September 6, 2006

LETTERS2theEDITOR

Some people who use handicapped parking have hidden disabilities

Editor,
On visiting the Home Depot Store in Campbell recently I was most upset upon returning to my car to find a note pinned to my window. The reason for the note? I was parking legally in a disabled space with my disabled placard displayed, and the person who wrote the note challenged my legality for parking in the space.

I probably do not fit the stereotypical picture of a disabled person because I am 43 years old and do not look ill. My disability is that I have chronic renal failure and I am on Dialysis. The effects of this are that I am chronically fatigued, on many days my joints ache and I can hardly put one foot in front of the other. I have a five-year-old son who is too young to understand that his mommy gets tired very easily. Having my disabled placard allows me to use my energy where it is most needed, in getting through my day and caring for my son, rather than using it to trudge across huge expanses of parking lot whenever I shop.

I am writing this letter with the hope of educating those that think that for someone to be disabled they must not be able to walk. Disability takes many forms. In many cases it is obvious, for example when someone is in a wheelchair, in other cases, such as mine, it isn't. I really wished that the person who had left this note had confronted me in person. I may then have had the opportunity to discuss this fact with them and they may have left a more educated person and not made gross assumptions about other people in similar circumstances in the future.

Amanda Wilson
Queens Court

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