Are people just less tolerant of disability accessibility now ?

preens 😀

You don’t where I am, but I couldn’t be bothered to check every LA so just took her word about her area.

Show off lol 🤪😂

It's random but definitely getting less and less free bb parking. I think they've decided the chore of going to thr machine isn't a thing anymore as you can pay by phone

You don't need to have been having the problem for 3 years at all

I wish i had the money and perks non disabled people think I get

I agreed and not must for people with ASD/sensory issues etc

I took my children to the Roman baths in my wheelchair and I saw was other people's bums. Noone seemed to want to let me through to have a closer look. The building had lifts, accessible toilets etc but it was all meaningless because the place was so busy.

I think that to make many places truly accessible extended hours or twilight visits would be good. These theme parks think that are accessible but they are not really as they are just not accessible for many people due to the thousands of people that are there. A 2 hour quiet session would be really good.

I accept that my son will never again go to a theme park or ever go to a football match - it just can’t happen. The same goes with large concerts these things just can’t be accessible so the few occasions we can use the adaptations they make eg free companion etc is great

until we had a personal assistant for him our lives were a load of places we could never go. It’s been great this year to be able to go to concerts with DH - I have felt imprisoned for years.

I would love 2 premier football clubs to do a match for disabled kids / adults not with no shouting, roaring and screaming etc and fewer numbers. It would be truly amazing for some kids / young adults to have the expedience of that. It will never happen. The trouble is that even people who could go in normal times ( in the disability access area ) would also want tickets.

Sadly football clubs think that by having a dedicated area it makes them accessible - for some disabilities and not others even with ear plugs/ noise cancelling etc.

I wish that the Tower of London and places like that did quiet visit hours.

Many counties don’t keep families together and we were separated from DS and DH as he was fast tracked. DD and I quite enjoyed the time together in the queue having a quiet chat but DS was distressed by it.and DH had a rough time … that was Cancun it’s very strict there.

If DS was split from his travelling party when going through customs that would throw him completely - he would panic that they would be left behind or that there would be a problem.

he also needs at least one person either side of the security scanners in order to get him through.

much easier to keep the whole party together

I missed that, I was in theme parks in my head.

I imagine it’s easier for airport staff to keep parties together than deal with a load of disabled people separated from the people they need to be with.

Either way, looking at someone disabled, seeing something that makes their experience of life slightly more equitable with able bodied people, feeling jealous and wanting to take it away because ‘it’s not faiiiiiiiiir’ isn’t indicative of a decent human.

If you read the history the example I was giving was airport security…not my idea of a family day out but each to their own.

I’ve never known it either- we can get me, ds and my DW through because both me and DS are ND and physically disabled- we make do with one carer between us.

No where we go allows multiple adults through with one disabled child unless the the child meets very strict criteria for needing 2x carers.

I have lived in a couple of areas that went from free to charged BB parking. In both cases the abuse dropped quite markedly.

The best example is a privately run car park for a nearby hospital. They went from free BB parking (which was about 25% of the total spaces) to having to go to a booth with the real BB (no copies) to get a card. There are cameras on the exit to check the person the BB applies for is actually in the car.

Apart from the queues for a few days where cars suddenly had to pay, the abuse has dropped and there is always free space now.

It is entirely possible to easily police BB parking, if the political will is there. So in cases where it's badly managed, it's because there is fuck all interest in it. And yes, I have made that point in that manner. No point being old otherwise.

There is a difference between equity and equality.

Where is all this free BB parking anyway?

In my town ALL parking is free(because there is bugger all here) - but in the next town where you go to the doctor/gp/shopping etc BB parking costs the same as all other parking.

I travel a fair bit and can only recall not paying for parking once in the last few years.

Blue badges aren't a magic wand.

I've just recounted in another thread 2 wasted journeys with a friend- 50 miles round trip - because when we got there, there really was nowhere to park. There are only so many times you can drive around an unknown location before the anxiety starts to kick in.

Mine took 10 days.

The rules for BB vary from LA to LA- that isn’t the case everywhere.

Also, disabled people haven’t been given an advantage in your example;

if you have to have been having problems for 3 years to get a badge, then by the time disabled people have been given a BB they have struggled for 3 years before they were helped- twice as long as the injured or ill people in your example, who are better after 18 months. Disabled people don’t get better.

Also, an injury or illness doesn’t necessarily meet the criteria of ‘disability’ so doesn’t have the same legal protections.

When we’ve gone to theme parks the queue pass has just permitted me, DH, disabled DC and his sibling. I have never witnessed one disabled child taking a party of uncles/aunts/cousins/grandparents through the fast queue.

If it did happen chances are they have paid separately for regular fast-track passes.

If you aren’t disabled you pay for a family day out, and can spend the day with your family.

If you are disabled you pay for the same family day out but can’t spend the day with your family because they aren’t allowed on the ride with you… so you queue with one companion in the accessible queue and the rest of the family queue separately in the main queue.

Then all the ignorant people bitch, moan and tut at you because they think you have something they don’t 🤦‍♀️

But if you have an operation for example that will take you over a year to to 18 months to recover from and walk normally or have energy back then you are not eligible for a blue badge as you need to be having the problem last 3 years to get one.

So these people cannot " choose" to walk etc

They can choose to park close and pay more, or crucially they can park further away and walk, or they can use public transport- they have options.

Disabled people have vastly reduced or none existent options.

DD's ability to queue hinges entirely on the type and layout of the queue, and the way it's managed.

There's no challenge for her in waiting (as there can be for some) as she has no intellectual impairment or processing issue that affects this - give her a seat, (and allow her to sit in it how she wants, which is a different fight sometimes), her music and something to read and she'll be perfectly happy all day long. Too, she can physically stand for longer than most as she's physically fit and healthy.

However, she cannot stand still. She just can't. Something in her nervous system and the way she processes the world just won't let her.

She stims to ease this by dancing. It's gotten 'better' and more subtle as she's gotten older but it remains the case that if she's stood in one place for more than a minute or so, she starts moving - foot to foot, between ballet positions, spinning, tiny hops and jumps, twists and contractions, flicks of her hands and arms.

If you don't know her, it wouldn't 'read' as 'stimming' necessarily, because she's a pretty highly trained dancer these days, and so her movements are coordinated and drilled to be 'graceful' but it is. It's compounded by the fact that she nearly always has headphones in with music playing if there are other people around as she uses that to cut off outside noise she finds painful - again, it won't be visible but she's incredibly sound sensitive. She prefers this and finds it more effective than other options but it also doesn't 'flag' there's a problem.

At 7 or 8, she looked like a fidgety kid and no-one questioned. At 14.5 - they do, because it's way out of age norm for a full sized kid (she's taller than I am) to start jigging about and not be able to stop. There's also far more risk of their not being enough space for her to do it without bumping into people or thing, or just not enough space at all.

So, an outdoor queue, well spaced out, not boxed in or switchback so there are people on all sides - she'll be fine, if getting some odd looks.

A tight queue, indoors, particularly if there's a lot of sensory input like artificial lights, echoey, sudden, loud or high-pitched noises, no room to move, people in all directions, people shouting instructions or talking to her or touching her.... no chance. She's got about 5 minutes tops and then we're in trouble.