"To Anyone Afraid to Get a Disabled Placard Because You're Worried About Judgment"

Stefani Shea •
Last updated: May 27, 2022
https://themighty.com/topic/disability/what-to-know-about-getting-a-disability-parking-placard/

Some extracts:
---
"I see it almost daily. In the health communities I’m in, someone will say 'I need to get a disabled placard but I’m afraid to.' I see the images of awful notes left on the car of someone who uses a placard. You can find examples here, here, here and here. I could keep going"
---
"My doctor signed it without question. I still was not comfortable with the term “disabled” then and I was still trying to pretend I could physically do what I was longer able to do. “Passing” as able-bodied was significantly easier than trying to live with disability (or so I thought at the time), and I was coasting on denial as long as I could."
---
"But I was wrong. I was and am disabled. I got the [parking] placard and ended up using it every day because it was a life saver. I wished I had gotten it sooner when I needed it, long before I finally talked to my doctor about it."
---
"I imagine there are a variety of reasons people leave notes on cars or make discriminatory comments to the disabled ...they may assume all disabilities are visible and that only individuals who require a mobility aid qualify as disabled."
---
"When someone leaves a note on a car or makes a comment, they are making rash judgments about someone they’ve never even met and enacting a gross injustice on someone who faces daily obstacles already.

This needs to stop."
---
"1. Most #disabilities and #chronicconditions are invisible. Often, you cannot “see” kidney disease, cognitive disabilities, neurological
conditions, cancer, prosthetic limbs, etc. All of these and more qualify as disabilities, and these individuals are allowed access to a
disabled placard to make their lives and the world that much easier to navigate."
---
"2. Police officers, parking attendants, etc. can ask someone to show them the permit people are required to carry when they use a placard. Other people do not need to enact their own form of vigilante justice. There is a system in place to make sure that those who use the placards are permitted to use them."