You phony "handicapped" fucks! I Hope you turn into Christopher Reeve!

[Broomstick]

*Originally posted by Eve *
Waitasecond . . . What kind of amusement park ride could a wheelchair-bound person ride on, anyway? Do you haul him out of the chair, dump him on a rollercoaster and hope his arms work so’s he can hold on? And who holds the wheelchair while he’s riding?

Not trying to be a weisenheimer, this just makes no sense to me . . . I can see where if you’re blind or deaf or have a missing limb, you could ride some of these things, but paralyzed?

OK, time for the wife of a gimpy guy to chime in with a rant:

Although my husband has suffered damage to his spinal cord, he is still capable of enjoying many adrenalin inducing activities. He has some paralysis and a couple of artificial leg joints, so while he can walk it’s slow, limping, and unsteady. So at very large places, particularly if he is having a bad day, he will rent a scooter or wheelchair.

This disability has not stopped him from riding motorcycles, hang gliding, skydiving, scuba diving, flying airplanes, riding horses, rock climbing (alright, that one didn’t work out so well), or doing a bunch of other stuff people assume folks with spinal injuries can’t do. So, trust me, riding a roller coaster, “churn-n-puke”, or other amusement park ride is pretty minor league by his standards.

The bumper cars, however, were a really, really bad idea because the jolting the collisions gave his back.

Modern amusement park rides have seat belts, locking rods, and all manner of devices to keep people that can move and squirm in their seats. Keeping someone who can’t move in the seat is a comparatively easy task.

One more comment about the able-bodied parking in handicap spots. This IS one time when it is perfectly legitimate and appropriate for an able-bodied person to park in such a spot - if they are doing so to assist a handicapped person. Yes, I have been seen to park between the blue stripes, slap a placard up on the rear view mirror, and jump out of the pickup with my perfectly healthy body when picking my husband up from someplace. That is the ONLY time I do this, but I will do that if my husband needs me to do it. Fuck 'em if they can’t deal with it. So even IF the person in the spot is healthy, they might be dashing in somewhere to fetch someone who can’t walk across an acre of parking lot.

[milroyj]

*Originally posted by Broomstick *

One more comment about the able-bodied parking in handicap spots. This IS one time when it is perfectly legitimate and appropriate for an able-bodied person to park in such a spot - if they are doing so to assist a handicapped person. Yes, I have been seen to park between the blue stripes, slap a placard up on the rear view mirror, and jump out of the pickup with my perfectly healthy body when picking my husband up from someplace. That is the ONLY time I do this, but I will do that if my husband needs me to do it. Fuck 'em if they can’t deal with it. So even IF the person in the spot is healthy, they might be dashing in somewhere to fetch someone who can’t walk across an acre of parking lot. **

I dunno, I wonder what the law says about this. I thought handicapped parking permits were for, ya know, handicapped people, not for their wives, children, friends, etc. If you’re able-bodied, why can’t you just pick him up at the curb?

[Chas.E]

*Originally posted by Broomstick *
**Although my husband has suffered damage to his spinal cord, he is still capable of enjoying many adrenalin inducing activities…

This disability has not stopped him from riding motorcycles…**

You remind me of a friend of mine, he is unable to walk without crutches, but loves big motorcycles. He obviously can’t hold the bike up at a stoplight, it would fall right over and he could never right it on his own. Solution? He has a couple of really nice sidecar bikes. The sidecar holds the bike up, and makes a convenient place to carry his crutches.

[BoBettie]

If you’re able-bodied, why can’t you just pick him up at the curb?

Um, because you aren’t supposed to pull up to the curb/front of a store to pick up passengers, generally speaking. (Many stores have fire zone signs up telling you not to park there.)

You could find a law that says differently, but I am quite sure that it is perfectly legal for an able-bodied person to park in a handicapped spot if he/she is picking up or dropping off the person with a disability that had the permit issued. Remember, disabilities vary greatly. Is a person who uses a wheelchair and needs help getting it out of the trunk supposed to get dropped off at the curb, have the driver get a regular spot, then pick them up again later? How about the person who needs physical assistance to get into the building?

I’m not jumping all over you, just giving you something to consider. They make handicapped parking spaces for people who have a disability that prevents them from functioning the way able-bodied people do. That is the purpose of having the spots, so obviously if the person with a disability has someone driving them, both people are expected to be able to park there.

Zette

[Guinastasia]

*Originally posted by milroyj *
I dunno, I wonder what the law says about this. I thought handicapped parking permits were for, ya know, handicapped people, not for their wives, children, friends, etc. If you’re able-bodied, why can’t you just pick him up at the curb?

Um, because of a little thing called the ‘fire lane’?

[Broomstick]

*Originally posted by milroyj *

*Originally posted by Broomstick *
One more comment about the able-bodied parking in handicap spots. This IS one time when it is perfectly legitimate and appropriate for an able-bodied person to park in such a spot - if they are doing so to assist a handicapped person.

I dunno, I wonder what the law says about this. I thought handicapped parking permits were for, ya know, handicapped people, not for their wives, children, friends, etc. If you’re able-bodied, why can’t you just pick him up at the curb?

OK, simple concept - if able-bodied parks in the spot they are doing it for the benefit of the disabled person. If they get caught doing it for their own amusement they get slapped with the same $500 fine as any other able-bodied person. When you apply for the placard they explain all this to you.

That’s why we got the placard - it travels with the disabled person. If a friend drives my husband somewhere, the placard can go in the friend’s car. It can go in our truck. In our car. In his mom’s car. This has the interesting side effect that he is frequently invited to movies and shopping expeditions because, with him along, everybody gets to park “in the good spots”. But only if he’s along.

