Disabled priority in lifts?

[harshbuttrue1980]

I had a disagreement with a friend this weekend and genuinely want to know if I am BU. My friend can't walk, and uses a mobility scooter. She isn't in any pain at all, and has no other health issues. She has a great job and a really active life.
We went to a shopping centre this weekend, and the lift was full, so we had to wait to use the next lift. She said afterwards that I should have asked the other people already in the lift to get out so she could get in. I said that I didn't agree with this, as she is equally able to wait as everyone else. She was a bit taken aback.
To clarify, if there was someone on crutches, heavily pregnant, a child having an autistic meltdown or someone else who would struggle with waiting, then I think they should have priority.
Am I being unreasonable to think that someone in a scooter shouldn't ask everyone else to vacate a lift so they don't have to sit in their scooter and wait their turn?

[PPie10]

If you're talking about lifts up from some tube lines, train stations, hotels, hospitals or multi storey car parks then almost everybody uses them and the chances of someone in one having a hidden disability is pretty low.

Based on what?

[harshbuttrue1980]

ZigZag, sometimes the disabled person prefers their friend to be there (Agreed, not the big crowd of friends you are talking about!). When I go places with my friend, I often have to do things like opening doors while she moves her scooter out. In the case of a lift, she can't get out fast enough, and I hold the door open for her.

I suppose I don't automatically see lifts as only for the use of disabled people, unlike disabled toilets etc. The lift in the department store yesterday was full of lots of people, and there were no signs on it saying it was only for the disabled. On the other hand, my workplace (a school) has a lift which is purely for disabled staff and students. I wouldn't dream of using it, but lifts in shopping centres etc are for everyone, and waiting to get in one just seems like a normal nuisance of going to a shopping centre on a bank holiday weekend, just like waiting to get served at the till.

I've always made the decision on the basis of thinking, "does this person have more of a problem queuing than I do" and, if the answer is yes (crutches, preg, autistic child, elderly etc), then I let them go before me. If not, then I think its first come, first served. My friend asking me to tell the other people to get off the lift for her made me think that there must be another point of view, and I'm always open to considering that I might be wrong.

[IcaMorgan]

I use a wheelchair and have frequently been left waiting for several lifts at a time unless on the ground or highest floors. At the Louvre a member of staff had to empty a lift for me when I couldn't get in 5 in a row, I wouldn't mind but it was only 6 steps to walk down. At the O2 recently after the concert there were 4 wheelchair users waiting for a lift and after 2 going without any of us and the 3rd arriving full I blocked the door from closing and asked that anyone who was capable of using the stairs or escalator do so, so that the wheelchair users could access their only way of leaving the building. The lift emptied completely and we managed to get 3 of the wheelchairs into the 1 lift. Everyone waiting for the lift (inc able bodied people) cheered.

Your friend probably wanted you to ask instead of her as wheelchair/scooter users frequently get blanked when asking whereas an able bodied person will get listened to

[harshbuttrue1980]

Hush, great to hear the perspective of a wheelchair user on this issue! No, there was no reason why she was in a rush - we had done some shopping and she just wanted to go up to the next floor and have a look around there.

[manicinsomniac]

based on the fact that most people are able bodied, sorry. Obviously people with hidden disabilities use those lifts. It's just that everyone else does do so it makes the percentage of disabled people in the lift small. Whereas in the other group of lifts you generally wouldn't find people who didn't have a need of it.

[Toffeecrispy]

Agree with u op

[Binkybix]

I'm amazed that able bodied people wouldn't get out of a lift to make space for someone in a wheelchair! Why not?

[Noodledoodledoo]

I think most people are saying YANBU to being expected to ask others to get out, when the friend in the scooter wouldn't. Why did she expect you to do it and not do it herself.

I don't need to use a lift personally but do when I have the buggy with me - have been known to negotiate escalators with it but going up is more of a challenge. What drives me mad is when I have been waiting for ages and seemingly able bodied people barge in front as the lift door opens, bit like getting on the tube, meaning there is then no room for me and buggy when there would have been if they had taken their turn so to speak.

A couple of shopping centres I use the lifts and escalators are so spread out I can see why able bodied will jump in the lift as if not you end up doing a lot of doubling back!

I agree with splitting up though - you can meet her at the lift exit once she has gone in - do it frequently with the buggy if its busy.

[andintothefire]

It does slightly depend on what the lift is being used for IMHO. Somebody wanting to go 4 or 5 floors up to the top of a hotel should not have to use the stairs and I don't really see an argument for why somebody who is disabled should have priority. Similarly, somebody who is carrying a suitcase has just as much right (and need) to use the lift. In both of those examples I probably wouldn't think to get out or even give a disabled person priority. However I do think it is quite selfish of people not to get out of the lift if they are only going up one or two floors and they can see a person in a mobility scooter waiting. In that situation I would vacate the lift.

