Last night I witnessed an event take place that was, lets say, eye-opening! I will walk you through it just as it happened:
I was sitting outside in the car waiting for my husband to purchase dinner; Kentucky Fried Chicken. Next to this Kentucky Fried Chicken is also two other fast food restaurants. All of the restaurants were very busy due to it being the weekend and along with many hungry customers came, double parking! (pretty popular here in Jeddah)
Anyway, I see an older gentleman park next to our car, get out of his car and go into one of the crowded restaurants...... after about 20 minutes he comes out, gets into his car, look around with his face in disgust and start blowing his car horn. I am looking at him confused, trying to figure out why he is randomly blowing the horn. I look around and realize, he's been blocked in by a double parker!
After laying on his horn for about 5 minutes, with his face in disgust and angry, I see a man maybe between the ages of 25 and 30 walking with arm braces/ crutches, very similar to those you see who have Multiple Sclerosis, towards the angry gentleman's car. The angry man must have realized before I did that this was the gentleman who blocked him in because I saw the angry man's face go from displeasure to concerned.
As the young gentleman opened his car door slowly and started to put his bags in and his arm braces/crutches, I started to think how I would have felt if I had come to find out the person who had double parked behind me was disabled after I had layed on my horn for about 5 minutes non stop wanting him to move. I think I would have been embarrassed and ashamed. Sometimes we dont know the need of another person. Obviously it was more convenient and easy for him to double park.
If there was parking made available specifically for people who have special needs, I think that these situations wouldnt happen so much and getting around would be alot easier. Living in a country where things like parking spaces are not easily accessible to you can be difficult. Especially when the country's people are not very knowledgeable about parking accessibility or disabilities at all.
This is where advocacy and knowledge based/sensitivity training comes in.
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