Interview with Judy Smart
Judy Smart, direct payments officer, Harpenden
"...the worst job that I ever had, and that was screwing up newspaper to pack round lamps, and Veronica and I did this, day in and day out for about a year, and then we decided to complain to the management. We were both quite rebellious, [laughs] so we went up into the manager's office, and said that we were not happy with this work, and he said, 'Well, I'm afraid your disability will not allow you to work anywhere better', at which, I think smoke was coming out of my ears."
Download the first chapter of her autobiography (word doc, 100k).
Born 16 May 1945, Oxford
Attended St Margaret's School, Croydon, Thomas Delarue School, Tonbridge and Hatfield Polytechnic.
Interview summary
Tape 1 side 1
Born in the Radcliffe hospital in Oxford on 16 May 1945. Difficult birth - left arm twisted and eye damaged. 'Lazy' baby. Paediatrician advised mother to put Judy in an institution and have a 'normal' baby. Visit to a Wimpole Street specialist at the age of three. Diagnosed as 'brain-damaged but not mentally retarded'. Great Ormond Street Hospital. Psychology test at home found Judy to be highly intelligent.
Tape 1 side 2
Bullied for two terms at local primary school St Mary's in Banbury. Home tutor three times a week. Taught to read by aunts. Screening panel at St Margaret's School in Croydon - three years waiting list. Learning how to sit still. Christine Laurie, Alice Moira, Ann Smith and Mary Flack in Judy's dormitory. Best friend Joanna couldn't talk or walk and had to wear callipers. Judy not allowed to draw, write, feed or dress herself. Occupational therapy and speech therapy.
Tape 2 side 1
Judy Smart's mother Mary married in 1938 after father Jim Smart was discharged from the Home Guard with flat feet. Lived over tobacconist shop in Banbury. Mary Ringwood was born in 1907, sister Olive and brother Robert. Mary's father was a butcher. Mary wanted to be a nurse. Jim Smart worked for a tailor before becoming a tobacconist (he only smoked a cigar at Christmas). Description of shop and stock room. 40 customers a day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Cashing up and night safe. Woodbine, Craven A, Black Cat, Golden Virginia, special clay pipes. Mum smoked Craven A, then Rothmans. Description of upstairs flat. Judy was five or six before she slept in her own room. Dolls' prams, pedal tractor, scooter. Cousins Cherry and Christopher. Dinky cars. Playing with mum and dad.
Tape 2 side 2
First night at St Margaret's. Judy's jigsaws and crayons were confiscated from her belongings. Parent weekends. Miss Harper and house mothers. Rosemary Dawson Shepherd, Alice Moira and Anne Smith. Miss Edwards, Miss Lenton, Miss Charlton and Miss Tuckett. Discipline regime – the sweet tin and no talking at mealtimes.
Tape 3 side 1
Ignorance and discrimination. Judy bullied while the left outside shoe shop. First night at St Margaret's School. Miss Harper the housemother. Breakfast in the communal dining room for 36 pupils on eight tables. Description of classroom. Janet and John reading books. Headmistress confiscated Enid Blyton books. Little Women, Rupert annuals. Physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
Tape 3 side 2
Playing draughts on a specially adapted board. Wendy house. Stayed on at St Margaret's until the age of 15. Walking and standing practice. Doing homework with John Wilkinson. Algebra, geometry. Failed 11 plus. Description of Thomas Delarue grammar school. 'Familiarity breeds contempt' - boys and girls not allowed to hold hands. Ban on frivolous clothes. French, domestic science, crafts and arts. Basket weaving. Needlework. 11 plus examination.
Tape 4 side 1
Left school at 17. Judy told she had reached her academic potential. Going home. Careers adviser put her off a career as a hotel receptionist and suggested journalism. Took off calipers at Delarue School. Rejected without interview from local technology college because it was 'not equipped to take disabled people'. Typing work in 1964 - £20 for two months work. Moved to village near Banbury for four years until father died in 1968 of liver cancer. Judy's reaction to his death. Moved to three-bed bungalow in Banbury. Joined church group.
Tape 4 side 2
Mother's involvement with St Margaret's and the Oxford Spastics Society. Judy gave bouquet to Princess Marina at the opening of a new unit at the Churchill Hospital. Judy's involvement with the Spastics Society films, Chance of Their Lives and Every Eight Hours. Wilfred Pickles. Judy did physiotherapy exercises on a plinth for a seminar at the British Medical School.
Tape 5 side 1
Spastics Society social worker Miss Murphy set up Judy's month's trial at Drummonds, a big institution near Kelvedon in Essex. Judy Smart was 24; her mother was 68. Shared room - long waiting list for single rooms. Typical day at Drummonds. Making baskets, weaving, stool making, pottery. Isolation. Description of room at Kelvedon. Stress and ill-health. Moved to Redclyffe near Harpenden - description of this Spastics Society service.
