Are you just a troll, or are you really that ridiculously stupid? You accuse me of not being sick enough, so I try to explain to you what it’s like for me. Then, instead of realizing you might be wrong, and trying to learn something, you accuse me of
lying! You are very wrong, you are very rude and you are very ignorant. You have no clue what you are talking about.
The entire reason this site even exists is to give support to people like me with invisible illnesses, who may feel that others do not believe or understand how sick they are. Yes, we ARE this sick, and no you never realized it. Because we don’t look it. You are clearly not one of us, so why are you even here? To just troll around and upset sick people? Shame on you.

Almost all joint, muscle, ligament type pain/stiffness is very noticeable when someone first starts walking. Once their joints/muscles/ligaments warm up, stretch out, get re-lubricated the symptoms ease and remain eased until prolonged (multiple minutes) usage fatigue starts setting in. Keep in mind it only takes 45 seconds to walk 200 feet if you have nothing impairing your gait. This is your typical mild to moderate arthritis type symptoms.

Now if your condition has advanced to a severe or acute level, then you wouldn’t have an easement after warming up and would exhibit visual signs of impairment constantly.

In either case you would exhibit immediate visual signs of impairment if joint/muscle/ligament pain/stiffness was your disability.

Now if endurance or fatigue, not pain, was your only limitation then I would agree it may not be immediately visible. But here again, we are talking about cannot walk 200 feet. Which means you would begin to fatigue way before you reached 200 feet. It’s not like you would walk totally normally and than instantly not be able to walk anymore. You would be showing signs of fatigue shortly after starting to walk, probably within 10-15 seconds. Keeping in mind a normal gait only takes 45 seconds to walk 200 feet.

The arrogance here is claiming someone who cannot walk 200 feet does so without limitation 0 to 199 feet and then suddenly at 200 cannot walk at all.

Well, now I know your are lying and faking. Anyone in the situation you described would get a mobility device, like a powered scooter, so they could continue to enjoy all the things you say you can’t do. Sorry, but if your walking is truly that limited you would have already sought out devices to aid you. I’ll chalk this up as yet another “invisible” faker who uses handicap parking merely as a convenience. Then lies to justify their usage. I’m actually quite tired of these lame excuses.

And you sound like an ignorant, judgmental prick.
I have a chronic condition which causes widespread pain and fatigue all day, every day. I DO NOT have any magic “good days” where I can walk more than 200 feet without rest. My condition is permanent, every day, every hour, not “sometimes”.
I read this article and decided to add to the discussion, because I look young and and some others have expressed their concern that people might think they don’t really need it, based on their appearance. You don’t know me, you don’t know how much pain I am in, how exhausted I am, or how many
pills I take every day, just so I can get out of bed and go to work every
day. But you decide to accuse me of faking it, of not really needing it.
I don’t even use handicapped spaces often. Not because I don’t need it, but because I don’t GO anywhere besides to and from work. I have my groceries delivered because I can’t walk long enough to get through the whole grocery store. I don’t go to the mall or department stores anymore. I do everything I can online. So who are you to read two sentences that I’ve written and decide that I don’t really need it, and that I don’t care about anyone but myself?

You think you can’t judge a visual function? Let’s take a visible function like blinking. Your telling me you can’t judge if someone is blinking normally by looking at them? It’s no different than judging if someone is walking normally by watching them walk. Well, if you have no cognitive skills you couldn’t. Apparently that is your disability, cognitive dysfunction, since you can’t.

Sounds like you don’t give a rats ass about anyone but yourself.

Really, Beth? You’ve done research? You know as fact that “many” permits are given out that are not needed? Not just “some” or “a few”? “Many”?