But OP - I agree with everyone else in that I think in your example YANBU.

[YesIcan]

I think your friend wanbu.

It drove me bonkers when I was pushing babies to queue in our local department store.
Christmas was the worst, Santa was on the top floor!! There was often several mums waiting. The store had escalators and stairs and 1 lift (which was actually a little out of the way). Staff were the biggest offenders. The tea room was on the lower ground floor and I've seen staff hold the doors open as they waited for friends to catch up.
Definitely priority for people who are unable to use the stairs or escalators.

[JuxtapositionRecords]

I don't think it's a priority order when you are already in the lift moo, if you are in there and you need it (wheelchair, buggy whatever) then fine, after all someone has to wait for the next lift so may as well be the person who isn't in there already.

However if I'm out of the lift and waiting with DC/buggy, I would always let the person in the wheelchair go in front of me.

[LeaLeander]

First come, first served unless some sort of emergency is under way.

If people are queuing up for a lift in an orderly fashion then why would a wheelchair, scooter or buggy user be waiting longer than if they were not using such devices? At some point or another they are going to end up at the head of the queue. Or are people actually swarming around them filling the lifts before they can move forward, even when they are at the head of the line?

[expatinscotland]

I wouldn't have needed to be asked. If I were in a lift and saw someone waiting who was in a scooter, crutches, etc, I'd have got out.

[witsender]

Having once been stuck in a shopping centre on the first floor for nearly half an hour you are being very unreasonable OP. Those who can walk, can...you know, walk if the wait is long. Those who can't...can't. We were stuck there because most people got in on the ground floor, meaning when they came up to us they were nearly full, with enough space for a few standing to get on. Not enough for an electric wheelchair. We even tried to get on a down elevator and just stay on, but people were heading down to the car park. People were very quick to swarm round for a space in front of us, and given the speed they were going the stairs wouldn't have been beyond them.

The lifts in that centre now have signs saying to give priority to those in wheelchairs or with buggies.

[hazeyjane]

Lea - I think in some cases it is because if the lift is already half full, it is easier for a person to squeeze in than for D's and I and his buggy to squeeze in. In our case in The Ashmolean, the lift just kept going up and down maybe opening to let one person off (so no room for us) but mostly just going from the bottom to top floor, and not stopping!

[Noodledoodledoo]

LeaLeander the swarming does happen a lot in the shopping places I go to very irregularly - I am not a fan of shopping so its not the lifts situation that puts me off.

Have been to London today and was waiting for a very small lift with the buggy (just me as DH was walking up the stairs with DD) and another buggy user tried to barge in front before the lift had even arrived. Only one could fit at a time! The outcome - they decided to barge their buggy into my ankles twice whilst waiting!

[hazeyjane]

Harsh, why have you only acknowledged the one wheelchair user who agreed with you!

[witsender]

I am genuinely amazed that more people wouldn't think to either make space for a chair user, given that the majority of us have functioning legs, or at least let them on first.

Buggies aren't comparable...worst comes to worst you can bump them down steps, and often a passer by will help. Or take child out and fold and carry of an umbrella style. In a wheelchair you are quite literally stuck.

Last time this thread came around it was actually suggested that disabled people avoid busy shopping centres.

[JuxtapositionRecords]

witsender actually most people are agreeing with op that you can't ask a lift full of people to get out for a wheelchair user to get in. I don't see anywhere someone saying they wouldn't make space or not let a wheelchair user of first.

[Fiona80]

YANBU she could have asked herself and as many have said the people in the life could have all sorts of disabilities. But I can understand if she gets frustrated waiting. I often can't be bothered waiting for lifts with the pushchair and usually use the escalator to go up, wouldn't do it on the way down

As for able bodied people using lifts and not stairs, if they really r being lazy, there are usually escalators around so don't see any need for it.

[witsender]

In many cases make space would mean vacate...like in my example. If you are able to use the stairs pain free why wouldn't you in that instance?

[SauvignonBlanche]

That's the situation I got caught in too, I was half way up a 6 story building and each time the lift stopped one person got out and there was no room for a wheelchair, this happened 6-7 times, I lost count actually.

[birdsdestiny]

I would be utterly mortified if my children did not get out of a lift for someone in a wheelchair, or someone with a pushchair. I would feel I had failed to teach them manners.

[witsender]

It was so frustrating and upsetting. My mum was in tears by the end, she is trying so hard to continue an independent life after becoming disabled but events like that really knock her back, and make her nervous to go places on her own. All because some are too lazy to walk and don't think beyond their own noses and "why should I".