doctor of geology from ETH Zurich and visually impaired autistic should know – it took no less than 17 lawsuits to keep her job.

Müller has Asperger’s syndrome and is considered gifted. After obtaining her doctorate in geology, she has worked all over the world, mainly in mines for extracting metals. Even today, the Thurgau resident still spends three to four months a year on such projects in Nepal. She suffers from what is known as “tunnel vision”, a hereditary disease that gradually leads to blindness.

17 lawsuits for support services

It is not self-evident that this is still possible for them despite an increasing visual impairment. Müller had to fight for years for the support she needed to work. “Let’s say eleven procedures and one change to my IV file Thurgau to Zurich, I had to be entitled to a minimum amount of paid support, despite being self-employed,” she says.

She’s still lucky, Müller says. “Because of my good education and my experience in politics, I understand certain processes and I can defend myself against them.” Many other people would have just had to submit to their fate and bury the dream of self-employment – an infinite amount of lost potential.

“Corona skeptical” statements and the expulsion of the party

Müller is a cantonal councilor on the Grand Council of the canton of Thurgau. Until a year ago she politicized there for the SP. Due to disagreements with the party and alleged corona skeptical statements, the SP Aadorf threw them out of the party over a year ago – Müller has been partyless ever since.

She hopes the disability session on March 24 “will not be an alibi exercise”. But that the problems of people with disabilities are finally taken seriously. She advocates, among other things, absolute clarification on a case-by-case basis. This means that every person with a disability is considered an individual and that the best individual solution is sought together with him or her.

She also calls for the establishment of competence centers that specialize fully in one form of disability and can therefore also offer professional help. “It is often difficult, especially in small cantons. Either there is a lack of competence or there is a lack of personnel,’ says Müller.

Source:Blick