Are people just less tolerant of disability accessibility now ?

[Takemeback02]

I have been raising a disabled child 11 years now and the first 5 ish years I never really dealt with many issues regarding to the assistance she received or disability access.
the last 5 years has been a real struggle. Usually transport / theme parks etc

most recently 6 of us went on holiday abroad to a European destination, 2 disabled children who require a lot of extra care with very high medical needs and equipment. We always check the hotels first and we speak to before choosing one that works for us. We picked a hotel that offered reserved disabled Sun beds. We arrived and they offered us 6 ( same as whole party ) but we told them we only needed 3. We chose ones away from the kids sections and to the side of the main pool,
they were reserved everyday. They placed disabled badge stickers on the beds for the duration of our stay. I reckon there
was 3 days out of 10 where we didn’t have an issue with someone taking them. Most would move on once asked but have a little moan as they did it and a few who got obviously very upset.

one of the days was a nightmare, we were at the pool bar and physically saw a women tair off the disabled badge sticker and throw it on the ground. I put it back on before going to get the kids
changed and when I got back lady was on bed and had removed the sticker again and lobbed it on the floor.

I just feel the last few years there is an obvious difference in peopls
Tolerance for accessibility or has it always been this way ?

don’t get me wrong I know from the past actual accessibility had got far better but it just feels like it annoys people now.

As below

The best example is a privately run car park for a nearby hospital. They went from free BB parking (which was about 25% of the total spaces) to having to go to a booth with the real BB (no copies) to get a card. There are cameras on the exit to check the person the BB applies for is actually in the car.

How do the cameras work? My little one is now in a wheelchair in our WAV but I am not sure he'd be easily visible and on the few occasions we use the car he rear faces. I wish our hospital had 25% BB spaces, if they put a mobile scanner in the car park it goes in the already minimal BB spaces. They recently took even more away in a car park re-jig. I have had to park a mile away and walk in before now which is OK for clinic appointments but not when he's sick and needs reviewing on PAU.

How do the cameras work when you can park in a BB space work dropping the owner off?

Drop off spaces aren't in the car park. They are outside the main entrance to the hospital.

Hospital parking is absolutely bonkers in every possible way in my experience.

Our major hospital, which has the only a&e to serve many major towns… doesn’t have an a&e carpark, or designated drop off space. If you stop anywhere near the foot entrance to it you are blocking the ambulances.

So You have to park in the main car park… but then there isn’t step free access to a&e- so wheelchair users have to go through the ambulance road and hope for the best.

How do the cameras work?

Not 100% sure. But they are on the ticket machine at the barrier and you can hold a BB up to them in the times there's no attendant. All I know is there were some very upset people when it was introduced with a load of reasons why the person the badge was for wasn't in the are and anyway the badge was a photocopy and it was out of date.

No matter how wonderful some people are, there are scum out there.

At alder hey have they changed the parking so you scan the barcode on the blue badge on your way out. Not perfect obviously but easier than most hospitals and doesn’t involve taking the badge out of the car.

our local hospital you register the badge and it’s linked to the car registration which is ok but obviously an issue if you have to use a different car!

Countess of Chester by any chance ?

Also, an injury or illness doesn’t necessarily meet the criteria of ‘disability’ so doesn’t have the same legal protections.

Actually it does. To qualify as a disability under the Equality Act 2010, which confers legally protected characteristics, you only have to meet the conditions of ‘substantial’ which refers to the ability to carry out normal everyday activities, and ‘long term’, which means expected to last 12 months or more. And you don’t have to have had a disability for three years before applying for a blue badge - the badges are issued for a standard three years and the eligibility for some (not all) LAs states the disability has to be likely to last the full three years, not that you have to have had it for three years before applying.

I know of a few cases where this has been successfully challenged because for PIP claimants, 8 points in the moving around category or 10 points for descriptor E in the planning and following a journey category automatically qualifies you for a badge and not all PIP awards are for three years.

No! So there are more of them 😬

Our local hospital has done this too.

Guess where the machines to pay or scan are?

Oh yes - right at the far end of the car park to half the blue badge spaces (ironically because they are outside the rehabilitation centre) where you can't park near to scan it.

So you work at rehabilitation centre.
Go in.
Walk to main entrance the other side of car park to scan BB.
Walk back to rehabilitation centre to collect car.

Ok, many visitors will have a companion with them. But the lack of logic to it is amazing.

Luckily now it's been pointed out (probably 20 times a day) you can now give your BB number to reception in the rehabilitation centre as you sign in.

That doesn’t suprise me. Thankfully at alder hey it’s at the barrier so you just scan on the way out. But we have visited some hospitals where just trying to figure how to do it is a mammoth task!

We register vehicles too and you can add two which does help a bit.

Yep. CC hospital has lots of parking by the entrance but it’s a long way to access the hospital itself - too far to walk with mobility issues, wheelchair access is hard because you have to wheel in the road most of the time because pavements are narrow with few dropped kerbs. The disabled car park is further in towards the main entrance but it’s minuscule - nowhere near adequate.

The A&E car park is also very small and there’s only a couple of disabled bays - it’s jammed most of the time, and there’s no access from the main hospital corridor to A&E. You have to go around the outside of the hospital and follow a narrow path, which is a nightmare for wheelchair users. I do find it odd that a hospital with such a large catchment area has put so little thought into disabled access. Many of the consulting rooms can’t accommodate a wheelchair either, so the staff have to play musical chairs !!
.

Actually it does

I said illness or injury doesn’t necessarily meet the definition of disability- a sprained ankle is painful to walk on and slows you down for a while, but likely won’t meet the ‘substantial’ or ‘long term’ threshold to be treated as a disability. A grade 3 compound fracture to your femur may well meet those criteria.

And you don’t have to have had a disability for three years before applying for a blue badge - the badges are issued for a standard three years and the eligibility for some (not all) LAs states the disability has to be likely to last the full three years, not that you have to have had it for three years before applying.

Yes I know that- my response was to a poster whom I had misunderstood- I took what she was saying at face value (I thought she was saying in her LA the three year thing was true), and said it isn’t true as far as I know but even if it was it wouldn’t mean BB holders are being given an advantage.

That's exactly what I Said. It has to be something this lasts or is expected to last at least 3 years...not you have to be ill for 3 years before you get it 🤦🏽‍♀️

Yh we do have something you don't...and trust me. You don't want it. If I could trade my blue badge, free companion tickets and q jumps, and disability, with a fit healthy person's health, I'd do it immediately. Seems like people want the adaptations made for people who are suffering to help make their disability not a factor invruin their day-but obviously, still with keep their good health 🤦🏽‍♀️ seems to be the general mood.

So true. When successive govts have spun disability as the lifestyle choice of scroungers, it's hardly surprising that there is so little consideration or empathy for the struggles that people with disabilities face.

Not sure about everywhere else, but my LA dates to the end of your PIP award if you have it on automatic pip grounds. If you have it on any other grounds it's 3 years.

It's definitely getting worse on this thread. There are some fab ppl here, but they ignorance is over shadowing them and my head hurts. The moment someone said blue badge holders getting free parking is giving disabled people an advantage, I knew it was time to leave...