Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike 700
The people I am talking about are those who jump in & out of their cars trot off to the shops, come back carrying bags of goodies,much more than I can carry now, *whilst others, walking aids visible or not, are left struggling.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike 700
...btw being old is not a disability.
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Hi Mike
I am not talking about nor referring to people that abuse the badge system such as use someone elses badge for their own purposes which I think we all agree is very wrong, as I said in my post.
I am clearly talking about people that have a disability, have a blue badge and when using that blue badge are judged by other casual onlookers, even approached and even abused and deemed to not have any form of disability by these ‘casual onlookers’ none of whom probably have any form of medical knowledge, therefore not in any position to pass judgement, for any reason or simply because the blue badge user is not in a wheelchair.
Neither did I say being old is a disability…lol.., I said ''being old can in itself be a reason for disability''…ie with old age comes lets say conditions such as severe arthritis, or heart problems, which give rise to a person being less abled perhaps.
A point worth making, in my experience, is that some disabled people feel somehow that they have more of right to a blue badge, or more of a right to a parking space or more more of a right to 'special dispensation' than another disabled person because they consider the other person 'less disabled' than them and thus 'less worthy'. My grandmother had an orange badge due to being virtually blind amongst other things, but walked quickly and reasonably with good gait and posture and I remember many occasions other people, both disabled and non disabled confronted and challenged use of the orange badge.
The problem, as with a lot of things in life, is if someone sees another with ''something special'' that they do not have, that person questions the reason why the first has that ''something special'' and is resentful - despite the fact they have got that ''something special'' by having a serious medical condition.
I feel the majority of badge holders are genuine, with the problems of misuse arising from theft of anothers badge or misuse of anothers badge, rather than falsely acquiring one through faking an illness, which yes, has been known to occur.
On the subject of eligibility who do you consider more eligible for a disability badge - Oscar Pistorius who can probably run faster than a Volvo T5 to 100m, yet uses a wheelchair as he has no legs, or a severe asthma sufferer with a heart condition (subject to severe attacks and collapse after but mild exertion) that appears fit and healthy and who is seen nipping into the local shop and returning to their car with a few bags? - but isn’t a wheelchair user.
Regards