To think there is not enough disabled bays for how many badge users there are

In fact @Sirzy I have many times affirmed that ambulant BB holders can have just as serious symptoms and be just as unwell as wheelchair users, so my comments are the literal direct opposite of so called "top trumps". And yet that accusation is hurled again and again because it's easier than engaging with my points. I have been very clear I am not attacking any legitimate users but pointing out there should be a direct and frank conversation about each group's needs, and that these are not all the same. For some reason this is taken as an attack when it is not one. Even when I simply cannot be more explicit in saying that I am not claiming one patient is more unwell than another.

Something like getting out a chair from a car is a physical equipment related action that some people have to do and others do not. It doesn't have anything to do with concepts like validity.

@JubileeJuice I am not surprised one bit. Saddened but not surprised. I am not one to rush to report comments as I prefer to let the debate stand, but if people report me and get my comments deleted out of ableist motives, then I will challenge MNHQ about why. And yet oddly enough they will let the ableist hate directed at me stand and only delete me... just like in your situation.

It is an entrenched issue with the site. The reason why others shout louder is because there are simply more abled people! And more invisibly disabled than wheelchair users. We are a minority within a minority and perceived as entitled / having special perks. Hence the eagerness even by other disabled people to attack us. It's bitterly ironic how we get accused of top trumps.

Except there are literally multiple examples of hate against wheelchair users on this thread and every other thread like this, and also of biassed moderation ;)

Again, not my point. I don't know why you are so determined to twist my words when I have not actually said anything negative about other blue badge holders, but it's still wheelchair users like me getting attacked. This is exactly what I'm talking about , the lack of solidarity and chronic hate and harassment.

the pervasive ableism on this site!

There will be howls of protest from all quarters, however MN is merely a subset of society, and there is a growing pervasive ableism in society. To be brutally frank, as soon as there is any impingement on their able life, people lose interest in anyone else. There will of course be exceptions. However the plural of anecdote is not data.

Nobody at all has attacked the idea of wheelchair users needing something. They have simply pointed out that others who don’t need a wheelchair may still have a need for it. You don’t need it more because you’re in a wheelchair. That’s where the top trumps comes into it.

if someone has been assessed as meeting the criteria for a blue badge they have as much right and need to use that space as someone else with a blue badge. They shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for parking!

It is always non wheelchair users who want to attack wheelchair users in these threads.

Nope. It works all ways hence all the ignorant comments about people with invisible disabilities not looking like they needed a blue badge and the suggestion that they shouldn’t qualify for a badge. I can list them here if you like but I’m sure that you can see them for yourself even if you don’t care about them.

It was frustrating for me this morning when I couldn't do my shopping because there were no blue badge spaces available, despite waiting and driving around for 10 minutes. No bread or milk in the house so I'll have to try again this afternoon

I had a comment removed the other day, after a number of people had been very ableist, where I said I was only rude to ableists, with a smiley face. That's literally all I said.

Guess which comments remained? Yep, all the ableist ones.

(Although it wouldn't surprise me if MNHQ use any excuse to delete my comments since they apparently hate disabled people commenting.)

Except it's often other disabled people (with invisible disabilities) emboldened by what should be a good thing (advocacy) to go back to the days of hating and laughing at cripples. (And before I get deleted for using a slur, this is a community I belong to and it's a term we have reclaimed.)

It is always non wheelchair users who want to attack wheelchair users in these threads. And we get attacked, our comments deleted, etc, despite the fact that we are also the ones getting harassed on here.

I'm not surprised at all. Because I'm familiar with the pervasive ableism on this site! I literally expect it every time a thread on this comes up. But yeah, still disappointed in you lot. You could be better but you don't want to. Just like the mods could choose to be less ableist in their moderation but they don.t

And it's almost funny that we get accused of "top trumps" when all we are doing is talking about literal material reality such as needing to get a wheelchair out of a car. No one is saying that the symptom can't be just as bad for an ambulant person, which is the exact opposite of top trumps. But the very idea of a wheelchair user needing something is so abhorrent you have to attack us.