Wow, I just read down through some of the comments, and the spectrum of opinion on this is amazing! There is clearly a big difference amongst us here, all of whom seem to have some amount of illness, so it’s no wonder there is confusion, assumption, judging, etc, between those who are in good health and those of us who are not! I have the perspective of someone who graduated college before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, apparently– don’t quote me on that, all I know is, for most of my life, as someone born with spina bifida, there was no such thing as ‘handicapped parking’, automatic doors, modified bathrooms, and the like– which, turns out, has not been entirely bad, because I learned a lot through that experience and, actually, am just thrilled to have handicapped parking available! This may seem rather pathetic, in a way, but it is nonetheless how I feel, and although I would not wish that experience on someone else, I now find myself feeling pretty blessed. One thing I do know is, when someone has health problems, one of the worst things they can do, to their own detriment, is to live in a mode of comparing how their own health stacks up against other people’s and then, based on their own analysis (i.e., assumptions), make all kinds of conclusions about how *someone else* *should* feel and whether or not the other person has a *right* to complain, are as bad off as they are, etc. No two people on this planet are exactly the same. Since the end of the post has in bold type “Now, if I could just get people in parking lots to quit giving me dirty looks…”, I would like to say that part of the problem, no offense, starts right there; it is to one’s own benefit to not assume what someone else is thinking, based solely on a ‘look’. While, yes, someone may be giving you ‘the evil eye’, they could also have any number of other things on their mind besides whether or not you deserve to be parking where you are. They could be feeling ill themselves! In my own opinion (emphasis on “my own”), it keeps one’s own mind in a more consistent state of peace to wait until one actually hears a negative comment, something that shows clearly what the other person is thinking, versus making a painful assumption about it. And, actually, a pleasant surprise is finding out that someone who is scowling is actually doing so because they have a heart for people who are disabled, and in one sense, may actually be a more caring person than the person that appears utterly clueless or doesn’t *look* like they’re being judgmental. For example, say someone is scowling because they have a sister who is disabled, and then they see someone pull into a parking space who, in their own mind, doesn’t appear to deserve to park there– not in comparison to someone like their sister anyway, not to them. So then they give the person parking a frown. In actuality, they aren’t such a bad person, because in their own way their heart is taking up for people like their sister. Are they ignorant to the plight of others who are *not* like their sister? Yes. But are they necessarily jerks. No. Just ignorant. And yet, yes, they may never learn. In their own minds, it was so painful to watch the suffering of their sister that no one else could possibly ever suffer as much as their sister. See what I mean? Unless someone actually *says* something, it is better, for one’s own well-being, in my opinion, not to assume the worst…Now, if someone does says something presumptuous, that is entirely different. On the other hand, here again, this is an opportunity– if (*if*) you feel up to it at the moment–, to educate the other person. Do they deserve that? Do you owe them that? No. Is there a guarantee they will become enlightened at that moment. Possibly not. Nonetheless, it is an opportunity that may plant a little thought that will help them learn, in time. If there is anything I have learned that has been, ironically, both disappointing and liberating, it is that the world does not revolve around me. It can be tempting to assume that someone is being judgmental based on the look on their face, but it only ends up being unhealthy for oneself, in the end. Having a disability, if you live long enough, is a marathon, so to speak, not a sprint. At the risk of sounding pompous, try to just take a breath. There is no one on this earth, no One, no human being, who will ever truly understand your internal struggle. We’re not designed that way. If all of the intricacies of the rules about handicap tags are settled, that will still be the case, which to me, is the bigger challenge– and it takes energy, precious energy, just to deal with that. Try to take things one day at a time. For myself, I don’t know where I would be without my faith. But try not to let other people’s facial expressions dictate your level of frustration. This is a marathon…– Blessings…:-)

I have fibromyalgia. I am 46 years old and look even younger, and I have a handicapped parking permit. I know that I need it and I don’t give a rat’s bottom how anyone looks at me or what they think.

Perhaps not, Pag–those parents are clearly demonstrating some profound moral handicaps 😉

Actually, they are very easy to acquire. Take a qualification like “cannot walk 200 feet without rest”, which is a very subjective qualification. This qualification isn’t tied to any specific illness nor requires the use of any mobility device. A person can easily exaggerate their symptoms and qualify using this qualification.

It’s not like the doctor is going to take out a long measuring tape and test you. The doctor is basically going to trust what you tell them. And even if they did test you, it’s easy to pretend your tired and stop walking after a few dozen steps.

Having disabled parking placards and/or plates is not a guarantee the user qualifies. If you think it always does, your living in a dream world.

I concur someone walking slowly is not a guarantee they have a severely limiting walking disability. But I stand firm that it is a “visible” sign they may have. A much stronger sign than if they were walking with a normal gait.

But I can tell now your completely rambling on and have little to no understanding of why and who abuses disability parking. Almost everyone that is fraudulently using a disabled parking spot is doing so for convenience and/or free parking. They are not going to turn around and inconvenience themselves by walking slowly to their destination.

If they were going to fake a disability, they could just as easily use an even more visible queue, like a mobility aid. But by now I think you understand why they don’t. It’s inconvenient to use a mobility aid. And the last thing they want is to be inconvenienced. God forbid they would have to park 10 stalls farther away from the door and take an extra 20 seconds to walk there.

In short, get a clue.

I walk just as slowly frequently (due to hip/back/knee/leg/foot pain) – but I don’t need or use handicap parking.

Someone who is not in a hurry walks slowly, “sauntering along”.

If someone is young-looking but walking slowly, they cop a lot of abuse because it is ASSUMED that:
1. They are too young to have anything wrong with them, the observer can’t see anything themselves, so they must be abusing the handicap parking, and
2. They’re compounding their abuse by not even having the decency to get their stuff done fast and get out of there.

Maybe you would recognise “walking slowly” as a symptom of a genuine need – most people don’t. And not everyone just “walking slowly” does have a need for handicap parking – so it’s NOT usually recognised as a “genuine” signal.

I didn’t ask you to walk in my shoes – I just explained the sorts of situations that cause someone who HAS experienced disability issues to wish it on someone else. Something you said flat-out meant that they’d never experienced “real” disability.

I explained how someone could be genuinely unable to do something one day, but ok the next – something you said flat-out meant that they’d never experienced “real” disability.

I also said that I do not and would not use disability parking, as I acknowledge that while limited I’m not limited enough to need it. I’m grateful that this is currently still the case. So your reiteration of your frustration about parking being used by other people was ill-targetted – I’m not someone who is (in your opinion) “stealing” your parking.

