abuse shouted at me because I use a mobility scooter.

I don't know about UK, but here in the US, it's extremely hard to get disability benefits. During my initial phone interview, the woman from social security practicly had me in tears because she was so hostile and uncompassionate. She questioned me as though I were a criminal and I felt she was overly personally involved with her own biased set of beliefs for all applicants. She scared me into thinking I wouldn't get approved, but the examiner did approve me . She is my case manager now and dealing with has been unpleasant. There's a nice guy at the same office who answered my questions beautifully, so they're all not like that, but society has promoted the notion that many people who receive benefits are not really disabled and that we are living large. This is simply not true. It's very complicated .

Starbox, why are you getting called every name under the sun? Is it because your actions or attitude? These campaigns are to protect the disabled and other groups because they are most at risk and cannot help the color of their skin or didn't choose to become disabled. They can be much more of a target because of people's ignorance/hatred which they may have to endure their entire lives, every time they go out in public or apply for a job, or want to join a group. Does this really happen to you and other "non special " folk on a regular basis? Would you really want to experience the daily life of a person with a disability and be bullied, attacked or demeaned on top of being unable to protect yourself? No??

Wow...did you explain to them your legs got crushed between a wall and a vehicle???? I can't believe how heartless/sensless some people can be. I became disabled two years ago and besides the disability itself, I think the way people viewed me was just as hard. Every step I took in public was not only physically slow, but painful psychology because I couldn't walk fast enough to escape the looks I got from people. I went from playing my favorite sports several times a week and even winning trophies before my disability to struggling to walk normal and feeling ridiculed inside. I tried using a mobility scooter in the grocery store and it was very strange and somewhat sad. I found that most people didn't or were afraid to look at me while on the scooter compared to when I was pushing a cart. I really understood for the first time how many people who are in a wheelchair might feel invisible or dismissed, and it's helped me now to try to always make eye contact because I was guilty of the same thing before my disability. Where I live, I've found many people holding doors open and being kind, but there were times I would get very angry when I felt people were trying to "push me along" in the grocery store because they didn't see I had walking issues right off and they thought I was going slow on purpose. Once I was walking through a parking lot and some younger guys in a truck veered towards me as if they were going to hit me, so I just leaned into the trucks direction and gave them a scare..Haha. I've also found that many times the elderly have given me denigrating looks...even when they themselves were using a cane (??) It's too bad that we can't invent some type of "fart spray".. a legal, non injurious substance that we can spray at senseless people. Nothing that will actually get on them.. just a foul whiff that will cause their noses to wrinkle and their heads to whip around wondering where it came from (by then we'll have escaped with our scooters..)

We have a local lady on her mobility scooter who goes mad on the pavement and shops. I said to her you better be careful you might hurt someone her response was if they don't get out of my way its there fault! I appreciate that most disabled people are very nice but you always get one which gives you a bad name!

Yesterday, I had a very scary experience, I went to our weekly car boot sale on my mobility scooter , I was driving at 1 mph looking at the stalls with one eye and at the same time watching the people around me , to make sure I did not touch them or they walk into me I am a VERY careful and considerate driver , a man walked past me for a short distance then turned around and walked back to me shouting into my face , dont break the speed limit here , I decided not to argue but just smiled sweetly and said no.
Returning home , I was driving at 4 mph on the pavement
heading for bollards in the road where I always cross as I have a good view in both directions , when I was approx 25 yards from the bollards a car came at high speed from the left , slammed on his brakes and skidded around the bollards mounted the pavement in front of me and drove his car at me , veering off the pavement just before he hit me , as he passed I reconised the driver as being the man who had spoken to me , a man walking from the opposite direction came and asked if I was ok , and said he nearly hit you , I hope his tyres burst. no doubt it was this idiots idea of a "joke". unfortunately I did not get the cars number , I do not know weather to report it to the Police or not as I do not have his number , but , it really shook me up.

