To have been upset have a blue badge?

[Calypso44]

Yes sorry another disabled parking space one. And have nc'd as spoke to a friend about it who I know sometimes uses MN.
I had a GP appt this morning, I parked in a disabled bay. I have a blue badge for my car due to disability and I also struggle to walk long distances due to health condition. As I was pulling in, the man who had just pulled into the next disabled bay before me was pointing aggressively at the 'BLUE BADGE HOLDERS ONLY' sign. I ignored it as I am a blue badge holder.
As he got out of his car he came and knocked on my window and said 'you're parked in a blue badge space' I said yes I know I have a blue badge and pointed to it. He didnt apologise, walked off tutting and saying something about 'youngsters defrauding the system'. I'm 26, so not exactly a 'youngster'.

I'm very tempted to report a dad at our school. He has a blue badge but is much fitter than me, can do a 30 mile + cycle ride, then turn up at school (with the muddy bike strapped on the roof he put up there himself). Takes a disabled bay right at the front of the of the school and picks up his able bodied children.

I get this all the time, it's horrible. I'm so sorry you were upset OP.

I get this a lot. I frequently drive for a friend with a blue badge and obviously when she is with me we use blue badge parking. We are both in our 40's. I've had a man shouting at me that they're not for minor injuries whilst getting my friend's wheelchair out if the boot.
My friend pointed out she'd love to make it to beibg old aged like he was as a couple of her conditions are life limiting. He still thought she was a CF.
All you can do is direct them to the issuing team at the LA.

When I was in my teens, I thought that "disabled"=wheelchair user. Over the many years since, through meeting many people, I have learned that not all disabilities are visible.
For some ignorant people, they see the badge (with wheelchair occupant depicted), see the person (without a wheelchair) and asume fraud.
I'm sorry so many people have to put up with this shit on a daily basis.

Don't worry about it. I think some old (men in particular) have this chip on their shoulder. I had one call me a disgrace as I got a parking space before he did. I surrendered the space in the end and told him I felt sorry for him that that was his biggest issue to call me a disgrace. Just a miserable old git - let it go

Fuck off and die' is a full sentence

Calypso I feel for you and would have embarressed the gentleman in once I was in the surgery .
Yesterday when going to Liverpool on the bus I was asked to move seats as I was sitting in one of the front seats suitable for disabled people and got "well you look fit enough to me"
I have heart problems and little use of my right arm so cannot grab the rails when going further down the bus being at the front makes life easier for me when getting off but looking at me you can't see the disability and to make matters worse I am fortunate to look younger than I am.

Ok. This turned into a rant and the ignorant people of the world not anyone here. Turned out I was angrier than I realised.
I'm sick to fucking death of being told I should take the fact I don't look old enough to be disabled as a compliment. I've had it thrown at me more than once when challenged for having a blue badge or using priority seating on public transport. A few weeks ago I spent an entire journey with a people behind me discussing how awful I was for not moving. Maybe they thought my headphones meant I couldn't hear. They had the grace to look slightly embarrassed when I got up, with the aid of two sticks, to get off at my stop.

I was born disabled although it wasn't obvious if you looked at me. Then I had a couple of catastrophic health events and a few more diagnosis thrown on top. Like the world's shittiest ice cream sundae. So no, I don't feel lucky I look young. I don't feel like it's my responsibility to politely educate strangers who have judged me and expect me to listen to their thoughts on me as a person. No, I'm not lucky that at least I get free money and a better parking space. I'd rather have a body that works, isn't in pain constantly, the prospect of an early death and children who are terrified they could lose me at any time.

You wouldn't walk up to a total stranger and demand they justify their existence usually so what is about a parking space that suddenly makes that ok?

Rant over. Thank you. I feel better now ;)

I'm mid thirties and my response to the person who accusingly told me I don't look disabled was that at first glance they didn't look ignorant, but appearances can be deceptive...

@Mymycherrypie I'm youngish, my car is irrelevant, I sometimes wear heels and carry shopping... But I'm genuinely disabled and how is simply none of your business. I'd feel sorry that she has something you can't even imagine.

Ok so the advice is to report someone anonymously of abuses are happening? And then have an angry thread on MN about being reported when it’s no ones business...

Pushmybutton it’s great that you can wear heels and do lots of shopping. So can this girl because she’s not the disabled one, her dad is. He would not be able to bend low enough to get in a porche and rarely goes past the end of his garden. Let it continue, not worth getting involved, obviously. Crack on.

Balance: because not all of these people will be ignorant fools. Some of them will be looking to protect the integrity of keeping bb spaces for disabled users. Like yourselves.

There are no pictures on ours, my DMs one doesn’t. She’s just had it renewed too. She has to park ages away from her own home because the one disabled bay is always taken by Porsche lady.

The photo is on the back of the BB, it will not be on display.

Someone on another very recent BB thread (asking about what sort of disability a boy had if he could go to the gym and use a treadmill for ages) posted how to see the sex and month and year of birth of the person the Blue Badge is issued to.

