I have a pet peeve!!!!!!!

[mhopset]

My pet peeve is when someone calls my scooter a CART!!!!!!! I hate that!!!! To me a cart is something you push in a grocery store. I mean do you see me holding a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread? I thought the sticker on the front of my scooter said celebrity, not Wal-mart!!!!


So, what are some of your disABILITY pet peeves?

 

[Talking Hands]

Calling a scooter an ECV. Really hate that because of the attitudes it causes.
People who call my power wheelchair an ECV or scooter. It is NOT.
People who think I can't have a hearing loss because I speak so well. What does my speech have to do with my ability to hear. I'm late deafened and grew up hearing. Also those who cannot accept that I use ASL comfortably as a late deafened person. Geez they don't know my life history. I learned to sign as a kid and it was fortunate for me as I have multiple methods of communication instead of just one.

 

[LindaDVC]

Our pet peeve this week is the police officer who asked to speak to me after escorting Dan home from church!

Dan had a mens meeting -- and they also had a family ice cream social and movie night that the rest of us were attending. We got done first and I told Chris to ask Dad if he wanted a ride now or later!

Instead Chris phrased it -- when will you be done. Dan said in about 5 minutes. Since we live one mile from the church I brought
Chris and my parents home then went to the bathroom and planned to circle back to give Dan a ride. The road has no sidewalks and limited lighting!

Well before I left --the door bell rang and the minister wanted to warn me that Dan was getting a police escort home with blue lights flashing !! The followed him all the way home. The police officer talked to Dan about the fact it was dusk and hard to see him and didn't want him to get hurt. That was okay but when he insisted that his WIFE come out to discuss it with me-- that annoyed Dan!

Linda

PS we once had a person actually call his power wheelchair a high chair! That was annoying too!

 

[SueM in MN]

Good topic.
My pet peeve is how people treat my DD like a baby. She understands perfectly well, but she can't talk. She does have a lot of challenges with her motor skills and her behavior, but she is no baby. She's a teenager who likes NSYNC and Britney Spears and likes the latest fashions.
I have noticed that she gets more respect from people when she is using her power wheelchair than her manual one. But when people see her, they still tend to get out the baby voice (including, unfortunately my MIL and FIL sometimes).When people use that voice with her, she tunes them out, which makes a lot of people think she doesn't understand, which makes them talk down to her more and on and on.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I can't stand the fact that I become "invisible". I am 6'2", weigh about 285, and have a fairly loud voice under normal circumstances. But then one day on a recent trip when I went into Space Mountain (wallking), JudySue "babysat" the scooter and drove it around a little while waiting for me (she doesn't do coasters) and found that she became invisible while in it.

I had been having thoughts of robbing a store or something while "invisible", but then decided nobody would notice me demanding the money.

 

[scroot]

How about people who look right at you and don't think to hold the door open. It has gotten so we are plesantly surprised when someone holds a door. Other than that my pet peeves are Britney Spears and NSYNC.

 

[Eeyore1954]

Originally posted by Cheshire Figment
I can't stand the fact that I become "invisible". I am 6'2", weigh about 285, and have a fairly loud voice under normal circumstances. But then one day on a recent trip when I went into Space Mountain (wallking), JudySue "babysat" the scooter and drove it around a little while waiting for me (she doesn't do coasters) and found that she became invisible while in it.

I had been having thoughts of robbing a store or something while "invisible", but then decided nobody would notice me demanding the money.

What a hoot! My DW feels the same way -- no one can see her, so they walk in front of her, and sometimes over the top of her. We've had people literally walk directly INTO her and her ECV, then no apology or "Excuse me" -- just a nasty look like it's my DW's fault!

Fortunately, she is good-natured and takes it in stride. But I've often thought of the robbery angle, too. Hmmm... Bonnie & Clyde on ECVs. The invisible angle might work, but that getaway's gonna be tough!!

 

[ToriLammy]

How about people who look right at you and don't think to hold the door open. It has gotten so we are plesantly surprised when someone holds a door

The other side of this, folks who see I'm holding a door open for my daughter and rush in front of her because they think I'm a door man or something. Then they don't even acknowledge you with a smile or thank you. I tell her to run them over but she's just too sweet to do that.

 

[JudithM]

While at WDW I rent an ECV, & I don't mind that it is called a convenience vehicle because for me it is a convenient! It helps me get around better than if I had to do all the walking on my own two feet! However, it still amazes me how many guests at WDW don't see me or the ECV. I will say that children usually see me & tend to pull the adult with them out of my way/path . So you might hear me say something like, "If you don't want to get run over you better not step in front of me !"

 

[mamajoan]

peeve #1. people who assume I use my powerchair because I am overweight.... The fact being since the accident I have gained some weight due to the fact I can only hobble short distances...
and the fact that I like my carbs
peeve#2 People who abuse handicap parking spaces
peeve#3 People who try to enter an elevator BEFORE I even get out of the thing. ( this is true of everyone who have never been taught to stand to the side of the elevator, let the doors open, let the people off the elevator first, THEN get in the elevator themselves.)I think that it is a simple idea.

