To think the lift is for anyone who needs it

[EeyoresEars]

Queuing up to use the lift at a busy station this week. There were about 6-8 people in front of me and I’m not sure how many behind. I waited for lift as I’m pregnant and couldn’t have carried my buggy down the long flight of stairs.

A woman who was using a wheelchair was a couple of people behind me in the queue and I heard her starting to complain, not directed at anyone, just talking loudly so everyone could hear. She kept saying she was going to miss her train because of all the lazy people who should carry their cases down the stairs instead of using the lift.

Then she started complaining about people not carrying buggies down the stairs. I kept ignoring her, as did everyone else, which I think made her more angry. She shouted to a staff member and asked what she was going to do about the lazy people in the queue. The staff member said there isn’t priority access for the lift and it’s safest for people not to carry heavy luggage on stairs if they don’t feel able to. The woman using the wheelchair kept on complaining and saying she was taking it further.

Aibu to think anyone who needs the lift can use it and if you have to queue then that’s just life?

YANBU, first come first served for lifts in stations. She should have left earlier. Not all disabilities are visible so she shouldn't just have assumed people were lazy and sounds quite rude for causing a scene.

I don’t think they were pushing past her. She was in a queue behind them. Presumably they were looking ahead.

I'd be pissed off where i her. When I'm in my wheelchair i can't use stairs or should i have to go down on my bum incase i miss my train. I think people should have made room she hardly has a choice. People already treat you like a second class citizen because you are wheelchair bound talk over you ignore you. That's probably why she has to shout her disdain you become invisible when you are disabled.

My manners would put the person in a wheelchair who was complaining that they would miss their train in front of me. Obviously as a pregnant woman with a pushchair you should go behind her, because you chose your predicament. It's all about the priorities. People with luggage should let people in wheelchairs ahead.

Seriously? Surely the point of a queue is that it is first come, first served! While I sympathise with those in a wheelchair, and would probably let them go in front, they don't have the right to jump a queue. Everyone should give themselves enough time.

Willow2017
Everyone was getting the same train so she wasnt in any bigger hurry than anyone else

Do you think it’s likely that a person in a wheelchair might need more time to get on a train that an able bodied person because I think they almost certainly would 😕

It’s not on that the woman was rude but that’s a separate issue to her getting priority use of the lift (alongside any other people with mobility issues)

If there was a queue for a small lift with a wheelchair user and a buggy waiting to get on amongst a load of others, I can’t imagine that anyone who could easily use the stairs would want to jam themselves in, for their own comfort apart from any other ethical considerations.

Anyone suggesting OP had a choice and could have carried her child in a buggy down the stairs, while pregnant (not even counting the issues - pregnancy related and not she is suffering) is taking the piss.

At my station there's a sign saying you mustn't carry luggage or buggies up/down the stairs and need to use lifts. And it should be first come first serve for the people who need it.

The woman was being unreasonable expecting you to carry a buggy down a flight of stairs. What if you had fell? You could of hurt you and worse still it could of affected your unborn baby. Yanbu

Well if everyone needs to use the lift for various reasons then no one should get priority, first come first served. But if some people are able to use the stairs then really they should do so.

I'm impressed there was a queue, I travelled to London recently and there were about 3 of us around the lift, door opens and suddenly loads of people run in, not many people give a shit about people on public transport, ditto manners.

Do you think it’s likely that a person in a wheelchair might need more time to get on a train that an able bodied person because I think they almost certainly would

I expect the OP (pregnant,with SPD) with a pram would need a lot of time to get on the train too.

People on this thread seem to be making a thousand different excuses as to why it was ok for a woman in a wheelchair to be pushed past and ignored when she was in need.

There is no indication that anyone 'pushed' past the lady in the wheelchair. She just joined a long queue. I don't know about you but I don't tend to look behind me in queue's, if I am waiting for a lift I look ahead to see when it is arriving.

Instead of politely asking to go to the front of the queue, she started mouthing off about how 'lazy' everyone was. This behaviour was hardly likely to endear her to anyone in front of her to let her go first.

All those saying they should just get people to help carry things are missing the point that lots of stations will tell you to get the lift as they don't want luggage, buggies in the stairwell.

Would it not be patronizing to say “you go ahead”?
"I'm not after the next train, you're welcome to go ahead of me" surely works for anyone begins you excluding their frustration and panic at missing their train?

LaurieMarlow

If you are going to quote my post then don’t leave out the bit where I said other people with mobility issues need priority too. 😡

The OP clearly should also have priority.

@OrangeSamphire oh but apparently because the wheelchair user didn't fit the saintly beatific smiling cheerful disabled person stereotype and probably wasn't god forbid ~gasp~ inspirational its ok to be vile, say disabled people shouldn't ever be pissed off or frustrated and should quite frankly put up and shut up and blend into the background.

9 out of 10 things that piss me off on a daily basis are down to the thoughtlessness or uncaring actions of able bodied people.

