Blue badge

deb74

just heard on the news blue badge is going to be given to more people. Lots of people have hidden disabilities and will really benefit from this.

poppy123456

Hi,

This will be the new changes coming into affect on 30th August 2019. However, not everyone with a hidden disability will automatically qualify. There's always a catch with this sort of thing and having looked into this more because my daughter claims Enhanced mobility PIP for following and planning a journey but she won't qualify.

To automatically qualify under following and planning a journey then you must score 10 points for activity 11E. Any other descriptor will not automatically qualify you.

Taken from this link. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/891/made

(g)receives the mobility component of personal independence payment at either the standard rate or the enhanced rate under section 79(3) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012(5), and, in an assessment carried out under the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013(6):

(i)obtained a score of at least 8 points in relation to the “moving around” activity; or

(ii)obtained a score of 10 points in relation to the “planning and following journeys” activity on the grounds that they cannot undertake any journey because it would cause them overwhelming psychological distress.”;

Chloe_Alumni

That's right @deb74 and thank you for providing more information @poppy123456, hopefully it will be a massive help to so many people!

Stickman

Should the symbol on the blue badge be updated? 

At the moment, the symbol is of a person in a wheelchair. You can see that someone in a wheelchair is disabled.  I have a disability but I'm not in a wheelchair and you cannot see hidden disabilities.

deb74

Hi @Stickman. The badges are completely out of date! but you can get stickers for your car that show a wheelchair on it's side and a person standing up and it says on it not all disabilities are visible. Not sure where you get them from though!

Stickman

I'll look out for one of those then.

Chloe_Alumni

I know these kind of signs have been put on disabled toilet doors which is great!

deb74

i know someone who has got one on his car. His son has mental health problems.

Chloe_Alumni

That's a great idea!

wilko

Not all disabilities are visible, how often have you or I seen people park in a blue Badge bay and walk off unaided? People have said to me while out on my mobility scooter,  but you don’t look disabled, my reply is you don’t look ignorant but you are all given and taken with the humour it was given. With all these extra people using the blue bade system with stress and anxiety it will become a joke going into crowded shops , lifts and shopping malls. Time will tell it like those who park in a bay and leave the badge holder in the car while they able bodied do the shopping.

Stickman

Hmm, I foresee problems with this idea.

david235

deb74 said:

Hi @Stickman. The badges are completely out of date! but you can get stickers for your car that show a wheelchair on it's side and a person standing up and it says on it not all disabilities are visible. Not sure where you get them from though!

Hannah Ensor's Stickman Communications has various helpful products. If you click on "Product Type" at thr right of the page, you can then choose "Stickers and signs", but I would recommend browsing through all her products as there are so many good ideas amongst them.

We have to be a bit careful criticising the "wheelchair symbol" or, to give it its official title, the International Symbol of Access (click for some history on Wikipedia). Whilst it arguably is not as inclusive as it ought to be, it is part of ISO 7001, the international standard for pictograms, and is widely recognised. In time, a more inclusive symbol will hopefully get widespread adoption but, as things stand, it is no surprise that legal documents such as Blue Badges and disabled parking signs stick with that symbol.

My personal choice is to go as low key as possible with my car. There are no outward signs or stickers indicating it is adapted other than a discreet sticker identifying the company that adapted the car. I don't have any parking permits including a Blue Badge on display unless I am relying on them - if I'm not using them, they're tucked away in the pocket in my driver's door. I would rather not alert people to my potential vulnerability unnecessarily.

However, the problem I have is that the glass from the B pillars (back of the driver's door and front passenger's door) backwards is privacy glass, which is very darkly tinted. This means that any stickers or signs inside the car do not show up, so I have no usable 'please keep back' sign for my rear mounted wheelchair lift. There seem to be three options:

• try to park where nobody should park behind me and hope (as I am doing now)
• give in and have a permanent sticker on the outside of the rear window, or
• have a sign made stuck to flexible magnetic material, which I can mount using other magnets inside the glass

I quite fancy the third option, but fear it will be blown away or someone will simply pull it off and throw it away.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Chloe_Alumni

Thank you for sharing this with us @david235, I have always loved Hannah Ensor's Stickman Communications!

david235

Here is an interesting page about the Visability93 campaign, reimagining symbols for disability especially with invisible disability in mind.

paffuto10

Good morning @david235

Thanks for those links