Imagine walking out of a restaurant and seeing a seemingly normal pickup truck parked in an accessible parking space.
Now imagine that somebody has attached two stickers reading ‘Stupidity is not a handicap! Park elsewhere!’ sticker to that truck.
Now imagine that it’s your truck – and despite its appearance, it is accessible.
That’s the situation Doug Hall found himself in Tuesday night as he left a Kitchener pub.
“We were disgusted,” he says.
Hall has spent most of his life in a wheelchair due to spinal muscular atrophy. He drives a fully accessible pickup truck – one of only about a dozen in Canada, as far as he knows.
“Just because it’s not your average accessible vehicle doesn’t mean it isn’t (accessible),” he says.
One sticker was left on the driver’s door, and another on the tailgate.
Upset at what had happened, Hall posted about it on Facebook. The post was soon shared by many people.
Wednesday afternoon, Hall received a surprising message from a man identifying himself as the person who had placed the stickers on his truck.
“He’d seen a vehicle, didn’t notice the sticker, and automatically assumed that it was an able-bodied person that was taking up a parking space,” Hall says.
“It was a gut reaction. His heart was in the right spot.”
Hall says he appreciates the apology and believes the man’s intent was sincere.
