To think if you’re a slightly more mobile BB holder you should park in the further accessible bay?

[FlooredByKindness]

My late mom had a Blue Badge as she used a walking stick so I do have experience of accessibility issues

Quite frequently I see people getting out of a car with a badge displayed and then heading easily into stores etc after parking in the closest bay.

if you have a reasonable levels of ability within the realms of BB wouldn’t it be more considerate to park in one of the furthest bb spaces in case the next bb holder who turns up is less able?

seems reasonable to me

Why do you assume it's not theirs?

You do realise some conditions (like MS for example) flare up and down, and that exercise is often vital to health?

No, it's first come first served. Fifty people with advanced MND might all turn up four seconds later, or nobody even remotely disabled might come anywhere near there for the rest of the day? You can't base your life round predicting these things.

You can have no physical mobility problems and have a BB. I know people that have them for photophobia.

Disabled people arent any nicer or more considerate than the general population. They are just people.

If you notice, people rarely make this consideration in other circumstances. For instance, on the tube, when boarding, I take the furthest seat in the direction I walk down the carriage. That's so I don't become an obstruction for the people behind.

Same with self checkouts.

This isnt what everyone does.

No policing, only pondering after I saw someone get out a BB car this morning and walk in to Aldi.

there were 7 free bb spaces and they pulled in the nearest.

i just went into a little wondering of if the next person who arrives came and struggled on 2 sticks then this extra few yards saved could mean a lot to them.

but no offence intended, please don’t read that into my posts.

What do you mean by ‘more mobile’? My child is very mobile. She also has a severe learning disability and is aged 11.5. Cognitively she operates around a 12 month level and has very little understanding as well as being largely non verbal (she has a few single unclear words only we and her care team would understand). While she may appear ‘mobile’ to you, she will drop to the ground or have a seizure anywhere. It would take three adults to move / restrain her if this was in the path of a car. This happens frequently. So we park as close as we can. If she were a wheelchair user, her mobility needs would likely be more predictable. My point is, you simply cannot tell by looking at people.

Well it doesn't to me ,my son has a blue badge because hes severely autistic and has severe learning disabilities and absolutely zero awareness of danger,
Being able to park closer to the shops is a godsend due to his unpredictability
If you have a blue badge you have a blue badge
It's not up to you to decide some peoole are more eligible than others.

When I was a walking stick user my legs ran out of energy by the end of the first aisle. Now I'm a wheelchair user my shoulders run out of energy.

You just can't tell how people are going to tire. So that was a thought that bears more thinking about (and let's not even go down the route of how disabled someone is or isn't 🙄)

Don’t be silly, OP. If you have a Blue Badge then you have a Blue Badge. No one with a Blue Badge should have to justify or even think about which bay to use when they’re parking. You’re being ridiculous.

First of all it was able bodied people moaning about BB holders, now the ‘more disabled’ are turning on the perceived ‘less disabled’.

I’m getting so sick of this constant rhetoric of people not deserving things. You don’t know anything about their level of disability.

It’s a difficult one to judge. I have a BB and can often get out the car and walk into the supermarket fairly well, apart from my walking stick; however, by the time I’ve walked around the shop bending and lifting things, and packed all my stuff back in the trolley, often my back is buggered and I struggle to stagger back to my car. So, initially, I might look as though I could park further away, but by the time I’ve completed my shopping, I’m barely able to drive back home again!

If you have a BB then you can park in a disabled bay. Thats it.

Same with parent and child bays - a parent with a 9 year old has the same “importance” as a parent with two babies and a pram. 🤷‍♀️

Exactly, and its not like disabled people and carers don't have enough to think about already.

I think, given the current climate and the sheer amount of disabled bashing that is happening on MN at the moment, that if you are being genuine and not disingenuous, the decent thing would be to report your own post and ask Mumsnet to remove it as you have thought better of it.

What about people with incontinence issues? They need to get in faster.

What about people with fatigue issues? They will tire out quicker.

What about people with conditions that flare up through stress, lights, noises etc, they could be fine on the way in and really struggle on the way out.

It's clear you have a fixed image in your mind of what a disabled person should be, and look like, and have some sort of hierarchy of importance going on.

People have their own struggles, some you can't see in a few minutes, so just trust that the brutal process to get BB is enough and they don't need additional judgement from you deciding if they are worthy or not.

DP has a BB and he perceives he is "less disbled" than others and its taken him a while to get used to using it, sometimes he won't, which is really frustrating as he gets exhausted walking more and more these days. I don't think you should ever question anyone using a BB as you have no idea whats going on with anyone's needs unless you're in their skin.

I know by the time he's in a wheelchair, I'll look back longingly when he "just" walked with sticks and didn't have to cart medical paraphernalia everywhere. But at least then we won't have to worry about BB judgement as he'll fit the stereotype.

Why should it only be people with disabilities who have to engage in this fraught calculation about the relative severity of their own needs versus the needs of hypothetical later-arriving disabled people?
Why shouldn't able-bodied people do it too? Should I park further away from the supermarket entrance in case some other able-bodied person arrives who is shorter of time than I am, or who suffers from the cold more than I do?

If not, why should people with disabilities have less confidence in their entitlement to use facilities provided for them than I do?

Stop wondering and mind your own business. They don't hand bb out like candy so it's clearly needed. There are various reasons outside obvious mobility impairment.

I know someone with a blue badge who walks relatively ok when first out the car. But a short trip around supermarket tires then quickly. And by the time they leave are rapidly loosing balance and strength. So how they look when first out the car isn’t necessarily how they are by the end of their visit.

What if the first person over exerts themselves and struggles to make it back to their car? Just because they don’t have 2 sticks that doesn’t mean they might not struggle

It’s not only to do with distance, it can be to do with how it affects you. So, I might look more mobile than someone else but that walk to and around the supermarket has a massive knock on effect for me. And the extra effort compounds it.

I think there should be two types of bb. I have a bb, I’m in a wheelchair so need the wide space to get my chair round.

i don’t know how it could be policed but something on the lines of wheelchair users have light blue only they can use the wide spaces. Doesn’t need to be right outside the door for me but I should imagine others would say different, but maybe dark blue who don’t need the wide space out need closer to the door ?

I mean let’s be honest, I’m in a chair, I need the wide space to get in and out of the car, but I don’t need to be right outside the door I’m not walking, once I’m in the chair I can get across a car park the same as anyone else. But if the wider blue spaces are taken by people who just need to be near the door, well I have to wait or go home, I cannot get out of the car.

I don't drive so don't have a blue badge, but I get really easily overwhelmed in supermarkets, and I often need to just get out. If I did drive and had a blue badge, I would park wherever I pleased because I would have the right to do so.

Oh great, as if it wasn't bad enough everyone ripping into disabled people for even having cars, now you want to pit them against eachother in a disability-off?

I often need a wide space because I need to open the door as wide as it will go in order to steady myself and exit my car without causing additional pain and struggle.