Why Are You Questioning My Need for a Wheelchair?

[davidgillon]

Really good Huff Post piece on how normies make it difficult for wheelchair users with invisible disabilities. Rings absolutely true.

(And another Bendy speaking out, pro rata we must be one of the most published disability sub-groups!)

Comments

[dubhain]

I'm one of those people, like you. Generally speaking, unless I'm having a bad day of it, I start out fine, and deteriorate from there. I've experienced the aggression you describe, first-hand, and often, both for my mobility issues and other 'invisible' illnesses. And it becomes my business, frankly, when there are no more of handicapped parking spaces available, and I'm fairly certain that one or more of them are being used by people abusing the permit system. It becomes very much my business, when I have to go through a great deal of additional pain, or not be able to keep a doctors' appointment or do some other critical task because I can't walk an extra block or more from where I have to park because there are no spaces left.

Does this give me justification for haranguing other drivers parking there, or demanding to verify their placards or plates? No. However, if I've a reasonable idea that someone's abusing the system (such as sprinting cross-campus as I describe above -- not simply walking twenty or even a hundred meters,) then I do believe I've a right to question to myself, and to ask Parking Enforcement to verify. Else, nothing happens, ever, to check the abuse of the system. And believe me — I don't know about the E.U, perhaps people are more respectful of the system, there, but such abuse of it certainly does happen in the U.S. I've had that go-round with family members and acquaintances who believe that it's perfectly acceptable to do so because "Everybody does it."

As to intimidation once removed: If one has a permit for a special entitlement, no matter how much deserved, it's only reasonable to expect that one's going to be asked to verify that they and the entitlement-holder are one and the same. That goes for a driving license, a voter registration, or a workplace access. Otherwise, the entitlement itself — in this case, the placard or plate — being specific to its owner is meaningless, and one may as well simply say that anyone who's 'lucky' enough to obtain one (by legitimate means, by loan, gift, or theft,) is entitled to use it.

Yes, people with disabilities are going to be stared at, and asked stupid questions by the public. Yes, we're going to have to verify the entitlements (if any) which we receive, which do not at all make-up for the difficulty and pain we experience trying to negotiate a world laid-out for people who are not disabled. In a perfect world, this wouldn't happen, and there'd be no abuse of the parking system or any other system instituted to help people like us get around a little more easily.

We do not live in a perfect world.

And I respectfully disagree with your above-all opinion. The public is going to hold their misconceptions, regardless of what we do. The public knows quite well that there are people who abuse every single system ever invented, and that goes double for assistive systems. The public will be far more reassured that as few people as possible are abusing those systems if they've reason to believe that said systems are restricted and that those restrictions are enforced. If not, the public is far more likely to believe that 'everyone else' is getting to abuse the system, and the only reason they don't get to do so is that they can't get their hands upon someone else's placard.

I'm all for educating the public about 'invisible' disabilities. (Hell, I have more than one, so it'll only benefit me in the long run.) I'm all for educating them that it is emphatically not appropriate to harangue and attempt to intimidate an individual they see getting out of a car with a blue placard, simply because they don't walk with an assistive device or use a wheelchair. However, there does have to be a way to enforce the restrictions which naturally must exist regarding who may and may not use a handicapped parking placard or plate. Insisting that such enforcement should never happen, because it somehow will lead to hate crimes and make an individual feel judged is something which I (again respectfully) simply cannot agree with.

[davidgillon]

if I've a reasonable idea that someone's abusing the system (such as sprinting cross-campus as I describe above -- not simply walking twenty or even a hundred meters

While it isn't so much the case nowadays, up until a few years ago I could walk miles, and yes, probably I could have sprinted if need be, yet at any moment in there I could change from walking normally to barely being able to stand or put one foot in front of the other, and that change could happen between one step and the next. At that moment I just had to hope the car was as close as possible, because every step back to it would be agonising. And that's just one invisible disability of literally thousands of different syndromes and problems. Just because someone is tearing across campus doesn't mean they don't have an entitlement to a blue badge due to disability.

I do believe I've a right to question to myself, and to ask Parking Enforcement to verify.

Imagine you're the person whose disability is being questioned, imagine having to deal with questions caused by people who think they are fighting for the rights of disabled people, but who do it by assuming that your disability isn't valid and doesn't count. Imagine it happening every damn day. I've already mentioned I know people who have been intimidated out of using their badges by ongoing harassment from people who don't believe that they are disabled. Isn't even one person intimidated out of using their badge one person too many?

it's only reasonable to expect that one's going to be asked to verify that they and the entitlement-holder are one and the same

There is indeed an expectation that things such as these can be checked, but the right to demand that check is restricted to specific people (in the UK police and traffic wardens), not Joe Public, however well intentioned they may think they are.

I don't know about the E.U, perhaps people are more respectful of the system

Not remotely. But it's also very apparent that a very large part of the reported fraud is actually not fraud at all and arises from people who refuse to recognise invisible disability, or indeedd any disability that doesn't include paralysis and/or missing limbs, and therefore consider legitimate use to actually be abuse. And this is a huge problem in that it leads them to extend the same attitude towards disabled people in other areas of life. As I mentioned, I had one of our local MPs (Mark Reckless for those in the UK, UKIP's newest recruit - he'll fit right in) respond to an interview with me on my experience of disability hate crime by saying people were entitled to decide for themselves whether they thought disability was genuine and to be angry with us if they decided we were fakes. So forget medical training and checking your medical history, all Joe Public needs to do to decide that you're a fraud and a scrounger is catch a glimpse of you across a crowded street (well, it works for Atos!). And this isn't a theoretical risk, I'm well into double figures with instances of abuse on the street from complete strangers for walking while disabled (and that's with crutches), plus one physical assault (the idiot thought disabled=not dangerous - don't attack the man holding two clubs....) and one attempt to frame me for benefit fraud.

The last of those, even though quickly resolved - the investigator dismissed it before she was even through my front door, triggered the worst flare-up I have ever experienced. Three months after it was resolved I was still in agony, so any suggestion that 'if you're innocent you have nothing to fear' is simply flying in the face of the evidence.

David Perry wrote a couple of really good blogs on the issues faced by people with invisible disabilities. This one on the Kanye West idiocy http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/16/opinion/perry-kanye-west-prove-disabilities/index.html, and a follow-up in response to his readers, with two revealing letters, http://www.thismess.net/2014/09/hidden-disabilities.html , the contrast between the two is utterly stark, and explains why we should never challenge anyone whose disability isn't apparent.