Do handicapped people really want to be treated like everyone else?

Question

Or is this just a ploy for sympathy….I feel if you want the same treatment as a non disabled person give up the handicap space and park in the back like the rest of us. Unless you have some physical deformity and are unable to make your way to the entrance…then my question becomes why are you driving?

Answer 1

I AM treated like everyone else. I don't ask for special treatment, and often I do park away from the handicap space. The only reason I DO use them is because they're wider, and I need that space to get my wheelchair out of my car (unless you want YOUR car hit because you park too close...) and because they're usually closer to the ramps.

I don't ask for any sympathy, because I don't see myself as any different from anyone else, just because I'm in a wheelchair. I work. I drive. I pay my bills. I'm no better than anyone else, but I'm certainly not inferior.

Answer 2

It is painfully apparent that you don't get it at all and THAT is YOUR handicap. People with disabilities are not asking for sympathy or pitty they want to be treated like a regular person just like somebody that does NOT have a physical disability but certain accomodations do have to be made. How would you like it if YOU yourself had to use a wheelchair and weren't allowed to have the space needed to get the chair out of YOUR specially modified car and get from the drivers' seat into the seat of the wheelchair because somebody with your attitude decided that the handicapped parking spot wasn't necessary or how about if YOU had a BREATHING DISABILITY and could walk only a SHORT distance but somebody with YOUR attitude decided that if you walked more it would HELP you knowing NOTHING about your DOCTOR'S orders?! Trying doing something new and different and think before you ask another question like this one because you just told ALL of us what YOUR DISABILITY really IS!

by the way do you think you could manage to understand reported? good because you have been

Answer 3

If a person is handicapped they want understanding not to be left out. They dont need sympathy. If the person drives a car for example all they will have to do is use the designated parking and to prove this put the stick in the window. Just because someone is handicapped doesn't mean they get treated any less.

Answer 4

People with a "disability" are just like everyone else. No human is perfect. Some imperfections are more visible than others. The inability to empathize for instance holds some people back from doing certain things in life. It doesn't however keep people from working certain jobs. It does do damage.

Why do you need to see a physical deformity before you understand that you need to empathize?

"is this just a ploy for sympathy" WOW what a statement of pure hatred. I wish you would investigate disabilities more and try to understand the reality of it. Your attitude disables you from a lot of things. I hope you change it soon. I believe you will have a better life if you learn to love all people the same and not think you are better or different than others.

Answer 5

I don't have an obvious physical deformity but, have been confined to a wheelchair for 14 years. I drive because it's the only way to get to the store, the doctor's office, the mall etc. And as for the disabled parking spaces, usually they are taken and I do park in the back so I can park diagonally across two spaces and use my Van's side ramp.

I want neither your sympathy nor your contempt and I exercise my rights because every American does. Don't you? Aren't you exercising your right to freedom of speech?

Answer 6

Good lord where is your head?
Trust me disabled people would love to be ' normal' as long as you're not the version of what normal is .

I don't know what disabled people you think do it for sympathy, but why not try walking or riding in someone else 's shoes for a week? Become disabled , blind, deaf, unable to walk and talk and see if you think it's such a picnic.

Most people who need disabled spaces need them because they are in wheelchairs or they can't walk any distance due to breathing problems or even some visual problems or learning disabilities. So you against the special places for pregnant women with strollers too?

It's usually the arrogant aholes who just park in there for a few minutes who get the disabled parking places while the disabled person is left circling looking for one.

I'm beginning to wonder with people posting under this
catagorey with ignorant questions if the posters aren't mentally challenged in some way or they wouldn't ask such dumb rankist questions.

Answer 7

Yes, to a reasonable degree. I don't like to be tippy-toed around because something might happen. Just talk to me like you would everyone else.

On the other hand, if something does happen and my condition makes itself apparent, don't just stand there or kick me and tell me to "quit it" like you would a normal person. That wouldn't help and it could result in my ending up severely hurt or dead.

