autisticPepole not allowedin supermarket? (what??)

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hi please only reply if you are going to read it propley

first i say before this i gave them 2 pages of information, printed off the natinal autistic society website, explaining what its like for someone with autism in a supermarket.

and ive also been in the shop many times since my last incodent with this place and my
brother asked for permition for me to enter the shop before this to they said its fine.

i was doing my shopping as normal in the super market with my brother like we usualy do when i go in town.

i was slightly stressed before we left because i broke some of my favorite ear defenders (my older brother later fixed them) .

so i was just doing my shopping we came out ofa isle . and i turned around to see a large group of young teenage boys pointing and lauighing at me realy realy loud. i looked around knowone else was where they were pointing, so i basicly stuck up my finger at them and continued shopping, i herd them still making fun of me so i suddenly stood still, screamed slightly and my brother tried to grab me to calm me down, i resisted and started banging my fists off my head pounding my head realy realy hard so hard i knocked my ear defenders fell on the floor, by now many persons were staring, and some pepole came to help out as i still wasnt calm, a man going past gave my brother my ear defenders politly, and a woman (who im guessing by howshe was talking to me had a autistic son) i was by then biting into my hand, this woman helped my brother stop me biting my hand, and made bad coments about the boys as well as a few other pepole did, so i sat down on the floor out the way as my brother stood with the trolly. i sat and fiddled with a smooth plastic bag, then the manegers came up to me and my brother, and said i shouldnt be in the shop why am i in the shop?? , they wouldnt listen to my brother. so still sitting there i decided to listen in to the manegers conversiation what i herd them saying was insane, they were saying to my brother that pepole like me/disabled pepole shouldnt be in places like this . i decided to stop listening in after that and i brefily herd them asking my brother to phone my mum, to get here to come down to the supermarket. my mum has problems with her joints.
so she got here and not suprisingly the manegers had f**cked off somwhere else, and my mum didnt ask to talk to the manegers cos she has tried before they are complete arses.
so a much more kind asda staff talked to my mum and explained that to her only she can talke me in the supermarket im only alowed in the supermarket with mum, my mum said shes fine with her brother they said well her brother isnt helping her i was like WTF ? so instead of kicking these horrible boys out of the shop youd raler ban me for being autistic and reacting by hitting MYSELF for just a FEW MOMENTS when my BROTHER ACTUALY CALMED ME DOWN . so my mum said what about my older sister (27 yrs) they said no just mum again wtf ive been completly fine with my sister.
again my mum has problems with joints she barley goes out , so im ment to learn to be independent?

i also wear a sachel type bag with glued on in big writing "AUTISTIC (with a breif description of problems)" they also know im autistic. i also spend often alot of money there alot more than the kids that were bothering me the most i see them buying is a cheap energy drink.....

my mum is writing a letter of complaint to the head of asda to complain about the horrible staff and the way they treat me (horribly) and talk about me (they think i cant here them because im autistic to them that means i cant hear. honestly you should hear some of the stuff the staff have said about me. that remark about disabled pepole not being welcome was one of the things. )

i contacted the natinal autistic society and they agree with me that it wasnt right.

this was ASDA which is a UK supermarket by the wallmart company.

a little extra info - my older sister has told me her boyfriends dad gets treated horribly there, he is blind. his wife told the shop they need to provide support,which is somthing that they are suppost to do there its part of there policy.
my sister said instead, the staff just push and shove past him and bump into him and all sorts no assistance at all. the wife complained and was told they dont do it. do what provide assistance for the blind? not bump into the guy without paying attention when they should be? .

Last edited by nintendofan on 20 Apr 2012, 6:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.

sorry if i posted in wrong place.

In my opinion it is discrimination.
You did not hurt any other people, you did not destroy anything, so why should you not be allowed there?
Your brother is with you to calm you down.
You are having a sign saying you are autistic.
People should learn from it and not judge it.
I am sorry you had this bad experience.

i changed the title because i am not sure what discrimination means exactly.

there are very few shops in my street (short bus journey) unable to go futher on my own (didnt even go that far on my own until i was about 16 (now 18) . )

It's definitely discrimination, especially since you overheard it being told to your brother. That is really awful, and it is difficult for me to believe there are people like that in this world that wouldn't listen. I don't blame you for reacting the way you did; people like those kids need to learn when enough is enough.