God Bless those who are kind, generous, and polite. and God Bless their mama's who taught them all so well.

 

[s&k'smom]

Oh this is good subject. Let's see, one is when your DS is acting out (or in other words sensory integration overload) and people think he's a brat. Or that not all autistic kids are Rainman. My personal favorite is that every kid on an Ed Plan in the school system is getting something special, like there getting something for free. Even better when the school budget is in trouble (isn't it always) blame it on special ed (they always do). And don't even get me started on the drivers on the road here in Massachusetts.

 

[Tinkbell]

AKL had awesome doors for those in wheelchairs/scooters/Ecvs. They have huge silver buttons with a blue wheelchair brightly imprinted on it. Press the button, the doors slowly open for you. Well, just like ToriLammy, when I pressed the button to make it easier to get my grandma's wheelchair through, people would literally jump in front of us, even though there were doors that they could push RIGHT NEXT to our opening doors. Some people did not do this on purpose. They saw opening doors and thought they were automatic and when they realized what they did, they apologized. However, some people saw me push the button, saw me get behind my grandma's wheelchair, and still had to beat us to the door.

 

[meeshi]

Like SueM, my pet peeve would be people treating my dd like a baby or like she isn't even there. She's 10 and is very aware of her surroundings, very bright and social. She cannot talk so I guess, people think she cannot think. I don't know.

But what really got me was one day a friend of the family came over to bring us dinner (we had just gotten home from a month long hospital stay). I asked her if she wanted to come in the living room and say hi to dd. She looked at my kids school pictures hanging on the wall and said "oh, that's nice, you put dd's picture on the wall like the other two"

 

[SueM in MN]

"oh, that's nice, you put dd's picture on the wall like the other two"

That is so sad that some people think like that. We knew someone who also have a child with a disability. She knew we were going to WDW and asked us "where do you leave DD when you go?" We said she always cmae with us and they were just totally floored. She said they would not think of taking their DD because "it would be so much trouble."

 

[meeshi]

It is sad that people think like that. And I also can't imagine leaving dd home when we go somewhere. We wouldn't leave one of our other children home, why would we leave her home? Yes, it's more work, but that's our lives, isn't it? And the joys outweigh the sorrows and I can't imagine going on vacation without her. It wouldn't be a family vacation, would it?

 

[LvsTnk]

Tinkbell, that door thing at AKL got to me too! They would jump right in front of you to get through.

The other thing that seems to be getting worse is people having the nerve to tell me my DS is overweight, and he is old enough to walk (they don't see that my DS has Down Syndrome or the orthodics or know he broke a vertebrae and that he also has poor circulation). They think he is in a regular stroller and don't know that it is a special stroller. I could never say those things to someone!! The worse part is when you try to ingnore the comments and get on with your business they keep on talking about it!! I guess it goes along with the Autism thing that people expect all kids with Down Syndrome to be a certain way.

Boy, I feel better now thanks for letting me rant!!

 

[alabamaalan]

Oh, I'll jump in on this one...

My wife is blind, (but I'm the one who surfs DIS at work ) and is a guide dog user. Some of the things we run into are:

Waiters/waitresses who speak to me ABOUT her instead of to her (ex. "Warn her this plate is hot")

Kids (old enough to know better) who bark and make noises at her dog when we are walking in the mall.

People who try to avoid the guide dog as if he is going to just plow right into them - he tends to walk a tight left border and treats people like any other obstacle so may pass close by them. When they jump around they only wind up getting in the way.

People who grab her arms to guide her or stop her from going off curb or down steps. (Again, while she is using a perfectly capable guide dog)

Of course, most things we roll are eyes up about come from well intentioned people, but there are some folks you just have to wonder about....

 

[s&k'smom]

Just when I think I can't be shocked I read another of these posts and I have to think "OMG"

 

[Mskanga]

This reminds me of my friend Ellen, she has an adopted daughter who is 8 yrs old now with a serious disability , unfortunately her ex-husband left them a while ago and she couldn't take care of her 24 hours a day so she placed her in a children's institution because she had to work to support herself but she's very much involved with her care and support, the father hasn't been involved in years. I can tell that my friend always gets upset at the fact that the family members don't even acknowledge her DD anymore, they don't even talk about her much less go see her. I know it hurts her when people forget she's a mother too, do you know what makes this woman happy?? someone asking her how's her DD doing and giving her hugs for her, I started sending her Mother's Day Cards years ago and I keep doing it, I never forget sending that one, I forget tons of other ones but that one I never do.

 

[Talking Hands]

Things that bugged me this trip.

People who literally walked into me and my wheelchair.

The fact that everytime I went to use the bathroom the handicapped stall was occupied by an able bodied person with a child. When did having a child become a handicap. There were plenty of open stalls for them to use.

Castmembers who did not want to deal with me signing. Got a sore throat so I went no verbal and was using only sign. Only ones it didn't bother was the terps.

People who would speak to me from behind even after being told I lipread. Do I have eyes in the back of my head?