Woman shouted at me for parking in a disabled spot

@AusMumhere

Another possible response for you to store in your toolbox for future use might be:

"Trunky want a bun?"

😉

The reasonable answer to this is to point out that old doesn’t mean disabled. A better one is to give them the middle finger and walk wheel away !!

I'm missing a big chunk of leg post accident, my patella was stood on by a 650kg horse, then she slid down my leg, slicing it off for some distance. Normally and especially since I've lost a lot of weight, I'm better, but walking on pavements and going at any speed above a gentle stroll immediately makes me extremely lame. At my worst, I'm on crutches, other days I appear to walk normally (or so I thought, my DH tells me I walk incredibly badly) so yes, good and bad days and I can fake it reasonably well over a very short distance. Obviously some blue badge holders don't have 'good' days.

You’d be surprised how many members of the public have challenged me and demanded to see and handle the badge, which they are not entitled to do. The reverse contains personal details and you only have to surrender it on request to police/parking official. Neither are they entitled to ask what your disability is, but they do. I think the problem arises because people think the badge should be on display permanently in the car and when they see people driving into a disabled space without one on display they get ahead of themselves. The advice on blue badges is not to leave them long term in the car. Mine lives in my handbag and is only displayed when I need to park in a disabled concession or where permitted on the road.

Well, they are wrong anyway. It is for people who are disabled and have a BB, not older people.

I often have people challenge me when I park in a blue badge space (with a badge displayed). I’m in my early twenties and they (so far) have all been fairly old. The best/worst I’ve heard ‘stop stealing your gran’s badge’ and ‘you’re too young to park there it’s for us older folk who need it’. They generally go quiet when I pull my wheelchair out of the boot and sit in it or start my rather drunk looking walking with crutches and an AFO.

Parent and child spaces aren’t protected by law, so technically anyone can park in them. I’ve only ever done it on the few occasions when I can’t find a disabled space to get the wheelchair out, because l can appreciate that parents have the same difficulty with prams and baby paraphernalia as I have with the chair. But it’s amazing how many people don’t realise that P&C spaces are only a concession, unlike disabled spaces which are legally enforceable.

I remember that, and he was still arguing he was right in interview

My mum had a blue badge, no obvious disabilities but she had early onset dementia
Meant closer spaces and dad not having to try and get her across traffic etc

I know, but you get arseholes still asking to see the badge to make sure it belongs to the person etc. It is none of their business.

You HAVE to display your Blue Badge on your dashboard to use a disabled parking space. No one has to demand to see it. If you do not display it, you can not use the space.

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that we were all a bit better educated than this self-important twat (the woman, not you op!) and that the “not all disabilities are visible” message would have got through. But, I guess, you can’t educate mince.

maybe you should have shouted cheerily, “it’s ok, I’m blind!” as you got out of the drivers seat. Let her try and compute that!

At my former workplace, we did allow customers to park in PnC spaces if the BB spaces were full. I don't remember any parent kicking up a fuss like that bitch.

During the first lockdown, we had to create a place for customers to queue to get into the store on the underground car park. The safest was to block the row which included PnC spaces. One customer did moan about it. I said to her - we only can have 50 customers in at once and the car park was only about a quarter full (half of these cars were staff's cars) at it was as over the week, on average about 60% customers walked it or parked at another council car park.

I have a SUV type car, and l get this attitude quite often. It usually shuts people up when I tell them that it’s the smallest car in which I can fit a wheelchair lift. Also amazes me how people automatically assume that if you’re disabled you’re driving a motability car - I’ve had a few barbed comments about how my type of vehicle ‘shouldn’t be allowed on Motability, as the tax payer is footing the bill’ And in the process displaying how little they know about Motability, because it’s actually nothing to do with the tax payer !!

I watched a documentary about "one punch killers" a few years ago that featured a retired bloke who challenged someone who was legitimately parked in a disabled space, punched him once and the poor bloke died. Imagine getting so irate about something you are so wrong about.

I’m a wheelchair user, but behind the wheel of the car I don’t present as disabled. On the occasions when someone has said ‘you don’t look very disabled’ I’ve waited until I’m in my wheelchair and if they’re still around, as I wheel past, I say ‘do I look disabled enough now?’

It was the DM who was the disabled one so I assumed she was the disabled badge owner.

One of my friend's DM is disabled, goes to bingo once a fortnight and friend goes shopping whilst her DM is at bingo - she parks in another car park as the shops are quarter of a mile away. On collecting her DM, friend parks her car in a disabled bay, displays the blue badge. No one (yet) has questioned this. Her DM uses a walker which probably keeps some potential abusers to keep their mouths shut.

If someone demands to see your Blue Badge, then demand to see their parking attendant/traffic warden/police ID.

Some people do get silly when it comes to BB spaces. I was walking past the security station in a supermarket and man there was telling the security guard "they have a Blue Badge, but it is not the sort of car a disabled person would be driving". So only certain types of cars can park there now? You can tell who is disabled by the car they have?
My friend has a BB, and she has a 2 seater sporty car.

I am sorry this happened to you. You did not need to justify anything. You did nothing wrong. Try to forget about it x

You can get them on Amazon - some differently worded ones but the basic message is the same. I have a couple of friends who display them with the badge on the dashboard specifically to stop nosy parkers from challenging.

I'd memorise a few potential comebacks.

"That's a wheelie spot" - "I know - that's why I parked in it"
"Where's your wheelie" - "Where's your manners?" or "None of your business" or (as you said) "Not all disabilities are visible and not all disabled people are in a wheelchair"

Unfortunately shopping centres, supermarkets, etc, don't often police their own disabled spaces so I'd be pleased if someone did call them out when they're misused.

That said, this woman sounds really rude and YANBU to be annoyed at her.

Someone shouted at me and my DM one day as we got out of the car in a disabled space. Something along the lines of "well you don't look very disabled do you?", just as my DM opened the boot and extracted my brother's massive wheelchair to pick him out of the back seat. DM just smiled sweetly and said "well, that's very kind of you - what about this one? Does he look disabled enough for you?". Cue a lot of blushing and hurriedly walking away!

If someone politely enquires whether you're entitled to use it, I don't have an issue, but any passive aggressive, or just aggressive, comments deserve the same in return.

@Rosscameasdoody That is dreadful!
I suspect the parents who hurled abuse at me did have children with ASD or ADHD. But unless you have a Blue Badge, you can not park there. They are not for anyone with a disability. You have to meet the criteria so your disability is sever enough to merit a Blue Badge.

I was replying to a poster who said that her friend used her own badge to park in a disabled space to wait for their DM who wasn’t disabled. It’s misuse of the badge to use it for the benefit of someone else. If you’re the badge holder and you’re not getting out of the car, you shouldn’t be parking in a disabled bay or displaying the badge.

I once parked in a parent and child space as a last resort because there were no disabled spaces left. I was followed into Morrisons by a woman insisting I couldn’t park there and demanding I move. She made an awful scene hurling abuse at me and the poor customer service adviser who tried to intervene to tell her I wasn’t doing anything wrong !!

Yep! Endangering any kids who walk to school. It is incredibly selfish people.

It is always parents collecting children who park in disabled spaces without Blue Badges. I used to say something, but I got fed up of having abuse hurled at me. They would always scream about invisible disabilities, but they NEVER had a Ble Badge.
I am not ignorant about invisible disabilities. I have visible and invisible disabilities. But you need a Blue Badge to park in a disabled space.