I was on the receiving line of things about 5 or 6 years ago. At the time my son was on the mend from some significant medical issues and remained under a doctor's care.
I'll share with you that we're really lucky, today, he's a healthy 10 year old child who has fully recovered from his early medical issues. We had come close to losing him several months before that Disney trip and we were celebrating that things were looking up while still cognizant of the fact that he had a long way to go and we wanted to take him back to Disney "just in case." Anyway, here's what happened.
We entered the bathroom (the one near Peter Pan) and the only stall open was an accessible stall. I took my son in there because he needed lots of extra help with several medical devices that were hidden by his clothing and a bag he carried. Anyway, we weren't in there long...just long enough to address his needs, get everything secure, wash our hands and leave.
This woman on a
scooter comes over to the stall as we are leaving with her 2 daughters (both teens or older) and begins yelling at me for taking my "able bodied" son into a handicapped stall that is reserved for the use of people in a wheelchair! She and her daughters who are yelling at us at the top of their lungs then begin to follow us out as I pushed our way through outside and then another of her relations...a man...tells my son and I that he's a police officer and that he should arrest us and throw us both in jail while the rest of the family has kinda circled around us!
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a CM (one that tends to the restrooms) standing right there and never once did she help us, even as I was standing there yelling for someone to please help me that I was scared these people were going to hurt us and yelling for the family to leave us alone and stop threatening us. I finally picked up my son and ran through the circle of the family to get away. We were both terrified and kept on moving to get out of the park, and I was praying they weren't following us as they were clearly not rational people!
When we got out of the park, I sat on a bench and cried while trying to console a terrified child that thought the "police man" would take me away from him. What's really sad is that a man in a "uniform" who was a Disney employee came up to us and my son started screaming at him "don't take my mommy." I explained to the man what had happened and he was kind enough to get someone to escort us back to our hotel room to make sure we didn't have any problems. For that, I am forever grateful!
What I learned from my experience with my son is that not all "disabilities" are visible and I never question someone who appears to be "able bodied" who parks in a handicapped space or uses a handicapped bathroom stall. I'm sure they have their reasons and it's up to them to make sure they are valid because I'm only responsible for my actions and the actions of my child.
What I also learned is that there are people who aren't very nice everywhere you go and when you're in a bad situation, get out of it! If no one will help, do everything you can to get away from it!
Finally, the last thing I learned is that "bad" people come in all shapes, sizes and abilities and they can be anywhere so it's important to remain aware of your surroundings so you can navigate a pathway to safety.
Let me also add this, I was really lucky that I was able to get away and that no one physically harmed us in any significant way. They pushed us, yelled at us and cornered us...but we escaped!
I will tell you that we have been back to Disney several times and have met some truly wonderful people.
To this day, I'm glad my mom taught me to get away by any means possible when you find yourself in a bad situation...and I'm doing my best to teach my son that as well.
For a while the "magic" of the Magic Kingdom was lost for us, but I decided about a year after this incident that the "magic" was still there and that bad people could never take it away from me or my son unless I allowed them to do so. I also realized about this same time that the reason the CM (the restroom attendant person) didn't help was because she didn't know how to and that was OK since I really didn't either.