I was going to post a very similar remark to that already posted by mostlyharmless. I am shocked that when we hear so much nowadays about hidden disability etc people can remain so ignorant. caroline2016 best to have selective hearing for your own sanity but otherwise maybe say something like, 'wish I could swap places with you for just one day!'

Thank you for all your comments , Madgran77 I like your style ! and I do so agree NanaandGrampy about the mobile phone users , I have had people walk straight into the front of my scooter , no way can I avoid them.
I realize that I will have to start and answer these idiots back and not just ignore them ,
Can I just make the point that when you have had illnesses and are disabled it can leave you lacking in self confidence ( it has me ) and people shouting abuse and making personal comments can make you feel as if you are a waste of space and should not be out ( I thought this attitude went out with Queen Victoria ) and it can be a struggle to actually go out , and I make " excuses " not to go out some days , no way can it be taken as " gentle teasing ".

I can’t understand this intolerance.
There but for fortune.........

I had to use a disability scooter from my middle 40’s as I struggle to get around,my kneecap is at the side of my leg plus I had other health problems,I was also caring for my husband who had a massive stroke and dementia,it was like looking after a new born. Used to take my daughter to school and back and went through a period where she didn’t want to go home as a group of youths would follow us all the way home shouting out benefits fraud at me,one time one if their parents were there and I thought good,he will stop them,did he heck,just put his head down and let them carry on,wanted to say I would swap my life for theirs but don’t think I would as would hate that attitude.
I also had people shouting can’t you go any faster? Bought a sticker to go on the back of a tortoise that said I’m going as fast as I can.
I haven’t been able to use it for a few years now as my neck has now twisted so can’t look to my left so my another of my daughters has to push me in an attendance wheelchair and even now people will just stand in the way,if I ask if they can excuse us I get laughed at because I can’t speak properly now.
The discrimination certainly seems to have got worse over the years

There does seem to be some form of mis-comprehension that if you are obviously 'old' then use of blue badge when in car and pavement mobility scooter is okay. That is me - and since having my mobility scooter I have been very pleasantly surprised as to how very helpful everyone is, particularly car drivers who always seem to stop if I am waiting to cross a road.
Due to having severe UC when i was much younger and subsequent permanent ileostomy for the past 26 years I prefer to use the large 'disabled' toilets so that I have a wash hand basin close at hand and privacy. Nobody has ever queried my right to use these.
However, one of my g.daughters has a problem which mean she has no nerve use of her anus, between the age of 4 yrs and 11 yrs, her mother would often need to take into a disabled loo in order to clean her up and change her underclothes. Apart from that, she is a normal little girl, and they often got people accusing them of jumping a queue. (Fortunately, she now has a management daily wash-out technique which has nearly solved this problem).

on the flip side I get cheezzzzzzzed off with mobile folk expecting me to shift out of their way

Our local hospital aspires to the mantra " Not all disability is obvious"

If anyone is that rude then they will get the rough edge of my tongue and believe me its about 60 grit on the sand paper scale

As for weight gain and disability. So much heartbreak when women who formerly were careful about appearance and weight become ill and need steroids or strong pain relief. There's nothing stopping the weight going on. If they starve themselves (which some have done under pressure to lose the weight) they end up in hospital and possibly being tube fed as in many EDS/hypermobility cases. People do not choose to be disabled, it can happen to anyone. The person you are insulting in the café could be a former lawyer, doctor , teacher trying to find a bit of normality in their lives. If these places object to their presence they can be reported for disability hate crime.

I live in a seaside town in an area with a high pensioner population. Naturally we get a number of mobility scooters , most of the users I hope are treated well and use their scooter properly. However, we have a number of elderly gents who think they are old boy racers and whizz along the pavement at full speed without regard for other people . A couple actually drive on the road and recently on the dual carriageway .