Those who design building layouts with no consideration for clearance for a chair.
Those who glued the card machine to its mount.
Those who store cleaning equipment in the loo.
Those who push past when I'm waiting to the side of a lift to position myself correctly.
Those who step over me or push in front of me whilst trying to look at an exhibit/watch a parade
Those who park on the pavement or blocking a dropped kerb
Those with a pram in the bus wheelchair space
Those who use the blue badge bay for the cashpoint, or to grab a pizza or because they'll 'only be a minute'
Those who apologise to others for the delay in causing by trying to get on or off a train or bus.

The one time a building has access challenges because of its age doesn't piss me off half as much as the other nine completely ignorant and selfish actions that able bodied people do that make my life harder than it already is.

Am I seriously supposed to just ignore the fact that a small bit significant proportion of able bodied people deliver make life harder for me and not get frustrated at that? It's every day of my life not just a short term thing. Every day it's something else.

Last week I was in St George’s Chapel. The wonderful guides were amazing, getting ramps out to help me get around. But people were pushing and shoving past them trying to put the ramp down- it was incredible. Every single time they tried to put the ramp down and they told me it's always like that.

A few weeks ago I was in Rome and the consideration I got there was amazing. Everyone was thoughtful about how I was going to get around a place, completely different from my experiences at home. The only time the Vatican guides had to roar at a tour group to stop and let me by was a British tour group. Says it all, really.

I’m amazed that posters think people with disabilities should wait their turn after able bodied people. I’m shocked by that.

I’m really not being goady but for those who have expressed this opinion, can I ask why? My dad is quite severely disabled with MS, is in a wheelchair. There are times when it makes sense for him to have priority - he can’t wait to use the loo so needs priority for a disabled toilet, and he needs priority over parking spaces with room for the wheelchair. But general priority over everything? Being able to skip a queue when there’s no impact on his disability? Why would that be? He’d find it weirdly patronising to be given priority for something he doesn’t need priority for just due to the fact he’s in a wheelchair. He’s still human, why shouldn’t he be treated equally and wait his turn?

Unless you mean it in a ‘life as a disabled person is shit, here’s a small token to make it better’ way, I can’t see how you’d link the two.

I can't see why the OP, the wheelchair user and perhaps a couple of other people with mobility issues could have used the lift and the rest just hoof it.

Still think it's very mean minded of the OP to then come and start a mean disability slating thread on Mumsnet- particularly if as rather spectacularly drip fed she is disabled herself.

It wasn’t until I started using a buggy that I realised just how many people use the lift. But that’s life. We are lucky that our local supermarket has a priority queue for buggy and wheelchair users (because the slalom to get to the tills is impossible to use). You win some you lose some.

Still think it's very mean minded of the OP to then come and start a mean disability slating thread on Mumsnet

op hasn't done any disability slating at all.

she got shouted at by a woman who was disabled. op was using the lift for good reason.

are we not allowed to call a disabled person out on being rude, because they are disabled because its "slating"?

Scribble I think your last sentence covers it. Again when I've been in Rome or Paris wheelchair users do skip the queue and whilst I feel that's not strictly fair on those with invisible disabilities that are just about managing without a chair it really helped when you're dealing with the unavoidable crap (not being able to use the trams, trains or buses because of how the very old terminuses were built for example, I had to pay extra to Uber Van everywhere)

Flaming the OP hasn't salted herself. But unless she's extremely new to all this she must know how this is going to end up.

salted slated

Lifts are for anyone even physically fit people carrying nothing, who really are simply lazy.

My grandmother always said that people in a hurry to get somewhere should have left earlier, rather then try and push others to get out of their way as if their need trumps the safety of others.

Yet again I see people referring to 'disabled lifts' and 'priority access lifts'. Would someone please clarify exactly what you mean by those, and what public information is posted to imply that meaning?

If you're referring to the white on blue stick wheelchair symbol, that doesn't say anything about who can and can't use a lift, or anything else designated by that symbol. That symbol is the International Symbol of Accessibility, and its meaning and use are set out in ISO Standard 7001 : 2007. It will cost you 178 Swiss Francs if you want to buy it, but your local Council should have a copy for you to refer to, or a disability policy officer you can discuss it with.

Again, yet again, what that symbol means is:

^With two exceptions, the International Symbol of Accessibility means that the designated area or facility is mainly, but may not be wholly, accessible to someone in a wheelchair.

The two exceptions are a lift and a toilet. In those two cases the designated area or facility including all its equipment, services and controls, are accessible to someone in a wheelchair.^

And that's all that sign says. I'm obviously disabled and have been given priority in a queue on many occasions, for which I'm grateful, but I've also pointed out, when someone in the queue has been a rude pillock like the woman referred to in the OP, that the facility is for everyone who needs it regardless of the reason they need it.

And they're not 'disabled' lifts or anything else; they 'accessible' lifts, toilets, or whatever. If you're a parent transporting a child in a buggy, or luggage, or anything else that makes it difficult for you to get up or downstairs safely, lifts, marked accessible or not, are meant for you. Likewise if you'd struggle with getting you or your child into a toilet cubicle, the accessible toilet is for you. Get yourself a Radar key.

And if you want to disagree with me about what that symbol means, do check the standard before you argue back. I've been here several times to make its meaning clear and have had several people not knowing what they're talking about, telling me I'm wrong, and in pretty objectionable terms. It may not be exactly as per the standard – have you ever read one of those things? – this is what it means, and nothing more.