I just cannot get over the store treating you so poorly. I sincerely hope something is done about them treating you this way. Everyone deserves to be treated equally, NT or not. Makes me sick to my stomach thinking about the injustices like these.

I read the whole thing, and it made me angry. That's definitely discrimination, especially since you weren't hurting anyone and those stupid teenagers were hurting you! I hope that the organization you contacted helps you sue that store, but before we go that far I think you should write to the company explaining to them the situation and how the managers have treated you and the blind man, and asking for them to get the managers to treat you with respect and not ban you from the store, especially since you didn't do anything wrong. I'm very mad at those teenagers!

Anyway, here's the website where you can write to them: http://your.asda.com/contact-us

There's a part where you can email them and a part that has their address where you can write them a paper letter. Depending on how old you are and how high functioning you are, you may want to have someone like your mom or your brother help you compose the letter, but I definitiely think that at least part of it should share your feelings on the subject, because it's very important that the company understand that YOU have feelings, too.

I'm so mad at the teenagers and the managers!

source: Wikipedia

If they want to exclude people with autism/ handicaps, then it is discrimination.

Yes, it does sound like they are discriminating against the disabled. You need to contact the corporate headquarters and tell them, and insist on a new manager for that branch of the store. Retraining would be wasted on this manager as he has been complained to repeatedly, and has done nothing to fix things or to educate the employees on proper procedures with the disabled. It is obvious that he isn't interested in complying with company policy on this, so he must be replaced instead. I don't usually like to call for someone to loose their job, but he has a record of non compliance, so he needs to be out of there.

You do need to work on your self control issues, though. Yeah, those teens were jerks, but they weren't doing anything physical to you. You need to try to stop hitting and biting yourself, at least in public, as it gives the impression that you are a nut job. I do understand. I had plenty of meltdowns myself when younger, including in public. And yes, nasty behavior by other kids and teens were a big trigger. Perhaps a service/therapy dog might help keep you calmer in public places.

For the sake of all the disabled people in your area do contact the company HQ about this issue. How about circulating a petition among the disabled and their families in your area, that you could send along with your letter?

Good luck with this.

I agree with all the things that were said. Those teenagers should get banned from the store and not you. I think the letter is a good idea, as well.

I am surprised and not surprised this happened. I work for Walmart. I am surprised because as has been stated earlier it is discrimination and goes against company policy. I am not surprised because Walmart sometimes does stuff without thinking.

I am supposed to put at the bottom of my post that this is my opinion and not Walmart's (because this is social media whether I am saying good or bad things about them)

asked my mum she dosnt like the idea of another dog (we had dogs years ago wonderful german shepards.)

and the petition thing... no chance. everyone where i live dosnt understand we live in a realy bad area in a concil estate, my mum cant afford to move.

Does the UK have something like the U.S ADA, were you can file a lawsuit for disability discriminatio?

im not sure.

As someone with Asperger's, I definitely feel your pain. It's like when i saw "Adam." That movie was extremely hard to watch because of the bullying - which was like me being bullied all over again. I'm sure if I was in the store, and overheard their callous conversation to you and your brother, I would've shouted out loud how mean, trite & ridiculous they were. And very discriminating. Stories like this really hurts me and I just hope they don't happen. But obviously, they do. Best of luck.

I've had people younger than myself point and laugh at me, do a few ret*d impressions along the way. I just shrug it off. Maybe the store employees told you not to come back because you were engaging in self-injurous behaviors. Anyway, you said it was inaccessable for a blind person? All stores should assist customers with various disabilities, within reason. If a customer is blind or autistic (or both) and needs help with a part of their shopping, they should be helped.

im not sure exactly, but i doubt it would be for that reason because they know little to nothing about autism, one time they were calling it tantruming, my mum corrected them then and told them its not a tantrum its a meltodwn and there is a diffrence but they still call it tantrums.