Age is not a disability. Disability knows no age.

[maradydd]

I recently learned that a disabled friend of mine, who has a connective tissue disorder and gets around with the help of various assistive devices and a service dog, has been getting hassled by neighbours who want everyone to park at one end of the street and walk home during the day when kids are playing (and have gotten a city street permit to this effect, though they're using it inappropriately -- they can't legally block residents from driving to their own homes, but they're doing it anyway.)

That alone is plenty out of line, but when my friend went to talk to her neighbours about why this wasn't going to work for her, they blew her off -- one of the reasons being "well, Mr. So-and-so is 92 and he doesn't mind."

News flash, people: being old and being disabled are not the same thing. Some old people are ridiculously healthy and spry -- my granddad was still climbing ladders to fix stuff in the garage when he was 90, and the first indication that nature wanted him to slow down was stage 4 lung cancer. (He died two months later.) Certainly there are disabilities that are more common among the elderly -- you don't see a lot of young people with Alzheimer's apart from that one poor family in Holland -- and many chronic conditions, such as polycystic kidney disease, tend to worsen over time, but being old does not mean ipso facto being disabled.

Everyone reading this will either get old or die young. Some of you will get old and never slow down; some of you will end up with osteoporosis, or arthritis, or diabetes. Perhaps the correlation between age and disability makes some people uneasy around young people who walk with canes or have motorized chairs -- perhaps it makes them think of their own inevitable mortality someday. But people who are young and disabled are disabled now, and it's inhumane to pretend that their problems don't exist.

Perhaps if we can get people to realise that disability and age aren't as causally linked as people seem to think they are, both the elderly and people like my friend won't have to put up with this kind of rudeness any more.

Comments

[avani.livejournal.com]

I would pay good money to see these people smacked down in court.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does, they're going down -- she's a law student. :D

[songblaze.livejournal.com]

It's more likely to go through the Streets Department, as they issued the permit and are probably the people who have the right to revoke it if they misuse it as they have been.

I just hope I don't have to - not because I mind a fight, but for the kids' sake. We've lost almost all of our local public swimming pools to budget cuts, so they've lost some of the best summer spots to play.

[deza.livejournal.com]

I regularly hear "You're too young to need a cane" or "you're too young to use a chair." Funny, I didn't realize that crippling bone fusion had an age limit. *eyeroll*

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

I should hope that "I have fused vertebrae" (or, soon, "I just had knee surgery") will shut them the hell up.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

"And you're too smart to think that!"

I don't say it. Usually. These people at least mean well, unlike most of the people who say stupid shit to cripples.

[songblaze.livejournal.com]

Oooh yeah. I got crap about my canes, my crutches, and my service dog.

I'm too young to need them, and what's more, I look too healthy.

Pff. Because all disabilities involve visually obvious signs of injury.

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

*applause*
i have nothing to add because your post is perfect. well, maybe i'd add that if someone my age had a physical handicap, i wouldn't blow them off by comparing them to a spry 92-year old. some 92-year olds are less decrepit than people half their age! you can't compare excellent health to a disability no matter the age. disability is disability.

some people are such cunts.

[patrickat.livejournal.com]

It's generally not legal to block anyone from using a street for its intended purpose, be they a resident or not, unless it's an undedicated (private) street or a dead end road permitting no through traffic. Most streets are in a public right-of-way and it's hard to imagine the municipality would grant a permit allowing a permanent or recurring blocking of the road. Typically, that kind of permit is only granted for a one-time thing like a block party or a parade. So they city may have already acted contrary to law... and in doing so they are, in this case, also aiding this group of residents in running afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This would be a really fun lawsuit, and just the hint of it coming would probably be enough to make the city rescind the permit.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

This is apparently some kind of special "designated play street" permit that residential streets in my friend's city can apply for, to block off the street to outside traffic from 10am-4pm. The principle is reasonable enough, but in this case it seems like the neighbours can't be arsed to teach their kids basic survival skills, such as "get out of the road when a car's coming".

The ADA point is a good one.

[songblaze.livejournal.com]

As the law specifically states that they are NOT allowed to block out people with residences or businesses on that section of the street, it should survive ADA scrutiny. Reasonable accomodation is included in the law.

The trouble is that my idiot neighbors aren't respecting what the law actually says. Matter of fact, they swear that their permit says something different.

Oh no. Their permit says they may block THROUGH traffic, not ALL traffic. The problem is that they don't undertand the difference.

