MedicAlert

[Carolla]

Would you have me - a person with a disability - surrender my seat when it has been designated as seating for disabled people, the elderly, and pregnant women?

From the TTC site: "A customer with a disability occupying a priority seat is not required to move for another customer with a disability. In this situation, use of the seats is on a first-come, first-served basis."

I guess you would have to decide that for yourself jae, re accommodating others. What 'the rules say' and what we do are often not the same thing.

 

[Greywolf336]

@Pr. Jae , I am curious as to how you define disability as opposed to disease.

 

[Jaebius]

I guess you would have to decide that for yourself jae, re accommodating others. What 'the rules say' and what we do are often not the same thing.

Yes *shrugs* of course I would.

???

 

[Jaebius]

@Pr. Jae , I am curious as to how you define disability as opposed to disease.

Why do you ask Greywolf?

"Epilepsy is not a disease. It is a neurological condition characterized by sudden bursts of electrical energy in the brain which results in a seizure" - source: Epilepsy Ontario.

 

[Mrs.Anteater]

Hi Jae,
Does standing in a bus makes you more at risk of having a seizure? Just curious why you need a seat. I mean, there are people with learning disabilities, which are also disabilities, and I wouldn't think they would need a disability seat. However, people with interlectual disabilities might, because they might need to be close to the driver to get up at the right bus stop. They also often have balance issues.

 

[Luce NDs]

Would you have me - a person with a disability - surrender my seat when it has been designated as seating for disabled people, the elderly, and pregnant women?

From the TTC site: "A customer with a disability occupying a priority seat is not required to move for another customer with a disability. In this situation, use of the seats is on a first-come, first-served basis."

Thus white people put the shadow at the back of the BUZZ? And we evolved to white noise ... just listen to the enlightened polity ... it can be extreme without balance of emotions and intellect --- Dan Golman!

Is this mean or just a medium internalized?

 

[Luce NDs]

Why do you ask Greywolf?

"Epilepsy is not a disease. It is a neurological condition characterized by sudden bursts of electrical energy in the brain which results in a seizure" - source: Epilepsy Ontario.

A shock "in" syndrome that obviously puts the flash under cover?

 

[Jaebius]

Hi Jae,
Does standing in a bus makes you more at risk of having a seizure? Just curious why you need a seat. I mean, there are people with learning disabilities, which are also disabilities, and I wouldn't think they would need a disability seat. However, people with interlectual disabilities might, because they might need to be close to the driver to get up at the right bus stop. They also often have balance issues.

Different people with epilepsy seem to have their seizures triggered by different factors Mrs. A. Many epileptics have issues with light - especially flashing light. I don't - but in the history of my condition - heat seems to have been a trigger. Getting around to your question - I don't have such an issue with standing for prolonged periods (at least when it comes to my epilepsy) - however others might (I don't know). However - it remains safer for me to be sitting than to stand. If I have a seizure (especially a grand mal) from a standing position - I could potentially do real harm to both myself and the other passengers as I fall to the ground - perhaps falling into others as I do so - and have my seizure.

 

[Pinga]

pr. jae? do you use a wheelchair for fear that you might have a seizure & fall? if not, then, given you have stated there is no greater risk of having a seizure by being on a bus, then...why would you feel the need to sit greater than say, someone who has a foot in a cast.

I am trying to understand why you feel you need accommodation?

If you said, "my life is hard because I have epilepsy, and sitting is a perk, that is not needed, but, is appreciated", then, I guess that is your prerogative.
If you said "my risk is higher on a bus than when walking to have a seizure, so I feel that I should sit", then, that also helps us to understand.

 

[Jaebius]

pr. jae? do you use a wheelchair for fear that you might have a seizure & fall? if not, then, given you have stated there is no greater risk of having a seizure by being on a bus, then...why would you feel the need to sit greater than say, someone who has a foot in a cast.

I wouldn't say that I have a greater need Pinga. Some of the TTC's priority seating is designated for people with disabilities and - as I posted for @Mendalla - the Commission's site says that should there be more than one person with a disability - it's a matter of first come, first served.

I am trying to understand why you feel you need accommodation?

I've already explained that to Mrs. A.

 

[Mendalla]

Would you have me - a person with a disability - surrender my seat when it has been designated as seating for disabled people, the elderly, and pregnant women?

From the TTC site: "A customer with a disability occupying a priority seat is not required to move for another customer with a disability. In this situation, use of the seats is on a first-come, first-served basis."

Right so you, who can easily get up and move to another seat, are not going to help the guy who clearly has problem maneuvering through the narrow aisle of the bus due to his injury. A broken leg may be temporary, but it is a disability during that time. To be honest, you would be within the law here, but you'd be behaving like an entitled jerk. Ever heard of compassion?

However - it remains safer for me to be sitting than to stand. If I have a seizure (especially a grand mal) from a standing position - I could potentially do real harm to both myself and the other passengers as I fall to the ground - perhaps falling into others as I do so - and have my seizure.

Fair enough, but you hardly need a handicapped seat for that. Any old bus seat would do from that standpoint, whereas the guy with the broken leg would definitely benefit from being near a door.

There are times when your sense of compassion should trump your sense of entitlement, and I'd say that the guy with the broken leg needing a disabled seat is one.

