WESTMINSTER, Colo., Sept. 3 (UPI) — A Colorado woman who used accessible parking with her daughter, who has a genetic disorder, found an insulting note saying she was not “truly handicapped.”
Naomi Barringer said she parked in the disability accessible parking spot Friday afternoon while visiting Target with her 10-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, and the pair returned to the car to discover an anonymous note.
The note called Barringer an “idiot” and blasted her for using the spot without being “truly handicapped.”
Barringer said her daughter suffers from the genetic condition hypophosphatasia, which left her bones weak and brittle. She said the girl was born with 13 bone fractures and often has a lot of pain from the condition.
The note reads:
“Greetings! I observed you parking in this Handicapped parking place today. It appears that you are not really handicapped — perhaps just in a hurry, or worse, just plain lazy.In case you don’t know, these spots are reserved for people who are truly handicapped, and because of idiots like you, they have to park farther away or not be able to come here at all. Before you throw this away, know that I have called in your license plate number to the local police. Have a great day!”
“I was shocked by how mean it was,” Barringer told Yahoo Parenting.
“I was offended, I was hurt actually. I really didn’t know people thought of me like that,” Kaitlyn told KUSA-TV. “I am disabled and they may not know that and I can understand that because I do look normal but I don’t think they have to do that.”
The girl said she hopes no one else received similar notes from the same person.
“This made me very sad so I feel like I’d try to comfort them and tell them that they aren’t stupid, they aren’t lazy and they have this for a reason. They have the sign because they need it,” she said.
Aaron Pasterz of the Center for People with Disabilities in Boulder said he was shocked by the note. “Well I was astonished to read that,” he said.
Pasterz said people shouldn’t try to judge disabilities on sight alone.
“It is a misconception and they don’t know that person’s story,” he said.
A York, England, woman with the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia found a similar note on her car earlier this year. Sarah Metcalfe, 35, parked her car at the Tesco Extra store in York April 30 and returned to find a note saying: “Being fat and ugly doesn’t count as disabled (park elsewhere).”
A third insulting note was left on Natasha Hope-Simpson’s car in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The note said the author had seen her walking away from her car multiple times after using accessible parking and the woman “should be ashamed” because she is “not handicapped.”
Hope-Simpson said she was actually “flattered” by the note, as the author had apparently not noticed her prosthetic leg.
