Handicap spots?

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A blind person does not need a disabled parking permit to take themselves shopping!! What you have described is 3 people trying to help 16. It would not be hard for them to help one person at a time, just common sense really, if you are trying to help people to move around cars. The average blind person does not go to places in groups of 16 with only 3 sighted people with them. What you have described is not a reason for a blind person to need a disabled parking spot.

If a person with autism has so much difficulty with sensory issues, then the question that has to be asked, is what are you going to deal with those sensory issues. Simply dragging people all around the country side does nothing at all to help them, and in fact causes them much more distress, than they already experience. A person with autism has a right to live as they want to live and as a person with low functioning, but high IQ autism, I can assure you that I do not CHOOSE to be forced into high sensory environments. I CHOOSE to be away from those places and to seek and help and support for dealing with my sensory issues. If you really wanted to help your clients then it would be about asking them what they want and need and I am yet to know of anyone with Autism who WANTS to be dragged around huge shopping malls and the like.

Further if you are proposing to hand out these parking permits to every single person with a disability, afterall any disability can disable you in some ways and make things difficult and we now have half the population with a disability, then HOW do you intend to have enough spots for them. How to you make sure that half the parking spots are directly in front of the shops. Perhaps instead you should be asking for parking spaces to be made wider, not for the whole population to be given parking permits for less than 10% of the parking spaces!!

But it would be even worse for the severely autistic child to stay home with a babysitter they don't even know. Wouldn't you think its better for a child to be with their mother if they are going somewhere? There are also times when someone has a heart defect or severe breathing problems who uses them also. It's not just for mobility reasons. You can't just cater those with mobility needs. It depends on the disabilities nature and if the handicap spot would give them the better benefit. With the placards, its easy for someone to take their grandfather's or their father's who actually has a handicap. That's the problem with placards. It doesn't help that these can often be the reasons so many people have a 'handicap'.

The problem still remains as to how you plan to find enough parking spots for all of these disabled people, afterall, about 50% of the population qualifies for your definition of requiring a disability parking space. Perhaps the better thing to think about is to change the size of parking spaces. How do you intend to provide front door service to 50% of the population.

I do not for one second dispute that other people have needs. BUT at present the vast majority of people with mobility impairments who use wheelchairs are not able to access a disabled parking spot as they are taken up by others who can walk. I know of many parents with children with any number of disabilities who have these parking permits and if a spot is not available they are simply parking elsewhere. If they can simply park elsewhere and not make a big deal out of it, then how needed is it. It seems to be more for convience than anything else. But a wide parking space is not something of convience, something to make life easier for a person with a mobility impairment who uses a wheelchair. It is a simple yes or no option. There is NO other option, they have to go home, or sit in the car and wait for often HOURS hoping that a spot becomes available. There is a big difference between something that is nice to have and something that it is physically impossible to live without. I agree that it is "nice" (and perhaps that is not the right word to use) for parents of children and anyone with a multitude of different disabilities. BUT the simple fact is they do not sit and wait for up to 4 hours for a disabled parking spot to become available and nor are they forced to go home if one is not. A person with a mobility impairment using a wheelchair is physically unable to park anywhere else at ALL ever. This is not something to help them it is something that keeps them in the world. To them it is the equivalent of providing a wheelchair to someone who is paralysed. A person who is paralysed simply is not able to move without a wheelchair. Sure it is nice for many people with all sorts of conditions to have a wheelchair at times, but it is not a case for them not to be able to get out of bed.

This is not about whether it would be easier for people with any number of different conditions to have one, it is about how do we ensure that those who are physically unable in any way, shape or form to park anywhere else are able to park there when they need to. The average person does not have to wait up to 4 hours to be able to find a car park, why should someone with a mobility impairment have to do that. If you want to extend the size of parking spaces then do that. But the simple fact is the more people you add into the nice to have category the more desperate the situation comes for those who physically cannot live without them. It is also for this reason as to why we have created two types of permits in Australia, one for those who cannot live without and one for those who would benefit from some extra assistance. Those who cannot live without should not be forced out by those who can do with a bit of extra assistance. It is not fair for one group of disabled to discriminate against another to make their lives easier. The simple fact is the only group of people I can see who are physically unable to live without are those with a mobility impairment. The others it can definately make life easier and that does need to be considered, but not at the expense of those who cannot live without it.