To report bus driver that bullied DS

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Ds is 15 and autistic, he has SM and has really struggled in education and making friends. His secondary school weren't supportive at all and In the end I pulled him out to protect his mental health. He took last year out, doing little bits of work but mostly recovering as his anxiety was so bad.

In September, he startedcollege and he's doing really well, he made a friend and he really looks out for DS and seems to understand him and most importantly has never pressured him to talk to him, most their communication is DS writing things down on his phone etc.

Before Christmas he shocked me by saying he wanted to get the bus to college with his friend at the start of the new term, I was driving him in but I was open to let him try. Because of his expensive bus passes are I had been giving him money for a day saver each day, his friend would speak for him and ask for the ticket and for the past 2 weeks there had been no issues

However, this morning when they got on the bus the driver was quite rude to DS and wouldn't give the ticket to DS if his friend was asking, he was telling DS to stop being rude, it wasn't hard and was getting quite annoyed that he was holding the bus up. His friend admitted he got kind of rude back and told him it wasn't hard to just give DS the ticket either. In the end they just got off and went to McDonald’s as DS had got stressed and he told me this afternoon there were older people that go to the same college on the bus and they were all staring at him - it's a public bus though.

The friend called me using DS’s phone and when I got there DS had calmed down but he wanted to go home and sleep. He seems ok now but he's torn between wanting to try the bus again, me taking him and not wanting to go at all, he's sort of going in circles with it.Im furious and worry this has now set him back

I tried calling the bus company but got no answer earlier, a friend said they wont do much and it's happened now, so is it?

What did he have to be frustrated about though? Someone asked for a ticket- he should’ve just sold them one.

Its not the OPs DS who has to roll with the punches, it’s society that needs to understand that not every person is the same.

the point is we never have both sides of the story but MN always takes things at face value and the tone of this thread seeking formal retribution against a bus driver for one of many incidents they have to deal with on a weekly basis is symptomatic of the general attitude on here.

You do realise that some of us disabled people are also parents don't you? Our rights are not and should not be in competition with each other. The fact is that it is generally easier to fold a buggy than for a disabled person to transfer from their wheelchair into a regular seat and somehow fold their chair up. In this scenario, the parent with the buggy should usually be the one to make space as they will generally have more flexibility than a wheelchair user. I have a one-year-old of my own so I am completely aware of all the pressures placed on parents and have extensive experience of not wanting to wake a baby who is finally napping and also of negotiating around with a buggy. However, I am also severely physically disabled and I know the stress and upset that can be caused by a non-disabled person assuming it is fine for them to use services or facilities designed to facilitate accessibility. I believe that, most of the time, it is thoughtlessness and lack of consideration rather than active malice, which leads to people disregarding the needs of disabled people. However, most of us can tell of occasions when we have been unable to attend appointments because all the disabled parking spots were occupied by those without blue badges, or occasions when we have to queue for ages for the single accessible toilet in the building because non-disabled people have decided they would rather use it than the regular facilities. For many people not being able to access blue badge parking or suitable toilets is extremely serious as they do not have an alternative. The non-disabled person could choose to park further away or use regular toilets where fore many disabled folks that is not an option.

Yes report most bus companies have a pretty good online form you can fill out. Bus drivers manners have been going downhill lately just like Royal Mail service

Not quite.

Wheelchair users do legally have priority. Bus drivers must do more than simply 'ask' other users of the space to move, however they cannot go so far as to physically remove.

In practice what they should do is refuse to move the bus until the person occupying the space inappropriately, shifts. However for fairly obvious reasons, not every bus driver wants to or will do this.
The BBC's reporting of the case is pretty clear.