Taking Advantage

[Goofyernmost]

I actually feel kinda guilty when I need a wheelchair. I can make it through 2 days at DW before my lumbar spine gives out. I have 4 herniated disks and some spinal damage. I try to be as independent as I can, but my poor spine can only take so much.

When I do use a wheelchair, I notice the bad looks other patrons give me. I'm a 300 lb girl. I think all they think is that I'm too lazy to use one, and can't see that my legs are Jell-O.

I know I will be hated for this but you can thank ADA for that guilt. They have made the rules that are so easy to con with that now everyone in a chair or mobility device is suspect. For some reason, they have determined that being "handicapped" is a shameful situation. They feel that if you had a process that would identify you as a person needing help, you would be embarrassed and appear less than "normal".

Instead, now anybody, legitimate or not, can be considered "challenged" and no questions can be asked. It is a crappy situation.

Is a person that cannot walk, for example, any more able to walk if they are called challenged instead of handicapped? It isn't the word that is the problem it is the idiots that think that being "handicapped" is a sign of character weakness and must not be mentioned. Quite frankly, they are the ones with the problem not the group they are supposedly serving. It makes me so angry that a bunch of self righteous, narrow minded geeks feel that it is better to be suspect then to be whatever one is. A simple official pass would eliminate the fraud and give people there dignity back.

End of rant!

[EeyoresButterfly]

I made a reservation for a Radisson via their website and somehow or another ended up with an accessible room. I must have clicked something I didn't mean to when I was making the reservation. Honestly, I don't know why anybody would want one if they don't need it. It had a king sized bed, but so did a lot of the singles. They had a roll in shower, so there was no bathtub which I sorely regretted. I also had the one room in the building that did not have its own temperature controls inside the room (due to location) and the first night it was boiling the entire time. I have no idea how I ended up with that room, but never again. Maybe that was just a bad experience, but I can't see why anybody would want that room if they don't truly need it.

[Syndrome]

I know I will be hated for this but you can thank ADA for that guilt. They have made the rules that are so easy to con with that now everyone in a chair or mobility device is suspect.

I think you're onto something there. In the condo where we used to live, where parking was an ongoing problem, one of our neighbors bragged proudly to us about how her doctor gave her documentation for an unneeded handicapped hang tag. She was so out of touch that she was PROUD of her fakery...you'd think she'd have kept her mouth shut, but she loved to brag about her ingenuity.

Better yet, when we were at DL many years back, and I was using alternate entrances because of a nasty injury, I remember two women bragging to each other about how great it was to claim ADHD so their kids didn't have to wait. I was in a cumbersome leg brace, and one of the little brats nearly bowled me over since we were in front of him in the alternate entrance line. Mommy One told Mommy Two, "If you ever have any problems, I'll give you my doctor's card. He'll be glad to give you a letter, and he won't even have to see your kid as long as you just pay the charge for an evaluation."

More stringent qualifications, coupled with steep penalties for doctors who help fakers, would go a long way towards stopping the BS.