i wrote a pass plan. i got two socials, mine and my dad's, and because i work, i get to keep the surplus and my wages. ss put me on supplemental. i'm supposed to live off the supplemental and half my wages; the other half goes into my pass plan w/the socials, and the pass was approved in april '09. so i got retro like 7k when i picked the van up in april '10. pass money is a lot but i can only use for the van (payments, insurance gas etc), but it's over 1600. per months. when the pass ends after van's paid for, i'll keep just my wages and socials.

i hope i can afford the insurance, gas, food and soon rent, when the pp ends!

My tone reflects my desperate appeal for relief from documented abuse, harassment, and discrimination which I have continually experienced.

in ny if you're disabled before 21yrs old, you get your parents' socials after they die. ma died in '95 at 64yrs old--she retired early due to emphysema, but her social was less than mine. my da died at 68yrs old in '98-- his was substantually higher than my social and supplemental combined. then i was unemployed; so i had a surplus, and had to pay the homecare agency about 400. a month. when i began working at ucp in '08, ss waived the surplus. after 2/'09 when i got the job at concepts, i couldn't earn more than 948. a month otherwise ss deducts from the next month's socials. the ceo keeps saying he's going to open a nysarc or nysaid (trust-fund) for me; but thus far, if he did, nobody told me.

we should have had sued the doc's colleagues, who should have seen he was slipping.

Kimberley B is far from anonymous and I'll bet every nickel I have that she has done as much, if not more than you could hope to do as far as furthering the rights of people with disabilities.

Around here, it is you who are "veiled".

I went to your website and am curious. You seem to have a problem with the word "handicapped" yet embrace the term "disabled". By definition I must wonder...where is there a difference?

I too agree with Kim and Paul up to a point. Provided wheelers in cars respect the needs of van users by only using van space when the others are full as Kim said. I do admit to not always being so respectful while driving a car. Since having to go to a van last year I have become much more aware of how the few van accessible places seem to be the first taken. This is to be expected given that they are usually closest to the entrance of whatever building the parking lot serves, and most ppl using handicapped parking are ambulatory. A kindly worded request to your fellow gimps to please use the van spaces as a last resort would be much more effective.

On the other hand, the lazy jackass TAB who takes that van space so he can "run into the store" for a minute, well, there ought to be a year around open season on those fools! I kid sorta. Legitimate users are not the problem. Doctors who hand out the permits for hang nails are. I can go months without seeing another gimp out in public, yet every time I go to the store most of the blue spaces are taken. Yeah there are unseen disabilities, and they need the parking as much or more than we do, but I contend the desire to use the parking came before the "disability" in a huge number of those cases. As I often say: parking lots must be the leading cause of disability in this country.

I've advocated for 2 areas for handicapped parking for years. One close to entrances and the other at the far end of the lot. Bet those far from the store always will have a vacant space. Yeah, it will be a bit more dangerous rolling the length of the lot, but at least you'll be able to park.

The eagle has landed. The fat man walks alone.

The reason we park close is because we are a visual hazard as well - people can't always see a wheeler.

It's not a matter of our own personal abilities to get around it's a matter of safety.