The funniest part, though, is that they claim that the street doesn't have an obligation to accomodate me. As the street is a public street, gee, the ADA does cover it! *rolls her eyes* Morons. My neighbors are morons.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

What asshats. I hope your friend has the stones to just drive right through their barriers.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Oh, she has been. Not through the barriers action-movie style, but she's been driving slowly around them and to her driveway. The neighbours scream at her and are saying that they're going to report her license plate to the police every time she drives past the barriers and have them mail her a ticket. Presumably if they do that she'll be able to have any tickets dismissed, since she resides legally on that street and the law specifically says that residents must be allowed to drive to their homes, but it's still a hassle and they're still being pricks.

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

Let us know what happens.

This is her home. It's a nice idea for the kids in principle, but only works if you can accommodate everyone.

How did they get this passed by the council when it's clear that not everyone agrees to these new conditions?
Here in Australia, the local council requires written permission from everyone - neighbours on both sides and at the back,- to have something as mundane as three dogs in a suburban house to demonstrate that they are ok with this.
I can't imagine your American city council being so different that they won't require proven active permission about something which will be permanently affecting everyone in the street. Is all I'm saying...

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

The permit isn't supposed to prevent people who actually live on the street from being able to drive there; the people who got it are abusing it terribly. If they don't back down on their own, the next step is to have Officer Friendly come round and explain to the people that if they abuse their permit, it will be taken away.

I will keep y'all posted.

[briaer.livejournal.com]

OH YEAH lay the ADA smackdown on that shit!

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Wow, I thought this was a post on gimp_vent for a few minutes. can I just say how happy it makes me to see a not-physically-disabled person complain about this shit sometimes? (I mean, spouse-of-cripple-people and the invisibly disabled are the most likely folks, but it still made me happy.)

[enochsmiles.livejournal.com]

Could you use a less offensive term than "cripple", please? I know I don't appreciate it, and I doubt the mutual friend who inspired this post does either. Thanks.

[feonixrift.livejournal.com]

Thank you again for reminding me to occasionally browse gimp_vent. I don't know if reading for purposes of learning how to avoid being rude is appropriate, but I find it a stress relief that helps me understand people better, especially since I live near a large medical center.

[green-roc.livejournal.com]

Invisibly disabled, I like that term.

[akumadaimyo.livejournal.com]

I had some idiot road workers block off the entrance to our apartment complex a few years back when they were fixing the road. Apparently these fucking morons didn't know they couldnt do that. Seriously? How the hell do you NOT know that? It's illegal. I think our residents and the manager called the Police about this bullshit and the cops had to waste their time to tell these fucking morons that NO you can't block off the entrance to work on the road. People need to get in and out. People DO have jobs and lives you know. Derpa Derp Derp.

[songblaze.livejournal.com]

The ignorance of people is amazing sometimes, isn't it? You'd think someone whose profession involves roadways would know the basic laws of right of way!

[enochsmiles.livejournal.com]

It's pretty astounding that they thought that would work, regardless of legality. Blocking someone's driveway and telling them "tough luck" is one thing to try to get away with -- blocking an entire apartment complex is inviting a riot at morning rush hour!

Update, ish.

[songblaze.livejournal.com]

Today we had to call the police to drive onto our block.

They didn't come until after 4, and when they did, predictably enough my neighbors lied to them.

But hey, he told the neighbors they had no right to stop me from getting on the block, and told us that they had said all they asked was for us to wait for them to get the kids out of the way, so...the neighbors know I'm serious, and it's on police record that there have been issues. He also made it quite clear (at least to us, hopefully to them) that they have no right to demand I park at the end of the block.

I think the officer believed me more than them, because he said if there were problems again, I should seriously think about contacting the Streets Department and explaining what was going on.

...and besides, seriously, who would call the cops about being asked to wait a minute so the kids could be corralled? The neighbor's lies had to look pretty obviously like lies in that light.

I had also told the dispatcher, and the officer, about the verbal assault on Wednesday and the fact that its virulence had led me to feel that the situation might escalate to physical assault.

That's part of why today, I made sure it was my boyfriend and I together. By myself, I was afraid that the harpies might actually come hit me. While the boyfriend is a solidly built man, he is the most non-violent person I have ever met, though they had no way of knowing that.

[staghounds.livejournal.com]

Get a video camera. Because he's your beau, he's both an interested witness AND more likely to do something that can be spun as irrational.

Run a camera every time. It's better than a million witnesses. I do court for a living.