Woman in a Wheelchair Who Was Told to Get the Next Bus After Parent With Stroller Refused to Move Calls Out Their ‘Pure Selfishness’

A woman who requires a wheelchair to get around has called out passengers on a bus whom she branded as “inconsiderate” after they refused to move their stroller and allow her to make use of the priority space. The confrontation was posted to TikTok and has sparked a nuanced conversation about who has priority between parents with strollers and disabled people in public spaces.

TikToker Isabel Canto shares snippets of her life on TikTok, and in her videos she often addresses issues of accessibility that wheelchair users face every day. The London-based influencer recently shared a clip of her experience trying to get on a bus in the city, only to be refused.

According to Isabel, the passengers who were occupying the space on the bus designed for strollers and wheelchair users refused to move to allow her to get on. She can be heard telling the bus driver, “You asked twice, so you did your duty by the law, so don’t worry.” The bus driver then apologizes to Isabel while she assures him he did his duty, but that the other passengers were inconsiderate.

@isabelcantomusic

This is the reality of goodwill being an accessibility policy – wheelchair users get stranded at bus stops. When the Supreme Court decided that “…something must still be left to the good sense and conscience of individuals”, society was not as selfish as it is today. Especially coming out of lockdown, we do not treat each other (especially disabled people) the way we did when the Supreme Court first considered whether wheelchair users have an absolute right to the space. Because of that, I’m meeting with my MP and am fighting offline for a bill that will strengthen our rights, including by introducing a statutory duty and fines for passengers who do not share or vacate the space when asked, when it’s reasonable to do so. One of the main reasons the Supreme Court rejected the absolute right proposal during FirstGroup v Paulley was because it didn’t consider the nuance of disabled parents or other extenuating circumstances. The bill I have drafted includes exceptions for these sorts of cases, ensuring that absolute right doesn’t then cause the discrimination to instead be shifted onto a different disabled passenger. And of course, the definition of wheelchair user in the bill also includes disabled children whose buggies act as a wheelchair. I will keep you all updated on how this work progresses. #wheelchairuser #tfl #disabilityrights

♬ original sound – Isabel Canto ?

Isabel then explains to her viewers what happened, claiming that she was “denied access to a bus as a wheelchair user because a buggy user refused to share the space with me.” Isabel then claims that wheelchair users often have to deal with double the inconvenience, as they have to get the bus driver to ask the passenger with a stroller to move. 

Access to public transportation is difficult for wheelchair users

Provided that the wheelchair user convinces the bus driver to do their job and ask the passenger, they then have to rely on the passenger doing the right thing and making space for them. In this case, the bus driver asked the passenger, but the passenger refused, although Isabel admits she’s had many cases where the bus driver refuses to even ask. 

Isabel states that it is required by law to allow wheelchair users priority. The Transport for London (TFL) website reflects this, stating, “By law, wheelchair users have priority over the space.” However, a recent article from BBC News found that wheelchair space rules are not being enforced. Something that Isabel herself has found to be true.

However, not everybody on TikTok agreed that Isabel was in the right, with many parents admitting they would not have given up the space for a wheelchair user. “I mean ive [sic] got a kid in a buggy much safer than me holding them on a bus. get the next one” wrote one commenter.

Isabel claims an issue with the current UK laws is that they allow situations to be left to people’s “good sense and conscience,” rather than an actual enforceable law. She has stated plans to meet with a local MP to amend the law and strengthen disabled people’s rights in such situations.

Featured Image: Isabel Canto, TikTok

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