Tiny bit of me wants to point out Karma (disability related)

I think this would be fair enough.

I get the mixed emotions of not being pleased that he has had such a devastating thing happen, but also a 'well, do you get it now?'.

I have a child with autism and sensory issues around food. DH has a 'best friend' who frankly i find insufferable. He's free with ill-informed advice and lacking in self awareness. When Ds1 was 7 this friend literally sneered at us when we were all out for dinner and DS only had fries and some crudites that i had brought for him and asked the venue if i minded me giving him at the table. His child was at that time not yet weaned and the friend opined long and loud and berated us for pandering and said that he and his wife were 'take no shit parents' and we were hopeless.

7 years later we were out at a pizza place and their child (newly diagnosed with autism and with issues around food) would not eat his pizza. They were in despair. I knew what they were going through. I felt sympathy. But i also recalled very well how fucking dismissive and offensive he had been. I confess that i kept the 'not so easy now, is it?' thought only to myself and never expressed it- not even to DH.

Best not to say anything, but I would hope he has enough self-reflection abilities to refer to it himself at some point.

Not in bad taste and if he is expecting your help as a friend vs professionally, I think I'd be unable to resist being a bit of a bitch.

'Oh, I thought you didn't believe in benefits. I believe you said disabled people should either work or be in a home... '

I don't believe people have any right to expect freedom from the consequences of voicing their awful opinions and ignorant ideas.

He upset you and was vile - now he expects help, I don't think it would kill him to have to deal with the consequences of his prior behaviour, ie, apologise and admit he was a clueless and unpleasant bellend!

It's called Fuck Around Find Out - lots of people think they're just too clever and hardworking to ever be genuinely fucked by things beyond their control. Sometimes - as in this case - they learn the hard way.

You THINK he knows
people like him have very little insight when it comes to their own lives.
he’s entitled and arrogant

I don't think the post is in bad taste at all. Self-serving people stay self-serving. I wonder if he regrets his previous attitude or if he thinks he's some kind of special case.

Op hasn't said she's pleased just that now he may understand how awful his views were.
There's plenty of rhetoric at the moment about disabled people being able to work which is clearly bollocks. This person has now found out that's not true.

Why? Are disabled people only allowed to be soft, fluffy and docile helpers at best?

Is the idea that a disabled person who has already experienced multiple people - including this one personally - telling them that they have no worth, no value, entitlement to support, adjustments or accommodations to work and should be locked up away from society for being useless eaters with no help from anybody might actually be a normal, rounded human who thinks 'Well, that viewpoint hasn't exactly worked for you, has it?' before actually using their expertise to help the same person who objected to the entire notion of helping disabled people so contrary to the noble, saintly little creatures to be patted on the head?

Aww, OP, you've been thoroughly disapproved of when you should #bekind. You know, be a good little disabled person and fit right into the fluffy stereotype of the inspirational not quite adequate, child like souls who try really hard to be as good as the rest of the population taxpayers.

I'd signpost him to the relevant charities and leave him to it. He's going to need to develop some resilience in dealing with people who will look at him and think he should be in a home somewhere or assume that he's unemployable with or without the 30 week wait for Access to Work. Oh, and he'll need to learn to not be so assertive. Some people don't like the disabled to sound a trifle snarky, it smacks of them getting ideas above their station, after all.

This.
It's not saying that you're glad it's happened to him, or that he deserves to be disabled but you could point out that he is glad to have the benefit of your experience now that he has thad he misfortune of being left unable to work and what a good job there is fibancial support available even if it involves filling in complicated forms.

For what purpose? He's in a wheelchair now, I think he knows.

You don't know that. People can, and do change.

I disagree!

The op has every right to remind him of his revolting prejudice.

I would definitely point out his previous attitude.

He won't have learnt anything, or changed his mind. He will convince himself that he deserves all the help, because of everything he has contributed to the system. It's only the other, non-special, people that don't deserve help.

People don't change.

Many people ignore the fact that anyone can become disabled at anytime because otherwise we'd spend our lives in a permanent state of anxiety about "what if".

To describe his misfortune as "karma" definitely implies you think he got what he deserved which is pretty repulsive. That you would think it's appropriate to remind him of his previously unpleasant opinions is really shocking. It must have been a big adjustment for you when you received your diagnosis, imagine what it's like for him to become a wheelchair user.

Yes he was an arsehole but reminding him would make you one too. Contemplating whether you should satisfy your spiteful urge gets you halfway there already.

I'm disabled and I totally get how you feel, OP. He had horribly ableist attitudes and now he's become disabled himself. I dont think you're being gleeful at all - I'm sure you wouldn't wish the accident on him, just that you hope he realises in time that anyone can become disabled and society should help those who need it. I wouldn't say anything to him directly though, especially as it's not been long since the trauma of his accident. But totally normal and human of you to feel the way you do. Perhaps in time he'll reflect and apologise to you for his past views. In the meantime, I'd offer to help with the forms or suggest he refers to the charity you work for so it's done officially.

I would absolutely not say anything, but a small part of me would be thinking the same thing tbh. Hopefully his own odious and offensive remarks will come back to him as he starts to negotiate life as a disabled person, and hopefully he will have learned something.

the post is not in bad taste.
it’s a harsh reality and a human response.

I think you sound really unpleasant, anyone with a disability deserves compassion, whilst his view was uneducated, mean and unwarranted to be pleased that he has now joined those people unfortunate enough to live with a disability is truly awful!

Not a route I would be willing to go down, considering that there are people who really believe that disabled people must have done something wrong in a past life, this thinking about karma, is not good.

I would say something. Poor health through whatever cause can happen to anyone at any point in their life and need protecting.

Well...

Indeed.

@FellowSuffereroftheAbsurd did this nurse say outright that she would have referred him for different things, or fewer things, if he had been in a bike accident?

It really isn't in bad taste....

Instead it reminds people that anyone could suddenly find themselves with a disability or a lond term health conditions and this is why we need a good safety net and decent benefits.

There are so many people in the media, politics, and online who love criticising disabled people and the charities that support them and calling them scroungers without a second thought about the distress this causes.

Well the reality has demonstrated here that anyone could end up needing support one day.

OP If I were you I would sign post it to organisation that can support him but no get involved yourself.