Likewise, the able-bodied drivers of handicapped tranportation vehicles are permitted to park in handicapped spots when picking up disabled passengers. It’s not to help the able-bodied, it’s to help the disabled.

Why not curb service? Well, sometimes he isn’t waiting there on the curb. He’s mobile, after all. Standing there and honking for 20 minutes is not considered acceptable for some reason. There are frequently no standing/parking or firelanes at the curb. Take my word for that there are occassions where curb-side service is not practical.

Actually, this happens very rarely. And if some motherfucker glares at me or gets nasty I point out I’m picking up a cripple so shut the fuck up.

Then I have to brace myself in case I’m talking to A) some Jesus freak who then explains that if my husband “finds Jesus” he will be healed (husband is already baptized/saved and so forth, didn’t seem to help) or B) someone who then rapsodizes about how wonderful a person I must be to endure such things in life or otherwise portrays me as some sort of fucking martyr or Mother Teresa. :rolleyes: Not a description anyone who knows me would use.

[KJ]

Yes, I apologize for my other post. There are good reasons for disabled people to bypass the line at rides (even if half of the people in those lines are probably just scamming the system…)

But there are people who seem to think that disabled people should recieve special privelages for anything and everything, even if it doesn’t relate to their disability. And though these people are trying to do good, they end up segregating them even more. (When I made that post, I must have been thinking of these Snopes articles here and here.)

[missbunny]

Zette - I just noticed your sig! Have you been using it for a while? I feel so honored (blush). (Gee, I think this almost makes up for having NEVER been mentioned in one single “favorite poster” thread.) (Blush again.)

[Jeannie]

Originally posted by milroyj

I dunno, I wonder what the law says about this. I thought handicapped parking permits were for, ya know, handicapped people, not for their wives, children, friends, etc. If you’re able-bodied, why can’t you just pick him up at the curb?

In the case of my uncle, he had two prosthetic (sp?) legs. He always went grocery shopping with my mom. They had considered getting a placard for these occasions. If my mom had dropped him off at the door to the store, he wouldn’t have been able to stand in one place long enough until she got back from parking. It was safer for him to have someone walking with him at all times. He eventually refused to get the placard, but that’s a long story.

This thread made me think of a question I’d be interested in hearing people’s opinions on: if you have a disability that sometimes makes you incapable of walking long distances, and other times does not affect you, is it moral to use a handicapped space when you know you won’t need it?

I have only had one experience with this type of situation. I knew a girl who had a pacemaker as the result of a heart condition. She had a placard that allowed her to park in a handicapped spot. I totally agree that she had every right to use this. She once told me that she only used it during the Christmas season or other such crowded times at the mall and only when she couldn’t find a parking spot. She said she had never actually needed it for medical reasons, but that it came in handy if she had woken up late for class or couldn’t find a spot and didn’t feel like driving around looking for one. Like I said, I don’t dispute that she may have needed such a card on occasion, but the fact that she only used it for convenience sort of made my stomach turn.

[OpalCat]

Wow, from Disney’s page for disabled accomodations at Epcot (http://disney.go.com/disabilities/epcot/welcome.html):

Some Guests may be concerned that they do not have the stamina to wait in our queues. We strongly suggest that these Guests consider using a wheelchair or Electric Convenience Vehicle, as the distance between our attractions is much greater than the length of our queues.

[Broomstick]

This thread made me think of a question I’d be interested in hearing people’s opinions on: if you have a disability that sometimes makes you incapable of walking long distances, and other times does not affect you, is it moral to use a handicapped space when you know you won’t need it?

I guess that depends. Some of these on-againg-off-again disabilities can be aggravated by exertion. So, for instance, someone with severe asthma might be able to walk a 1/4 mile on a good day but not on a bad day - but may fear that the physical exertion of walking that 1/4 mile may prompt an attack. Also, such a person could be fine, park in the way-over-there spot, walk into a department store, get blitzed by the perfume counter, and then be unable to make it back to their car (then you have to ask - should they be driving in that condition?)

The point is, for most of those people who can function normally part of the time, they don’t know when the disability is going to kick in without warning. Also, just because a person can walk a long distance doesn’t mean they should.

The reason I’ve heard most often for not using the placard is security - in some neighborhoods it’s not safe to advertise that you are disabled, it makes you a crime target. That’s one reason my husband refuses to get the handicapped license plates - the placard is much easier to hide. I realize this is a very sad fact of life, but the truth is that muggers don’t like to get hurt and are well aware that it is usually safer to go after the folks in wheelchairs and hobbling on crutches than to go after 20 year old football players.

And that is another reason to not drop such a person off on a curb. An 80 year old woman in a wheelchair sitting alone a curb might as well have a neon sign over her head blinking victim. Not all disabled people are unable to defend themselves, but many are.

[ENugent]

*Originally posted by Broomstick *
The reason I’ve heard most often for not using the placard is security - in some neighborhoods it’s not safe to advertise that you are disabled, it makes you a crime target.

This may be one of the saddest things I have ever heard.

[BoBettie]

*Originally posted by missbunny *
**Zette - I just noticed your sig! Have you been using it for a while? I feel so honored (blush). (Gee, I think this almost makes up for having NEVER been mentioned in one single “favorite poster” thread.) (Blush again.)

**

I think I mentioned it in the thread I stole it from- the one about summoning demons. I laughed my ass right off, and I still laugh whenever I read it. I was like "Why didn’t I think of that?? D’Oh! I’ve been using it for a week or so. It was a real toss-up between the one I had by TCMSneeze “I get so mad I could shit sparks” and this one. I used his for a while then switched.
Zette