abuse shouted at me because I use a mobility scooter.

Well said Paddyann!
Many medications can cause weight gain. When I'm on steroids, I can put on half a stone in a week, despite eating less, as I feel so awful. It is so difficult to get the weight back off again. Heaven help those who are on long term steroids and are also unable to exercise due to their disabilities.
Quite a few intolerant and unsympathetic people on this thread.

Well MillyG I hope you never end up with the multiple probelms my daughter has.She was a fit size 12 ..át 5 foot 8 .She has fibro and joint hypermobility syndrome amongst other things ...all withing the past 5 years.Until then she ran her own business and a pub with her husband and cared for ahome and 3 children.She takes 23 pills a DAY ,they dont touch the sides of the pain and they leave her with brain fog and unable to do the simplest thing.She is bedbound most of the time.She is now about a size 20 ...NOT because she eats too much ,but because of the illnesses and the medication .Every now and again she manages to get out with her girls ..she really doesn't need to be abused ,for her weight or for the fact she doesn't LOOK disabled .As for the mailonline stories.....well toilet paper has more facts than that publication .But of course there are always the gullible who are looking for someone to blame for THEIR problems .

It's certainly medical fact that people's metabolisms can slow down; and NO EXCUSE EVER to make rude comments to overweight folk, but I have to observe that food MUST play a part...you don't get obesity in situations where food severely rationed (and I'm struggling with my weight too, before I get shouted down!!)

I admit, I was cycling (very carefully) on footpath outside his house (middle aged woman , not a speeding teen!) . He took exception, leant over wall extending his walking stick and wouldve had me off if I hadnt stopped. I must admit at bottom of street I turned round and biked past his house again just to 'have the last word' !!

Thank you craftynan! I was a size 12 before I became disabled, now although my food in take is a lot less (its true, no appetite!) I am now a size 20. It is impossible for me to exercise at the level needed to lose weight and although I do eat heathily, no sweets, fried food etc my size ballooned! I am aware of it but to have Hey Fat A* get a move on shouted at me does not exactly make my day!

MillyG, have you thought that perhaps some people are obese because they are not mobile? Not everyone’s metabolism is the same, some struggle to gain weight and others struggle to keep their weight under control despite healthy eating and plenty of exercise. These sort of assumptions annoy me as much as those made about people with hidden disabilities.

Baggs probably because she’d complained to him that he was allowed a walking stick because he was disabled when she, as an ordinary person, was not allowed one ????

My father-in-law had a mobility scooter. He was a death-risk to anyone else using the footpath at the same time, as he didn't seem to realise the thing had anything other than top speed, and he was partially sighted so didn't see other people on the footpath, and quite deaf so didn't hear people shouting warnings. No good trying to reason with him, he loved the scooter, it gave him mobility and independence. He shouldn't have had one, but I don't know how we could have got it off him.

star, why did an old man try to knock you off your bicycle with his walking stick?

Well clearly it’s have a go at disabled people - anymore for anymore?

I was in a small cafe when a man drove his huge mobility scooter in. He parked in the middle and people could not carry their trays past him. I was in the queue and had to pass my tray over his head to my friend. It was almost as if he was there to make a point. He felt entitled to block the cafe, so he did.

There are often queues for toilets. I think some disabled people feel that they shouldn’t have to wait - not all by any means. Isn’t a disabled toilet one which gives disabled people access to an appropriate toilet, not something only they can use?
I am thinking those with sensitive bladder, a Mum with a pushchair etc. I wouldn’t leave my GC outside the cubicle in a ladies loo.

I have EDS and use both a wheelchair and a rollator and yes I have heard snide comments which I found offensive. I gave up on joining groups for my age because there so many opinions about disability ( I've lived with this all my life, 23 years wheelchair) and I have no choice in the matter. I wish I had the luxury of having an opinion! A certain age group see the "disability" first and sometimes miss the person behind it or become patronising and embarrassing. Young people are much better, my grand children accept me as I am, they see the disability but it is no barrier to my being a loving and useful Nan. Likewise my children. They live 300 miles away and I can no longer be of help in times of need (although I have done the new babies and moving homes bit several times) People ask very personal questions when it's none of their business, I am not public property and make assumptions that being disabled is something always associated with benefits. That is not so. The worst I came across was a senior social worker who was supposed to see what she could do to help and after a few visits decided she could only give me help if I was mentally incapacitated and proceeded to try and get me to agree with her! There are nice people out there who respect the disabled and there are those who want to control and humiliate and those calling names and snide comments come into that category.