Tape 5 side 2
Typical day at Redclyffe. Outbursts of a woman with Huntingdon's chorea. Counting screws and other menial tasks at the workshop in Abbots Langley. Working conditions - paid £3 a week (one pound deducted for lunch) in 1974. Judy complained to the manager and went to college at St Albans two days a week. Judy could spend workshop pay on sweets and toiletries in the tuck shop. Harpenden Lions Club took Redclyffe residents to the shops once a month. Learning basic computer skills - only disabled student.
Tape 6 side 1
CSE computing. Business studies. A-level literature. Sociology. Diagnosed with breast cancer – warden's wife's reaction and patronising attitude of doctor. Operation to remove breast. Judy discharged herself after poor treatment and neglect in hospital.
Tape 6 side 2
Reaction at Redclyffe. Assembling and packaging porch lights at the workshop. Attitudes of staff. Lack of privacy. 15-year-old boy with learning difficulties. Judy and her first boyfriend.
Tape 7 side 1
St Albans further education college. Disabled people in literature. 'Over My Dead Body' by June Opie. 'There Is Always an Open Door.' Another breast cancer scare. Typing with a stick. Studying economics and computing. Inspirational tutor Pat McNeill helped Judy try out head stick and then discovered a trust fund that loaned her a computer.
Tape 7 side 2
Stereotyping of disabled people as passive and submissive. Sociology A-level. After eight courses at St Albans, Judy's interview at Hatfield Polytechnic. Accepted onto introductory course and then degree over five years. Difficulties of taking notes and the reaction of other students. Friends in psychology department. Pre-examination stress caused by a fall at Redclyffe, which required stitches at St Albans hospital.
Tape 8 side 1
Warden's attitude to Judy's education. Judy had to ask for dispensation from The Spastics Society to pursue her studies. She was told that her education would "lead nowhere" but was granted every day off from the workshop. Before her third-year exam, Judy was woken at 3 a.m. by a resident setting off the fire alarm and going berserk. Decision to move into student halls. Warden described himself as Judy's custodian but personal tutor and welfare officer won the battle. Local authority wasn't prepared to pay for a community service volunteer to look after Judy. A student was allowed to live rent-free in Judy's flat in order to provide meals. Diet of jacket potatoes and tofu. Aunt bought Judy an electric chair for £500 in the late 1980s. Judy became disability officer at Hatfield Polytechnic and campaigned for a ramp for the Elephant House, the student bar.
Tape 8 side 2
Poor diet led Judy to go into hospital. Doctor's advice to have a steak -- given potato soup and natural yoghurt. Her flatmate Maria left during the long vacation. After another flatmate left, Judy decided to go it alone with home help three times a week and the district nurse to bath her. Six weeks before finals, Judy was asked to choose between a flat in Harpenden and her degree, as her housing association didn't want the flat to be unoccupied for six weeks despite Judy's willingness to pay rent. Passed degree and was allowed to stay in student flat until the start of the new academic year.
Tape 9 side 1
St Albans Housing authority specially adapted flat. Problems with ramp. Designer was a six-foot tall non-disabled man! MA in social policy. Studying at home. Judy and mother decide to buy together in Harpenden - estate agents' attitudes. Found a flat with a 30 foot lounge. Mother had bedroom; Judy had bed sitting room. Access to shops. Disabled Person of the Year Award for Herts. Herts Action for the Disabled. Adaptations to kitchen.
Tape 9 side 2
Carer three times a week to help with housework. Judy has carpal tunnel operation. Mother's fear of operations. Judy spends two weeks In the Red House, a local cottage hospital. Onset of mother's dementia. Surprise 70th birthday party. Judy has to do the shopping as mother suffers from agoraphobia. Support worker from Age Concern. Judy's coach trip to Canada with a friend Jean. Social worker tells Judy that her mother is to be sectioned. Judy's feeling of betrayal when her mother is taken away.
Tape 10 side 1
Visits to Judy's mother in psychiatric unit. After she was assessed she was moved to Holly Lodge residential home and then St Mary's Nursing Home. She is 98.
Tape 10 side 2
Judy's girdle stone operation. Visits to pain clinic. Attitudes to patients with cerebral palsy from nurses and doctors. Availability of physiotherapy and hydrotherapy. Judy's bad experience at school of visiting the dentist and having a gas mask put over her mouth.
Download transcript of tape 10
Tape 11 side 1
Judy's job as an outreach worker for PASS: Personal Assistance Support Scheme which promotes direct payments throughout Herts. Judy was on the steering committee of POHWER (People of Hertfordshire Want Equal Rights). The difference direct payments make to disabled people. Barriers to receiving direct payments. Judy's first job interview.
Tape 11 side 2
Judy started work in October 2003. Access to Work and various technical adaptations. The move away from support work to telephone counselling at PASS.
Download transcript of tape 11
Tape 12 side 1
Office politics at PASS. Having a car. Experience of holidays. First holidays were with Phab to Paris and to Avons Tyrell near Burleigh. Across Holidays to Belgium and Italy.
Tape 12 side 2
Jambulance Trust. Phoenix Holidays to Egypt, Florence and Venice. Coach trip to Canada. Differing access and attitudes of various countries. Air travel.
Download transcript of tape 12
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