I have to admit to shedding a tear in front of Angel today.. Mummy’s upset she says….why?
We were sitting in the SMART (SouthEast mobility and rehabilitation technology centre) in Edinburgh having been referred there for Angel’s blue badge assessment.
She has had a blue badge for 3 years and it has transformed our ability to do things. Angel finds crowds incredibly difficult, has NO safety awareness, is frightened in new environments, frightened of loud noises, has no concept of waiting, having ADHD she is very flighty and thinks it’s funny to dash off even in front of a car and her learning disability means she would run off and just keep going..,… The ability to park close by makes essential things like doctors visits and dentist visits so much less stressful before the actual appointment by limiting the sensory issues. Even accessing outings is made possible by avoiding busy crowds and queue’s. We are able to let Angel experience so much more of life.
Children like Angel use to be awarded blue badges on the grounds of safety awareness. Not any more… The badge criteria is now solely physically based, can you walk 50 metres along a quiet hospital corridor with no distraction, noise, traffic etc? How can this be a fair assessment criteria? You don’t apply for a blue badge to park at the top of a quiet, safe, enclosed internal corridor… Even the assessor said today she felt sorry for us (especially as we have Soldier as well) but that Angel doesn’t tick the boxes so Angel isn’t eligible! ‘Don’t give up hope she says trying to soften the blow, the autism charities are lobbying parliament so you never know… But at the moment safety is not a criteria’. So as a mum I hear ‘we no longer care about children who are unsafe, either you restrict what you do with them or you put your child’s life in danger’ what a choice??
Come on government, this can’t be right, we get that you want to reduce blue badge abuse and personally I totally agree with that but this reform with no ability for the assessor to use subjectiveness in individual cases is seriously restricting the life opportunities of these kids, is this really what you want??
the angel and the soldier 
I feel really sorry for you iam in the same postion
I definitely feel we need to lobby to change this Deborah. If the professionals recognise it’s wrong but are leaving it to the charities to try and fix, what does that say about our system?
Alison, I’m in the same position with Kyle. Got knocked back from SMART centre last October. How can they assess someone by walking along a quiet corridor??? Didn’t take into account his unsteadiness, safety issues,etc as long as he was able to walk. Very pissed off with the whole affair. Spoke with Down Syndrome Scotland and going to appeal. X
My son is the same I dred taking him anywhere especially after what happened the other week when he was uncontrollable when we went shopping not even is own dad could control him.