A user’s video on TikTok has gone viral after she claimed that a stranger tried to stop her from parking in an accessible spot just because her disability was not immediately apparent.
Disability is a common topic of discussion on TikTok, with many users with disabilities taking to the platform to document their experiences navigating everyday life, the troubles they face, and how people without disabilities can assist them.
For example, TikTok has illuminated the issues that some people with disabilities face when trying to bring their service animals into stores. Others have documented their struggles with proper wheelchair accommodation, showing how airlines improperly accommodate chairs, or how someone’s failure to correctly park their car can leave them stranded outside.
Now, TikTok user Emily Fogle (@emilylfogle) has added to this discussion by recounting her experience of trying to park while using her accessibility pass.
For context, Fogle lays out her background, sharing, “I had bone cancer. I lost my leg to cancer. I have a prosthetic leg. There are times where it hurts to walk on my leg, or I don’t have my leg if it’s getting worked on.”
Despite having a disability, Fogle says there are “many reasons where I feel like I still need to justify why I have a handicap pass,” and notes that she “[doesn’t] abuse it.”
“99% of the time I’m parking in a normal spot,” she details. “I say all this because that means it’s even crazier the few times I do use it, how many people feel the need to say something to me about it.”
This time, she says she found several accessible parking spots close to where she was going wedding dress shopping. As she pulled into the spot, a woman walked in front of her car.
“She goes, ‘Why are you parking here?’ And I said, ‘Because I have a handicap pass,’” Fogle recounts. “And she goes, ‘Why? You don’t look like you need it. You shouldn’t be parking here.’ And I said, [I have] a prosthetic leg. Yes, I can. Like, can you please move out of the way so I can pull in?’”
According to Fogle, this caused the woman to give her a look, shake her head, and walk away.
“I understand that from the neck up, and honestly from the waist up, I look normal. I look like a healthy girl, right?” Fogle says. “I don’t look like your stereotypical person you’d see rolling into a handicapped spot, but that’s the point, right?”
“Like, just because somebody looks healthy from the waist up, doesn’t mean that they’re not needing a handicap pass,” she states.
@emilylfogle Still learning how to address these people who can’t mind their own business 😭 #dayinmylife #cancersurvivor #prostheticleg #handicappedparking ♬ original sound – Emily Fogle
In the comments section, users supported Fogle’s point.
“I literally cannot imagine walking up to someone to question their handicap pass?!?!?” a user said.
“People assume those spots are for the elderly. It’s so bizarre,” added another.
“Even if you did, take the last spot, you have every right to be there,” shared a third.
“My husband uses a wheelchair and we have a handicapped pass and people are always being rude since we’re so young they think we don’t need it,” claimed a further TikToker.
The Daily Dot reached out to Fogle via email.
