How do you deal with people being rude because of your disability?

mousey · July 13

I am quite fed up of being verbally abused by people driving past me in their cars and shouting at me. The most recent time it was a car full of teenagers or young adults, they drove past me and one of them shouted “my legs work” at me (I was in my wheelchair).

Another time someone shouted “Timmy” at me, again driving by in their car. If you get the “joke” you can guess why it was upsetting.

Why do these people think it’s fun to pick on a disabled person? I can’t make any complaints to the police etc as I have no evidence and because both times they’ve driven past me so fast I haven’t seen number plates etc.

I guess my question is, how would you deal with this? How would you make it feel safe to go outside?

TIA.

Wheeled_Weapon · July 13

I have a picture of Timmy tattooed on the back of my right arm, including his catchphrase.

So... You can imagine how much those brave people yelling out of moving cars actually bothers me.

Wheeled_Weapon · July 13

Also, it's perfectly safe being out. Those brave people yelling from cars won't do owt. They're usually terrified if I catch up to them if they get stuck at a red light. Rightly so.

Wheeled_Weapon · July 13

Since nobody else has answered you, I'll give a little more perspective on my previous answers -

I rarely hear "Timmy" now, usually it's more comments on how fast I push. Well, I used to get so angry, give people a mouthful and be fully prepared to get physical with them… You know who that affected the most? Me.

Now, I just don't care, I even involve humour. Like two days ago someone did the 'vroom' sound as I passed them. Wow! It was such a good impression of the sound that I actually complimented him on it and we had a bit banter.

Now the people who shout out of cars... Brave, aren't they? Not quite so brave when they get stuck at a red light though 🤣 I've had some fun times confronting them in those situations 😄

Truth is, you're always going to get some fool who thinks they're funny. That does not mean you're in danger or it isn't safe to go out. It's just fools.

Remember, they aren't even actually insulting you. Like it'd be different if they shouted something about your hairstyle or your face for example.

TL;DR - It's perfectly safe to go outside and fools shouting the same fool stuff are always going to exist.

Andi66 · July 13

Because they are idiots, I don't know who Timmy is. I've been told I'm not right in the head, I'm simple due to my autism

Albus_Scope · July 13

Sorry to hear you're finding things tough in the big wide outside @mousey as @Wheeled_Weapon has said, it's people who are "all mouth and no trousers" as my dad used to say. But I know it can be a very scary experience, especially if you're travelling alone and with everything going on in the world, it tends to make things seem even more scary. I think as a man, it's a lot easier for me to talk about brushing it all off, which is a bit rubbish.

If it's the same people, that would count as targeted harassment and I'd recommend getting a dashcam or Go-pro style recorder and record your journeys, so the idiots will be caught on film, then you'll have something the police may take notice of, especially if it's happening a lot.

But ideally, people would just be quiet and get on with their own lives and leave others alone.