Disabled toilets are not just for accessability many have bowel/bladder problems and they should not be used for baby changing although it does happen. Some disabled self catheterise and don't want to risk infection using a regular toilet. I rarely use these toilets but have to when travelling and find I sometimes have to wait while a whole family use the extra space to freshen up. Clearly they have no one with a disability in that family or are completely selfish. Coming back to the OP finding there are such rude people about making comments. It is not funny or jokey. Bullies call bullying " just a bit of fun" when they are found out, it isn't acceptable to humiliate people who have to use a visible means of equipment to help them. I always think they are the same "breed" who humiliate young mothers when their toddler has a tantrum in public, born without boundaries, always likely to say something that will hurt someone. Being "outspoken" is another way of covering rudeness. We have to make space for wheelchairs, scooters and pushchairs, it had to be made law because there were some who were isolating the vulnerable by being cruel. I have never been hit by a wheelchair or scooter but I have been hurt by someone's handbag

Disabled toilets are mentioned on here. Having recently had a total knee replacement, I used the disabled facilities in a local store. The toilet was spotlessly clean and generally well-designed but, the rail attached to the wall was being used to store spare toilet rolls and the soap dispenser was attached to the wall so that any spills and water splashes would drip onto the floor right in front of the toilet, turning it into a skating rink. Not ideal for the disabled.

Caroline2016,please carry on enjoying your mobility scooter and ignore these nasty people. My husband had a mobility scooter for a few years,it enabled us to continue to enjoy going places together,and made some happy memories.He's now on end of life care in a care home,so the happy days are all in the past.I remember some people commenting on the scooter being in the way,but often it was them that weren't being considerate.You deserve to be able to get out and about,you looked after your husband and have been injured yourself,these people might be on your situation themselves one day.

PP ???????

I agree with the critics of GGs post. An a retired benefits worker, that list of benefits is ridiculous. They couldn't all be paid to the same person. The problem is when people read DM and mistake it for a newspaper.

I’m currently sporting a huge bruise on the back of my leg after being run into by a mobility scooter. No apology. In fact she gave me a really nasty look as if to say it was my fault.

Yes, me too. With arthritic knees and a fractured spine, I parked my car in a disabled bay at ASDA's one day and on leaving found someone had spat out their half chewed grapes over my car. This during the times when the tv was airing one of those awful programmes about disabled people being scroungers. And with these physical problems I held down jobs all my working life and didn't retire until I was 68 ...........

I am really dismayed to read that anyone, young or old, should make nasty comments about disabled people. I have Arthritis and bad balance so I walk with a stick and have never had any comments good or bad. Perhaps it doesn't happen where I live or I may just have been lucky.

Some very unpleasant experiences on here. Can we just try to make other people's days a bit better, not a bit worse? Say good morning to people, if they ignore you it's not your problem. Chat at bus stops. Treat shop assistants like real people.
Pick up a few pieces of litter. Admire dogs, congratulate owners who are actually picking up the poo. I find all this comes more easily when the sun is shining but it does work.

Yesterday a loud little girl with special needs was calling 'hello' to people on the bus as her obviously exhausted grandmother sat silent. Some passengers answered her, then a whole group of secondary schoolboys said, one by one, 'goodbye' as they got off. The little girl was radiant as she replied and the grandmother relaxed a little too. She then chatted a little to a friend who was on the bus and I realised how difficult were the lives of both women. We're all on the same human journey, why not help each other along?

Yes Marydoll there surely are. Disabilism at its best from some posters.

Well MillyG thank god you’ve pointed out that if someone’s obese it’s their own fault !!

It seems to be the last bastion of discrimination. You don’t even need a doctors diagnosis because according to you it’s obvious !

I would have thought it would make far more sense to assume ill health limited mobility and limited mobility increases the risk of obesity.

But what do I know ?

Well GG what a charming post. Any view predicated upon a story ( in all senses of the word) in the MailOnline and which therefore postulates that policies towards disabled people should be formulated thereon makes me glad that whilst my body doesn’t work very well, at least my brain does.