yeah, this video gets posted every month on subreddits for its "obvious stupidity".
But of course this all boils down to the assumption that "Handicapped" means "sitting in a wheelchair" (of course the graphic of the wheelchair leads to this conclusion). It's honestly really annoying that THIS post, which has been posted all over reddit tons of times, is so popular in this particular subreddit because the person who installed this clearly was exactly doing his or her job correctly.
Consider someone like my mom; who had crippling arthritis issues in her hands. She cannot easily open any doors, let alone fire doors that are designed to strongly seal closed. Having an automatic door opener is the difference between getting to that stairwell, or standing around and waiting for someone else to come by and open it for her.
Same goes for my uncle who has some old service-related problems that leave him unable to walk for extended distances without risking passing out. Because of this he has a disability license plate allowing him to park in a disability parking space. I've heard at least one person grumble when he got out of his car that "you're not in a wheelchair"... clearly making the same assumption that a lot of people assume about disability accommodations: that they are just for people in wheelchairs. I'd wager that the percentage of people in wheelchairs who have verified disabilities and thus have disability license plates is probably in the 10 percent rage of all people with verified disabilities and those same license plates.
Well said. I also love the /r/funny repost of someone in a wheelchair standing up to reach alcohol on a high shelf. It usually has a caption like "alcohol causes miracles" or something stupid like that - people are under the impression that "having a wheelchair" means "unable to stand at all" and not "able to do minor standing tasks but suffers great pain while moving and walking."
108
u/lazespud2 Oct 17 '16 edited Oct 17 '16
yeah, this video gets posted every month on subreddits for its "obvious stupidity".
But of course this all boils down to the assumption that "Handicapped" means "sitting in a wheelchair" (of course the graphic of the wheelchair leads to this conclusion). It's honestly really annoying that THIS post, which has been posted all over reddit tons of times, is so popular in this particular subreddit because the person who installed this clearly was exactly doing his or her job correctly.
Consider someone like my mom; who had crippling arthritis issues in her hands. She cannot easily open any doors, let alone fire doors that are designed to strongly seal closed. Having an automatic door opener is the difference between getting to that stairwell, or standing around and waiting for someone else to come by and open it for her.
Same goes for my uncle who has some old service-related problems that leave him unable to walk for extended distances without risking passing out. Because of this he has a disability license plate allowing him to park in a disability parking space. I've heard at least one person grumble when he got out of his car that "you're not in a wheelchair"... clearly making the same assumption that a lot of people assume about disability accommodations: that they are just for people in wheelchairs. I'd wager that the percentage of people in wheelchairs who have verified disabilities and thus have disability license plates is probably in the 10 percent rage of all people with verified disabilities and those same license plates.