I suppose with the disabled, it really comes down to knowing when it's necessary to render special assistance and when not to.

My disability in particular makes me unable to drive, so obviously I don't use handicap parking spaces at all. My father is disabled and qualifies, but he's too proud to take advantage of it. And, to be honest, he doesn't need it most times. Now, there are times it would be nice, such as on a hot day (neither he nor I can handle extreme heat) or when he can't feel his feet and we have to park 20 yards away from the store. On those days, though, I just bring extra water for him and/or fetch him one of those courtesy wheelchairs the store offers. Neither of us want sympathy; we just want to be able to get our chores done and go home!

Some people honestly need those spaces. I had a friend who's son had, in addition to Down syndrome, three holes in his heart. This guy's eyelids, lips and fingertips were literally blue all the time. Even his skin had a blue pallor to it. His mother felt it was important to encourage him to live as 'normally' as he could, so he wasn't in a wheelchair most of the time. But he couldn't walk very far distances, especially not in extreme weather. So his mom had a handicapped sticker on her car so the walk into a store wouldn't be too grueling on him. If he hadn't had those problems to begin with, he wouldn't have needed that consideration and would have been happy to walk a longer distance. But that wasn't the case. Thank goodness for those special considerations!

The way I see it, special considerations like handicapped parking and handicapped bathrooms are ways of evening the odds and making things a little more balanced. I think that some people take these things too extreme and make too big a deal over them, though.

Answer 8

PERMACULTURE ANSWER: You are talking utter nonsense. Yes of course people with disabilities want to be treated like everyone else, because they are like everybody else. It is SOCIETY that is disabled, not the person. DESIGN decent cars, supermarkets, parking and housing and there would be no reason to need 'special' disabled 'facilities'.

You obviously have not thought about your question. Lets take your argument to it's logical conclusion. If you are unable to walk to the entrance why drive? Fine, so now the person who uses a wheelchair who was totally INDEPENDENT when driving has to have home care services to drive them everywhere they NEED to go.

Not just for shopping, but for medical treatment, hair appointments, school visits, child activities, every activity. AND YOU ARE GOING TO PAY THE BILL because if that person cannot drive, then they can not work. Or perhaps all people with disabilities should all live in 'residential homes' at £800 a week, which YOU will pay for because you dislike people with disabilities to lead an active, fulfilling, independent life.
.
It is not just people with disabilities that need good DESIGN. Look at young mums with prams. You going to make newborn babies walk? Older people with mobility issues? You are never going to get old?

The parking space you mention is not even a reasonable adjustment to get people to where the rest of us 'able bodied' people start from. Good DESIGN evens out difference. People do not want sympathy, they just want the same choices as you have.

Answer 9

You can't honestly be serious. Who doesn't want to be treated like everyone else?

Don't you even have the brains to realize that some disabilities require "reformatting?" That is, wider parking spaces, certain accommodations (required by LAW, I might add.) This is the freaking Information Age. Technology makes most everyone's lives easier, and here you are saying "then my question becomes why are you driving?" Hell's bells, there are thousands of adaptive technologies for most anything!

I rarely wish anyone ill, but I hope and pray someone keys your car for that remark about parking spaces.

Answer 10

this makes me upset. im 17 and disabled, but i am completely functional, even more so than alot of my peers. i get straight A's, I got 1820 on my SAT, and have big plans for my future. i do have a handicapp plaque and that is because my legs are pretty weak and i get tired after walking alot(which might be alittle to regular people)-about a half an hour. and we do want to be treated fairly, but then what would the point of even creating a handicap spot if we are going to park in the back?? i am driving because im smart and a great driver, EVEN BETTER than other 17 year olds. I passed my driving test with 2 MISTAKES.......i couldve gotten up to 15 and still passed. so i suggest you change ur image of what a handicapped person is, because if you knew me, ur perspective would totally change.
thanks