So here’s the rub. I understand your frustration that as someone in a wheelchair, you genuinely need the extra space for maneuvering that disability parking provides. At no time would I even consider disputing that – I agree wholeheartedly that you should be able to use it, and can understand the frustration when there is none available because it’s already in use leaving you with no options at all. But unless there is different disability parking for wheelchair use verses other mobility use in the US (I live in Australia, and parking places for those are the same thing here), your genuine need does NOT invalidate someone else’s genuine need – even if you PERSONALLY do not immediately see why they needed it. If they have been medically assessed as genuinely needing disability parking, they have just as much right as you do to use it.
Telling people that unless they’re as bad as you they have no idea what disability is, is simply another way of saying “walk in my shoes”.

Apparently you haven’t ever seen anyone that is actually winded, struggling to breath. There are numerous visible signs, one of the most common signs is a slow gait which conserves energy and uses less oxygen.

When oxygen levels do get low, visible symptoms can be but not limited to: wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, sweating, …. Think of someone having an asthma attack, which is very visible.

If someones lung or heart condition is minor, I agree their symptoms will be invisible. But at that level of impairment they would not require handicap parking.

“On that particular day you will not be walking normally. There will be visible signs you are struggling”

What about for people with things like pulmonary hypotension, cardiomyopathy, interstitial lung disease – i.e. for which their heart/lung system is UNABLE to support the activity.

That doesn’t show up as “visible signs in their walking” , but is just as real a reason for being unable to walk any distance.

My husband knew someone who’d had to have a lung removed. They’d never been a smoker (though most people automatically assumed that he must have been – that the problem just HAD to have been self-inflicted). He literally couldn’t get enough air to support any real exercise because he’d lost just over half his lung capacity. Yet he also frequently got abused by people assuming that “you look young and ok, you’re not limping – you MUST be using a fake permit because *I* can’t see anything wrong with you”.

Invisible illness/disability is called that specifically because it’s not immediately visible.

I’m hoping that others will take the time to read and share my story.

Because of my ‘invisible disability,’ and a group of people who convinced the Fort Collins authorities that there was nothing medically wrong with me, I have lost absolutely everything.

http://nbeener.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-destruction-of-medically-disabled.html

THIS … is what can happen when people don’t believe you’re medically disabled.

May you NEVER get sick or become disabled Beth. If you do, you’ll probably eat crow and choke half to death on your own words. I , like most others was once healthy too ( as in also). That means I didn’t need a handicap spot either. BUT, WITHOUT NOTICE OR WARNING, BAM!!! A STROKE!. Followed 3 months later by another one, then a bout of bladder cancer, and NOW, Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Cancer ( like Steve Jobs had, Google him if you don’t know who he was). To this day, by the grace of God, I LOOK PERFECTLY FINE !!. There are good days, and not so good days, trust me. So, rather than waste precious time prejudging others and their journey through life, perhaps you could go and walk the few extra spaces in the parking lot, while you still can. Thank the good Lord above that you don’t need a placard, YET. Have yourself a great day. I just wasted these couple minutes on your ignorance, when I could have been enjoying what’s left of my life, or helping someone in worse shape than me.

I’m in the “invisible illness”, (Crohn’s), category AND the “visible disability” category, with no need for a wheelchair, (YET). But when I need the restroom, I NEED IT NOW, WITH NO TIME FOR F~@KING AROUND WITH WHICH SPACE I CAN/SHOULD PARK IN, and in a lot of cases with barely the time to make it to the, (restroom), facility when parked in the closest space I can find!

Honestly, I don’t believe there is a good solution for so many things out there that the disabled or chronic pain patients have to draw from. It seems that no matter what, not all can be made happy. It’s a quandary too, to even try to get along and get proper treatment.
I am disabled, but I can still walk even though sometimes it’s painful and maybe a struggle. I park as far away from entrance as I possibly can, just for the extra exercise that I need to keep going “somewhat” strong.

I don’t think I could/would ever get to a point of confronting anyone using a placard. So many disabilities are not visible unless the confronter is carrying an xray machine or blood lab test equipment with them.

Finally someone speaks the truth! I too I’m way tired of the “invisible illness” excuse. If your walking normally with no visible sign of physically struggling then guess what, your walking isn’t impaired.

It’s not a matter of comparing illnesses or disabilities. It’s only a matter of ones functional ability to walk. If you can walk normally for 200 feet at the time of parking, you shouldn’t be parking in a disability spot. It’s as simple as that. Unfortunately the majority of people parking in a disability spot can walk farther than 200 feet at the time of parking.

If your having a really bad day and can’t walk 200 feet that day then go ahead and park in disabled parking. On that particular day you will not be walking normally. There will be visible signs you are struggling and no one will question your use of the disability parking.

I think they should have a Two kinds of parking spots for People with Disabilities. The existing ones that are extra wide with a ramp up onto the sidewalk for people using wheelchairs, walkers, etc, and then…. ones that do NOT require extra wide parking slots for assistive devices.

take it up with the lawmakers then and leave the policing to the police. not worth making disabled people feel worse about their conditions especially when it isn’t obvious to everyone else. it is not anyone’s business.