Woman shouted at me for parking in a disabled spot

[AusMumhere]

I parked in a disabled spot at the supermarket today. A woman about four cars away shouted at me and said 'that's a wheelie spot'. I shouted back 'I have a permit'. She then yelled 'where's ya walker?'. I said 'not all disabilities are visible'. I hate confrontation of any kind.
Should I have walked away or should I have responded? I'm still in shock that I shouted.

Even if it's not a troll you can't fix stupid. Anybody that thick is past educating.

They’re actually on a couple of other threads to do with benefits and disability, with exactly the same obtuse, nitpicking attitude. Possibly just thick as you say, but somehow feels deliberate.

They should be thankful they or anyone they care about don't need a Blue Badge or benefits. My Dad had MS and was in a wheelchair and my Mum was blind and couldn't walk when she got older hence people like that really winding me up. I'd have empathy regardless but when you've been close to it it's worse.

If you were 100% with the pp until they said that, by which point they had given tons of examples proving you wrong, you must by definition be accepting all those other examples and agreeing that you were wrong? I don’t expect you to agree, but logically I must be right.

We will be applying for a blue badge for DS2 and I suspect we will get some comments. He is severely sight impaired but can manage to navigate with peripheral vision. If you saw him in the street he looks like a normal teen.
If we were going to a supermarket together I would park in a normal space. If I was collecting him from somewhere I might use a disabled space so he could find the car as there is little prospect of him finding it safely (or at all) in a busy car park. I would expect that blue badge monitors would assume misuse.

I read that as meaning the subset of mentally ill people who are unable to appreciate the dangers of traffic, not that all mentally ill people have that inability. That statement reminds me of when I was hit by a car and suffered a traumatic head injury and was in hospital for seven weeks. As I live alone with no family nearby and given the brain damage I sustained, I had to demonstrate the ability to do fundamental tasks which included cooking a simple meal and crossing a road multiple times.

A lot of assumptions here which are totally incorrect

EmmaMaria · Yesterday 09:47

”I would make it so that anyone who parked in a disabled space without a blue badge should be striken by a disabling condition for 24 hours”

Dotjones · Yesterday 10:06

“People shouldn't challenge someone for using a disabled space”

i have ataxia, im in a wheelchair, and now i have cancer…. I think 24 hours is way too lax…..gotta be at least a year. Or in some cases with some of the people that I have come across, forever. And people shouldn’t challenge someone for using a disabled space ?…..RIGHT …including delivery Lorries, the Amazon Man, and the endless people “who will only be gone for five minutes “…..A bit Like the charming guy who parked in Asda recently , in the only disabled spot left vacant when it was pouring with rain. He got out the car and RAN into Asda. Whilst he was there, I went and looked at his badge….. which wasn’t his badge, it was obviously his mum/grannies . When he came back, I said “that’s not your badge is it mate”. He said “fck off”, and drove off……. Now him ?….. I’d like to have seen him transported back to the 14th century, hung, drawn, quartered, and eaten by rats. Harsh ? maybe, but I get sick of able-bodied people taking the pss when people like me can’t walk anywhere. I didn’t choose my life, if you want to use the disabled space, and you are able bodied, then I sincerely hope you end up disabled….. because then you can legitimately use them to your hearts content, can’t you?

@Rosscameasdoody I know, I get it all the time with my own blue badge but much less so now that I'm post 40! It was daily when I was in my 20s & 39s.

@user1491320660 - I have EDS too. Make sure you get your heart checked out. I got to 50 before Covid nearly killed me (sepsis) and discovered I have a deformed aortic valve and have been left with dilated cardiomyopathy as a result. I am going to need a transplant eventually.
@Rosscameasdoody I am not in UK but Australia. I know it’s against the law so I am going to ask our law lecturer which laws apply here. (They will LOVE this…. They’re always up for the tea.) I’m loving watching a grown adult acting the fool because she’s so desperate to find out wtf is wrong with me. (Noseypants!) Btw, I’m absolutely not going to tell her, but I will be leaving her dangling until her our Chronic Health tutor asks me to show my pacemaker/defibrillator (ICD) scar to the class. (She nursed me after my surgery and asked how I felt about this a couple of weeks ago.)

I think this is the rule you're referring to.

I agree. If we were going somewhere with my sister in the car and had her blue badge with us, we'd never consider using a disabled bay so I could hop out and get some shopping.

We'd only use a disabled bay if we're taking her with us.

My image is under review, so here is the link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-blue-badge-scheme-rights-and-responsibilities-in-england/the-blue-badge-scheme-rights-and-responsibilities-in-england and the text says "You should not use the badge to allow non-disabled people to take advantage of the benefits while you sit in the car."

Ugh, what an annoying cow bag. Disabled people don't need to be policed.

My son has autism and LD and spends a large amount of time in a buggy, as he absconds and throws himself on the floor when we are out. We do take up a disabled bay on bus/would use blue badge if we had one due to maintaining his safety, but we have enough common sense ourselves to spot when someone would be in more need.

You think the term "blue badge" is a universal description of a parking permit for use by disabled people?!

One time I parked in a disabled spot and my son came walking out hand in hand with me

A woman walks past and mutters "they all have autism nowadays" 😳

The look on her face when I told her he has missing limbs due to amputations and wears prosthetics - which you couldn't see underneath his joggers

Awful woman, an insult to me and SEN parents

@mumof1x99 - One day she will say that kind of thing to the wrong person on the wrong day, who isn’t quite as restrained as you. What an awful waste of oxygen she is!

