Natasha Hope-Simpson, prosthetic leg user, gets note saying she 'should be ashamed'

A Halifax woman with a prosthetic leg was shocked to find an anonymous note on her car that accuses her of using an accessible parking space when she doesn't appear to have a disability.

Natasha Hope-Simpson spoke with the CBC to share her story that disabilities come in many forms.

She usually tries to park in an accessible spot on Morris Street near her work. 

"It's just across the street and it's free," she says.

Hope-Simpson may not appear to have a disability, at first, but she has been using a prosthesis since losing part of her left leg below the knee after a hit-and-run driver crushed her limb.

She has an accessible parking permit, issued by the province, hanging in her car, so was surprised to find the note stuck to her windshield this week.

"A note from someone who said that they've been [recording] me, walking out of the car, and that I am not handicapped, and that I should be ashamed of myself and that they're going to send my licence plate to the police if I park there again," she said.

Tova Sherman, an advocate for people with disabilities, says the note is unacceptable.

"It's really none of our business whether they run out of the car, or crawl out of the car. Great example is people who live with fibromyalgia — chronic pain — it is episodic, meaning it comes and it goes," she says. 

Sherman says that one day, a person with fibromyalgia may feel fine, "then the next day they can't even lift their arms."

Hope-Simpson is taking the situation in stride. 

"I'm kind of flattered about that, because I've been working pretty hard on my walk to make it look natural."

She says she still doesn't know who left the note, or how many times she may have been recorded.

The Alleles Design Studio is the company behind the steampunk-like prosthetic cover Hope-Simpson is wearing in the attached picture.