Look on the front, at the top it says 'Front - display this way up.' on a fluorescent yellow background.

The expiry date is in a large font.

Under that is the long number you need to look at, it consists of six digits, a single digit and nine digits.

The last 9 digits are the ones with the information. I've not used a real badge for this, just made up the numbers, but it illustrates how the poster said it works. It does work to decode like that for a relative's badge.

If the last nine digits of the long number are 0867Y0919

08 would be month of birth of the BB holder, so August
67 would be year of birth of the BB holder 1967
Y would be female, X would be male
09 would be it expires September
19 would be it expires 2019

IF anyone thought a badge was being used fraudulently and IF they could get close enough to read that number or photograph it, they could just about guess if one of the people who got out of the car was that age and sex. But to do that, they'd have to be peering into the windscreen pretty closely, or maybe focusing while taking a photograph, either way their actions are likely to be seen as pretty much suspicious by anyone nearby.

If you want to report suspected Blue Badge misuse, type that into google and add the name of the local council where the misuse has been seen.
Some have a form, some have a hotline, some ask for these details,

The Blue Badge reference number, expiry date and who it was issued by
The registration number of the vehicle displaying the badge
Where the vehicle is usually parked and what times.
A short description of the person using the badge.

The picture on my BB is on the back of the card. So when the card is fitted in to the larger card with the little clock thing, you can't see the picture of me. Thank goodness

If people actually wanted to help make the lives of genuine disabled people like my son, easier, there are better things they could be doing with their time than harassing people with blue badges.

Exactly @Spikeyball .

If you KNOW is being abused @Mymycherrypie then by all means report it. I just didn't get that impression. But if you only suspect it, the pain and hassle you could be causing someone if you're wrong is never worth it in my opinion.

I used to get this a lot. Now I'm in my 50's not so much but 20s and 30s a lot.

I had a stock of phrases ready
You don't look disabled, reply you don't look like a cunt/ignorant twat/ judgmental prick - edit as appropriate

Tell you what, I'll swap you, you can have my badge and my disability

Fuck off and report me if you are bothered

You would think the sympathy would flow the other way because it must be so much harder to be a young person with disabilities than an older one.

You know Calypso, it always seems to be the old men who do this sort of thing. Our hospital allows certain people to go straight to the front of the queue to get our bloods done, & the old gets would be puffin’ & blowin’ ... Until one day the nurse shouted ‘Do you want to swap your little bit of cholesterol for their cancer?’. The thing is they knew, yet it didn’t stop them from mumbling & moaning that we were going first.

It’s the same when using a disabled toilet too. I’ve had 2 old men moaning at me for using my key. Although I think they both had quite a shock when I told them what was wrong with me & asked them what their excuse was. One of them was talking loudly about me to someone saying young people (I am far from young) of today & how lazy I was to use a disabled toilet rather than climb the stairs. The other was waiting outside the disabled toiket & actually pushing his own wheelchair FFS! They are such selfish cunts.

Surprise! It’s not her badge!

If you KNOW is being abused @Mymycherrypie then by all means report it. I just didn't get that impression.

Is that because anyone with a BB is instantly infallible and has hidden disabilities? Sometimes things really are exactly what they look like.

Obviously questioning someone on the street about their disability is rude and intrusive, but there has to be a way of holding people accountable for abuses without calling them selfish cunts on the internet. Sometimes people are checking for a reason ie my mum can’t park outside her house until they’ve painted the new box, and you can’t know that just by looking at her on the street either.

No @Mymycherrypie , it's because you said this "Having watched her, I think it’s her Dads". Watching me, people might think it's my Nana's- but it's not, it's mine. Hence, you gave the impression that you didn't KNOW it was her dad's, you just THOUGHT it was.

I can only go by what you actually say.

Surprise! It’s not her badge!

If you have evidence, then report her.

I've had the same Calypso when using the disabled toilet. One old man didn't say anything to me, but was talking loudly to someone else about me using the toilet, & saying how lazy young (I'm in my 50s) people are these days. I flew at him with rage, & told him in no uncertain terms why I needed to use the disabled toilet whilst he was obviously just suffering from miserable old git syndrome. Then another time I came out of the toilet to be confronted with by another very angry old man shouting at me that the toilets were for disabled people. Again I went for the jugular & told him what I had wrong with me & asked him what his excuse was seeing as he was pushing his own wheelchair, bit of a dodgy leg is it I asked. But it does make me feel like not using the disabled toilets, & although I don't want to use it I've got a Macmillan card & always clutch it ready to flash at people before they even think of saying anything.

Sorry for posting twice, I posted from my phone earlier, but it didn't appear to be there. I just checked & still I couldn't see it & I felt so strongly about this that I began again

OP do you know this man? Do you respect or like him?

If not, why do you care one little bit what he thinks or says?

He's an ignorant idiot.

I think it's good that some accessible toilets now have a sticker on them saying "remember not all disabilities are visible". We need more of those signs. In fact maybe we need a public information advertising campaign.