Sorry. I stand by what l said. You shouldn’t challenge anyone for parking in a disabled bay if they are displaying a valid blue badge. Firstly the personal details of the badge holder are not displayed and as a member of the public you have no right to see or handle the badge - neither do you have the right to question anyone about their condition, should it not be obvious, or ask if they are the badge holder. Only a police officer or parking warden are authorised to do this, and the badge holder must comply with any such request.

If you, or indeed anyone else on the thread, suspect misuse take a note of the registration number of the car and the badge serial number and report it to DWP on 0800 854 440. That’s the National Benefit Fraud Hotline - they will check if the recipient of the badge is claiming any disability benefits and take the appropriate action. You can also report it to your local council via their website by navigating to the section on parking, which should have a subsection for disabled parking. You can usually report anonymously. If you have your phone with you a photo of the car parked in the bay will be helpful.

For cars parked without displaying a badge, make a note of the registration number, date, time and location - you can also take a photo of the front of the parked vehicle so it’s clear there is no badge, and make sure the registration is shown. Report to your local council. This also applies to commercial vehicles - make sure the company name and any contact details are recorded.

The above applies to onstreet/public or other council run sites. For private car parks such as supermarkets or on private business/residential grounds, look for signage giving the details of the operator and contact them directly.

A couple of things to remember before you report. Not all disabled bays require display of a blue badge - some are concessionary and not enforceable. The signage in that case would not include the blue and white disabled plate or specifically say blue badge must be displayed, On street marked disabled bays in residential areas are not exclusively for the use of the householders requesting them. Any BB holders can park in them but those parking without a badge should be reported to the council as they have responsibility for enforcement.

And one final - and probably very obvious point. Not all disabilities are obvious. As a disability outreach worker one of the less pleasant aspects of my job was supporting claimants who had had their BB suspended while the LA, or DWP investigated reports of misuse. Some had unknowingly misused them as they weren’t fully aware of some rules, and others - the majority - had done nothing wrong.

Before reporting everyone should be aware that when a report is made, the BB holder could be subjected to an interview under caution and during investigation could potentially have the BB suspended along with any disability benefits if the badge was awarded on automatic eligibility. It can be disruptive, frightening and traumatic. So before you report, think twice and a third time and remember that the issue of the badge is between the claimant, their doctor and the authorising authority. It’s not the business of a random passer by to decide that just because they can’t see a disability, there isn’t one.

That was a comment not worth justifying with a response. How on Earth would she know what is wrong with any of you, or whose needs were being met by parking in the BB space anyway!

I had a woman shouting at me for “taking up” a parent child space while I was sat in the car breastfeeding a baby and my mother in law had taken my three year old into Tesco’. This was afew years ago. I shouldn’t have but I wound down my window and told her to shove off with more Fffs. Some people are just horrible and best to be ignored.

This is the crux of the matter isn’t it ? Random passers by deciding that because they can’t see a disability there isn’t one. I’ve been challenged quite often despite a fairly obvious disability, and l tell people that the fact that l have a badge is reason enough for me to park, that the reason for issue is between myself, my doctor and the local authority, and that unless they are a police officer or parking warden l have no obligation for further discussion, then l go about my business.

As infuriating as they can be l’ve learned not to respond to people who mutter in passing like this, as l inevitably end up explaining myself, which of course is what they want. Their ignorance doesn’t impact me at all and l think a non-response reinforces that.

People shouldn't challenge someone for using a disabled space.

Yes, they should if there is no blue badge on display. The woman in this example was too far away to see the badge, so she should have got closer to the car to check if there was a badge before challenging OP's right to the space.

I once made the same mistake.

I've had two relatives with blue badges and I get annoyed when disabled spaces are abused and they have nowhere to park. I once challenged a couple getting out of a car in a disabled space - neither of them looked disabled. I did it politely, pointing out that it was a disabled space. The husband grabbed my shoulder and took me to the other side of the car to show me the blue badge. He was quite cross about it - his wife had a disability that meant she could walk, but not walk very far. I apologised and tried to explain that I was trying to protect disabled spaces, because I knew how important they were to my disabled relatives.

I should have got closer to the car to check whether there was a badge on display or not. (But he shouldn't have manhandled me like that. I assume he had been challenged a lot because his wife didn't look disabled and he was fed up with it.)

It really is something to keep reading about people feeling that they have the right to challenge people, who they decide, do not look disabled. They really need to understand the impact on that person, who may be sick to the back teeth of nosy people deciding that they know best. If a person has a BB, then that is all that is necessary for them to park in a BB.

I should have got closer to the car to check whether there was a badge on display or not. (But he shouldn't have manhandled me like that. I assume he had been challenged a lot because his wife didn't look disabled and he was fed up with it.)

That is the risk that you take, when you decide to challenge people.

Maybe you should mind your own business in future.

Agreed. If 'looking disabled' was the only criterion for getting a blue badge, thousands of unscrupulous people could put on a dramatic pretend show to get one (e.g. anybody can sit in a wheelchair - not just those who need one).

Meanwhile, a great many genuinely disabled people whose disabilities are not obvious on sight would then have to go without the blue badge that they should be entitled to.