 

[Jaebius]

Right so you, who can easily get up and move to another seat, are not going to help the guy who clearly has problem maneuvering through the narrow aisle of the bus due to his injury. A broken leg may be temporary, but it is a disability during that time. To be honest, you would be within the law here, but you'd be behaving like an entitled jerk. Ever heard of compassion?

Where's your compassion for people like me? I could ask - do you want to deprive someone who could have a seizure at any time and cause damage to themselves and others of a seat? How is that not acting like a jerk.

After you accuse me, and I accuse you, and someone else accuses yet another person of acting like a jerk, maybe we'll all come to a decision like the TTC did - when the issue is of more than one person with a (permanent or temporary) disability present - it's first come, first served. That seems the most fair way to me. Perhaps you think otherwise. What would you have happen - the vehicle operator makes a decision about who is most disabled as people board?

It seems that on here I'm being called to defend my use as a person with a disability to use a seat that's been designated for people with disabilities. Whaaat?

Fair enough, but you hardly need a handicapped seat for that. Any old bus seat would do from that standpoint, whereas the guy with the broken leg would definitely benefit from being near a door.

If I should go into a grand mal seizure, it's best that I be near the operator of the vehicle so they have an opportunity to assist me. I'm not insensitive to the person with the broken leg who needs to be near the door. Again, that's why first come, first served, is a good policy. If you seriously have an issue with it, Mendalla, why don't you take it up with the transit commission.

 

[crazyheart]

And some folk,unfortunately use anything, to get the perk on the bus. I presume a tooth cavity

that is aching would also give you a seat at the front.

I think we have been over this a few times before.

 

[Jaebius]

And some folk,unfortunately use anything, to get the perk on the bus. I presume a tooth cavity

that is aching would also give you a seat at the front.

I think we have been over this a few times before.

You equate the disability of epilepsy with having a tooth cavity. Fascinating. Do you dismiss all disabilities so flippantly?

 

[Luce NDs]

Are perks possessed very quickly in those groups given the power to do so?

Consider what heads of organizations do ... oh, another degree of magnitude ... or not? People wouldn't do that Wight?

 

[crazyheart]

No, epilepsy is nothing to be flippant about.

 

[ChemGal]

In general, it seems like many people who haven't had to deal with invisible health issues to be a bit clueless. Ideally if it was busy enough people who are completely ok to stand would do so as the number of people who have issues standing is likely underestimated by many. It's not unusual for a young woman to be menstruating/having a withdrawal bleed at least 1/4 of the time or even more often than that. Quite a few tend to get light-headed during that time. I've been on the LRT and had it make a stop due to someone fainting often enough. Many of them wouldn't think of themselves as disabled - participating in sports that very day. Standing with a backpack on a moving vehicle is vastly different than walking. I do think many in that situation would take a seat if it wasn't necessary to ask for it.
I had been in that situation - not just from periods but from often being physically sick in the morning. I never fainted, but standing certainly made me feel worse. It was never a man who would offer up a seat as my face likely became a bit paler. Always a woman, probably because they had been through it. In general, I have found young men to be fairly clueless when it's come to offering up a seat except in obvious visible cases. They don't notice the limp, the person getting on at a hospital stop who looks less than 100% etc.

In Jae's case, I can understand the need for a seat safety-wise. Even if there is no more risk while on transit than walking, when walking it's pretty easy to at least sit down quickly as soon as a warning symptom is recognized. Ever tried to do that on transit when it's busy?

 

[Mrs.Anteater]

I am glad you are pointing invisible disabilities out, Chemgal. There might also be people who have had recent abdominal operations- not visible to the eye. Is there a need in today's world to "control" or question people using those spots assuming abuse- more so than in the past? I remember we had the discussion on using the mother and baby parking spot here not long ago- which was also quite heated.
I have no idea how urgent Jae or anybody else needs a seat. Without having disability privileges,there might be lots of people with chronic pain, bad knees or just a lot of bags to carry - that would benefit from a seat on the bus. I would wish that everybody who sits on the bus would pay attention to see the other person's need/ pain and weigh that against their own need to sit. We are not in the others shoes, and a person who doesn't get up, might still have a good reason for that.

 

[Mendalla]

If I should go into a grand mal seizure, it's best that I be near the operator of the vehicle so they have an opportunity to assist me. I'm not insensitive to the person with the broken leg who needs to be near the door. Again, that's why first come, first served, is a good policy. If you seriously have an issue with it, Mendalla, why don't you take it up with the transit commission.

I'm not saying the rules should be changed, but I am saying that there are times when compassion and good sense should be used rather than the letter of the law. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps you really need that seat near the operator. However, I would suggest that there legitimately are times when the compassionate, sensible thing is for someone with a disability that does not impede their ability to get around to cede that seat to someone who needs it as badly if not more rather the insisting on the law as written.

 

[Jaebius]

I'm not saying the rules should be changed, but I am saying that there are times when compassion and good sense should be used rather than the letter of the law. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps you really need that seat near the operator. However, I would suggest that there legitimately are times when the compassionate, sensible thing is for someone with a disability that does not impede their ability to get around to cede that seat to someone who needs it as badly if not more rather the insisting on the law as written.

The thing is that a good part of the time - someone like me who has epilepsy is more able to get around than some other people are (for example those with broken legs), but that changes in an ever-unexpected *snap* when I go into a seizure.