Handicapped People--Abused Or Not?

hi maggiepie I also have arthritis in my knees but its not quite as bad as yours as I just use a quad cane but they hurt like crazy if I d ont take my tramadol twice a day. Yes in the past it was a lot different and I am being told from fellow residents here I should get a walker but I am loathe too, Oddly the only place where I sometimes feel angered is here when I a m trying to hobble out of the elevator and some younger resident without any impedimenta or arthritis blocks my way so I have to wobble past him. my knees hurt some even with the pills and its really not easy for me to walk as I have a left leg in a brace due to a ruptured tendon that was shrugged off as a sprained ankle.finally I got sent to a foot surgeon who said at once your primary care doctor is a fool thats a ruptured tendon and cannot be repaired now so you will have to have a brace on that leg so you can at least walk again. my foot had turned inward so I was walking on the side of my foot which was very painful. so now I have had a brace for a number of years and with that and osteo arthritis it is difficult for me to walk very far.. Now its really been nice as even for me people are very helpful and I am not in a wheelchair, at least yet hope not at all.lol. and I have not been anywhere lately where there was not access for wheelchair people which is so good here in the U.S.

I understand what you are saying as I am handicapped myself. When I was just a mere infant I was stricken with a disease that maimed me all my like. I am able to walk with a limp and childhood was very difficult for me. I remember that my classmates will call me names and mimics the way I walk at first I dont understand what wrong but as I grew I noticed that I am very different to them. It was painful to be left out when everyone is playing games and running around and to will actually play with you. As an adult I came to accept my disability and try to live a normal life but I never get used to how people stare at me when I pass by it feels like they are staring right to my soul making me feel small. Abused? I say its not an abuse to be makefun of or have unwanted attention then the next guy but it sure thus make me feel worse than the pain I endure by simply walking.

I have always opened door with people in wheelchairs motor or not. and I see it in casinos where they get to the machine they want people even move chairs for them to get to it!

It is totally different scenario in my country. People who find themselves less normal than the normal human beings shun the public, they feel they are no longer worthy to mingle around in the open because of their handicap. Unlike in the western countries, the mentality of the people in the third world countries aren't the same. People in the west regardless of their physiques co-exist equally and enjoy the outside world all the same. That doesn't happen in our society. It is unfortunate that those who are physically handicap feel inferior and on their own accord imprisoned themselves in their own world to never make themselves available to the outside world again. When you walk on our streets or shop in our shopping malls you'll not see a single soul of people on wheelchairs or the senior citizens on walking sticks. It is as though our country is only blessed with burly people. The handicapped people segregate themselves as they fear the public can't accept their abnormalities.

I think, for the most part, as long as people can see that someone has a physical disability, they are more than willing to give assistance. The problem comes when they can't see the disability or they make a judgement that the person's disability is self-imposed that the problems begin to take place. Even I've griped over people parking in handicap spots who are able to jump out of their vehicles and move quickly into the store. I have good days and bad. When everything hurts, I'll park in the handicap spots when I find them. But, if I'm feeling pretty good, I leave those spots for those who need them more than I do - yet, I still feel that there are those who don't need them who use them. But, I would never confront them about it because that's uncivil and rude since there are legitimate disabilities that can't be seen. I've head of people who are called names because they're parking in a spot that someone else thinks they don't deserve - yet that person has a disability that is intermittent and doesn't always give warning of being about to interfere - thus the need to park more closely to the store. When I was caring for my mother, it bugged me to no end when people would put their kids in the carts meant for people who had limited mobility for someone else to push because I could never find one available for Mom to participate in the shopping which was difficult because of her bad knees and her emphysema. She didn't want to use a wheelchair because she liked to look at and touch what she wanted to buy. It would irritate me because those people didn't have a clue and the store's management didn't do anything about it. But, is it abuse? I'm not sure. I think it's more cluelessness.

Good day! I think most of the handicapped people are abused. It depends on the people living in a certain place. :)

I think it varies from town to town. Because my town has a large population of adult disabled there is a big, positive awareness. My town, with a population of about 14,000 has three agencies that provide services and housing for them. We also have a number of nursing homes in the county, and even our kids learn to respect people with disabilities and the handicapped. On the other hand, I do hear about other parts of the country where people who are handicapped in one way or another become victims and targets of bullying.

Hello, maggie.....I also have osteoarthritis and it became so severe that I had to have bilateral hip replacements. The surgeries were just a month apart. Before the surgeries I was using a walker to get around and then afterward, I had to use a cane which I still use occasionally. The arthritis is still prevalent in my spine and some other areas. When out shopping I use the little motorized carts for my goods and groceries. I've found that most people are very courteous and offer to help with getting items off of shelves, etc. They offer to hold doors for me and even to help unload the groceries, etc. For the most part, this type of behavior has improved over the last 10 years, I think.

When I was in Chicago I saw whole buses rearrange to accomodate those who were in chairs, or had trouble getting around. They also were very respectful of the elderly. Here I am now with my own son in a chair and I find that some are very helpful. However, in general the community is not conducive to transporting him. Hardly anything is handicap accessible. Oh there are parking spots there are just very few of them and far away from some locations - just in the general area and the sidewalks are terrible. It's like it sends the message that only walkers are welcome.

Whether a person is physically or mentally handicapped, they will experience unusual kinds of reactions from others, some negative and some positive. Still, people should understand that handicapped people are human too and ought to have respect and they also deserve to be understood. Some people react to the handicapped in a discriminative way, not wanting to rent apartments to them or hire them. It is against the law to discriminate against the handicapped and they have every right to seek out legal action against anyone who resorts to such behavior towards them.

My disability was slow onset and very progressive. Just in the past three years I have gone from occasional pain that crippled for a day or two to constant pain that keeps me from doing much of anything. Since it has been slowly progressive, many people expect me to still do things that I cannot do. Remember what happened when I was going in for my last knee? I think the hardest thing is that we need someone to lean on and many folks just aren't willing to be leaned on. I am fortunate in that I have two or three very good friends now who understand somewhat and are willing to go out of their way to help me when I need it. Those who don't know me as well are not as willing to accept that I can't do some things. At the same time the people in the stores I frequent are very helpful. When they see me sitting in the motor cart trying to reach something on a higher shelf, they will get it for me. Like all things, I think it all depends on the individual, how well they know me, what venue they know me from and their personal perspective of what I'm dealing with. My biggest beef is with the stupid doctors who refuse to accept that I am hurting as bad as I say I am! grrrr

Here in our country, the handicapped persons are respected well. Although, there are some scrupulous people who take advantage of them such as rob them or would bypass them when they are trying to get something . But when good people see such a thing , they would defend the handicapped person themselves. Generally, we treat handicapped persons as normal but with care.