I’m in the NW and there are never enough BB spaces around us. Chester Zoo, for example, has an entire BB car park and I’ve never yet managed to get a space in it! There are more elderly and infirm adults as we all live longer, and ime the OP is correct that the facilities have not expanded to meet the need.

People think you shouldn't have a badge despite the fact that you qualify for a badge. Same with PIP/UC etc - they think people are 'fraudulent' but what they actually mean (yet rarely recognise) is that they don't agree with the criteria/threshold for said benefits.

People have been emboldened to say a lot of things, that before they would have hesitated to voice aloud. The last Government, along with the press were instrumental in shaping the way that the disabled are seen by the general public. They are not the only minorities in the firing line.

No I don’t think that I’m turning it into a competition or saying that wheelchair user’s needs don’t matter but considering that we’ve had comments about people not looking as though they need a blue badge and suggestions that blue badges should be left for wheelchair users evidently some people want to play disability top trumps.

I appreciate that wheelchair users have some specific needs but that doesn’t mean that others with disabilities who currently aren’t wheel chair users, don’t require accommodations like blue badges too. We also deserve to have our needs accommodated and no some of us can’t stop dead in the middle of a car park because we’ll be run over or can’t traverse a car park for other reasons.

I’d be in favour of making some spaces in every car park specifically for people who use wheelchairs because they do need extra space and often for a ramp on top of that but again that doesn’t mean that people with invisible or who have visible disabilities but don’t need a wheelchair shouldn’t have accessible spaces and other accommodations too.

It's always this.

People think you shouldn't have a badge despite the fact that you qualify for a badge. Same with PIP/UC etc - they think people are 'fraudulent' but what they actually mean (yet rarely recognise) is that they don't agree with the criteria/threshold for said benefits.

I do think part of the issue in this thread in particular is some posters with disabilities inadvertently (I hope!) turning it into a game of disabilities top trumps.

If people who have been rightly according to the (often very tough to navigate!) systems in place been awarded blue badges they shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for parking in the spaces.

Every thread about disability shows how we are treated as second class citizens and viewed that way by most mumsnetters, and that carries through to the mods too. If you ever try to speak up for more vulnerable disabled people you will get attacked persistently shouted down and then deleted. It is bullying and totally predictable.

There is discrimination against disabled posters who comment on here and I have discussed it with others by WhatsApp and text because it's impossible to even talk about it on here. The mods are totally unsupportive and react just like in this thread!

@hebemumsnet @lilymumsnet (sorry don't know any other mod accounts or how to tagmnhq) There was no justification for deleting my comment.

It is genuinely insane that MNHQ deleted my comment. There's no justification for that and it just shows how ableist the mods are. I am a disabled woman talking about how that affects my life and I have my comment deleted for saying someone else is lucky to be able to have children? Which I am too disabled to do?

Im not even surprised given what I know about this site and how the moderation is consistently biassed against women with disabilities. But I am disappointed again that it never improves and they take every opportunity to silence us.

@rubberducksarebastards if you don't know how lucky you are to have kids, you are extremely naive. Many disabled women would give a limb to be in your situation.

I beg your pardon. You know absolutely nothing about me and you know absolutely nothing about my children. If you really need to know I became disabled AFTER having children.

My children are having to watch me become progressively more disabled. How many 11 year olds do you know who routinely hoists their mum? Call that lucky?

Because in many cases it's the passenger who has the blue badge not the driver.

You're the one who wants to turn it into a competition. No one is saying you're not in severe pain. But for example, someone in severe pain who uses a chair or doesn't use a chair will have a different need to access a wider space to get the chair out of their vehicle. That doesn't mean the ambulant person has less pain, but the chair user literally cannot get out the chair and so can't leave their vehicle at all without an extra wide space. Surely you can see that you are turning it into "who is in more pain?" And thus making it a competition, without considering practicalities like this?