And another thing star you clearly don’t understand about equality campaigns and their dreadful ‘negative’ effects - like the campaign for blue badges which means that me and others on this thread can get out and about like ‘ordinary’ people or the campaign for disability rights in employment which means I can work like ‘ordinary’ people. Yep really negative effects - all those poor ‘ordinary’ people who have to ‘suck up’ not having a blue badge or having adjustments made for them at work. I expect people like you would be happier if we were all put in institutions and then you wouldn’t have to suck up not being special because we would be out of your privileged sight . FFS

It's not just the government creating ill will toward the disadvantaged.
I refuse to watch anything on Channel 5 or its cohorts because of the relentless targetting of benefits claimants that is their program schedule.

That was meant to be ‘acid tongue’ though I can be a rogue when called upon!

I think tolerance care and kindness from all sides is what’s needed!
I don’t look disabled but can’t walk very well, so I use a small mobility scooter.
I have often been asked why I’m driving a ‘fattywagon’ when I’m a skinny old biddy!
Bliddy cheek - fortunately I have a very acid rogue and can usually send hecklers on their way with red faces!

maryeliza, the comment about sadness and everyday struggles struck a chord with me. It can be so difficult at times. ?

Starbox ‘Tolerance to the disabled’ How frightfully good of you. What a patronising disabling attitude - bully for you that you haven’t got a disability. Have you the slightest yes the slightest idea what every day life is for people like me? The everyday struggles to do everyday things that you take for granted ,the everyday worries and pain, the erosion of your independence,the sadness at the loss of everyday things you can’t do.No you damn well haven’t with your ablist privelege - I don’t want your bloody patronising tolerance - just a few more rights would come in handy

As several posters have said, unfortunately there are some people in this country who are thoughtless and unkind. This includes both people with and without disabilities.

My adult stepson has a legitimate blue badge for his genuine disability which he has had since birth and I can see some people glaring at him when we park his car. Having said that, we try not to park in a disabled space if we can see a ‘normal ‘ space nearby. A certain amount of exercise is good for him and I know that other disabled people might be in more need of the ‘disability parking space’. On other occasions we have to use the disability space because of the distance involved in getting to the shop etc.

The worst abuse I have seen with my stepson is when a bus conductor hit him on the shoulder because my stepson was too slow in getting his buss pass out for inspection. The man then denied it, so we couldn’t take any action. ?

I understand about hidden disabilities. I look like a relatively agile pensioner but can only walk short distances, can't lift or carry shopping and a supermarket trip means I have to lie down for the rest of the afternoon. I require disabled toilet facilities too.
I am not entitled to a disabled parking badge.

Yes, I definitely think equality campaigns have a negative effect. Because when 'ordinary' folk like me (not disabled/ black/ gay) get flak, we have to 'suck it up' because we're not 'special' (I had an old man try to knock me off my bike with walking stick! I've been called every name under the sun. I've been bullied at work.) But no one really interested in that. And I think that causes a creeping irritation towards those who ARE deemed worthy of special protection. I would advocate a balanced attitude- tolerance to the disabled, good to see them getting about BUT to scooter users, be aware you can't just mow pederstrians down, special though you are! (SOME absolutely have no regard!)

Hmmm. Whilst insults and nastiness is uncalled for I can sympathise with both sides.

In my area the majority of people I see riding these mobility scooters are hugely obese and from the outside it appears that their mobility difficulties are self-imposed. This does not engender kind thoughts if their driving is poor and inconsiderate toward others.

Although some riders are careful and considerate, there are sadly a great many who are very bad drivers, not properly in control of their vehicle, appear to believe that they have right-of-way over everyone else and just go ramming through wherever they want to go without a thought for innocent pedestrians or cyclists. Just saying.

I didn’t know there were set speed limits for mobility scooters. That’s interesting. 4 mph doesn’t sound fast but the average person walks at 2mph on a clear pavement, less in town with their bstackes. So mobility users are going at twice the speed at least of the average person.

Something to bear in mind when you are in charge of a solid vehicle that hits a pair of fragile legs?

When I was in a wheelchair I also got some sarky comments, but they were from folk I knew, not strangers. Some folk have a warped SOH and think it is clever to throw out gratuitous insults in an attempt to wind you up. I used to think of clever replies, but not always at the time.