Handicapped placards issued
2011: 300,749
2010: 291,808
2009: 285,541
2008: 269,365
2007: 299,154
2006: 247,242
Source: State of Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles
Applicant requirements for disabled placard prescription
1. Cannot walk two hundred feet without stopping to rest.
2. Cannot walk without the use of or assistance from a brace, cane, crutch, another person, prosthetic device, wheelchair or other assistive device.
3. Is restricted by lung disease to such an extent that the person’s forced (respiratory) expiratory volume for one second, when measured by spirometry, is less than one liter, or the arterial oxygen tension is less than sixty millimeters of mercury on room air at rest.
4. Uses portable oxygen.
5. Has a cardiac condition to the extent that the person’s functional limitations are classified in severity as Class III or Class IV according to standards set by the American Heart Association.
6. Is severely limited in the ability to walk due to an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition.
7. Is blind.
As the number of handicapped parking passes issued annually in Ohio has grown from 247,000 to more than 300,000 since 2006, so too has the frustration among disabled drivers who say there are too few handicapped spaces available and too many people without disabilities who misuse the placards.
Drivers with handicapped parking privileges sometimes have difficulty finding spaces because of the growing number of pass holders and those who park in handicapped spots illegally, said Linda Oda, chair of the Governor’s Council on People with Disabilities. Oda said part of the problem is that handicapped placards are too easy to get and too easy to abuse.
“If you’ve just done battle to get one, you may not feel like that, but there are a lot of doctors that hand them out like candy,” Oda said. “And that’s where the problem comes in … the parking spaces are at a premium, and (the placard) is not being used as it’s intended to be.”
According to Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the number of handicapped placards issued has been going up since 2006, with the exception of one decline in 2008. Lindsey Bohrer, spokeswoman for the BMV, attributes the increase to more injured military personnel returning home from active duty and people having longer lifespans. She said the department does not track placards issued per county.
A doctor’s prescription is required to obtain a handicapped parking placard, which costs $3.50. Placards can be issued for temporary or permanent disabilities, however, those for permanent disabilities must be renewed every five years.
Dr. Jill Manahan, who practices internal medicine in Cincinnati, called the process for issuing handicapped placards “subjective.”
“All a physician needs to do is write a prescription, and that’s really all that’s involved,” Manahan said. “Most of the time you see it done through orthopedists, but other people may have chronic pain or extreme obesity. There’s no set-in-stone criteria.”
Another problem, Oda said, is non-handicapped family members or friends using a disabled driver’s placard when they aren’t in the car. Similar misuse may happen when a disabled person dies and surviving family members who are not disabled continue to use placards.
“The vast majority of people realize this is the least we can do to help people with disabilities. Having said that, it’s been abused to the point that it’s become an irritation for people,” Oda said.
The statewide fine for illegally parking in a handicapped space is at least $250, but not more than $500. Some handicapped parking signs specifically list the fine amount. But catching violators can be challenging, law enforcement officials said.
“It’s tough. It’s something you have to see happen, almost … unless you see somebody who’s getting out of the vehicle obviously isn’t handicapped,” said Officer Doug Day of the Fairfield Police Department. “And the disability might not be obvious. It’s got to be readily apparent that they’re not disabled, and that’s a tough call to make.”
Michael Henz, of Fairfield, has one of those less obvious disabilities.
“I had a bad car accident in 1979, and I have a bad short-term memory. My mind works pretty good most of the time, except I can’t remember where I park,” Henz said.
Kathy McMahon-Klosterman, a Miami University professor who has worked in special education, said inconsistent enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which regulates the number, the size and the location of handicapped spaces a building must have, also contributes to the problem.
According to that federal act, one out of every 25 parking spots must be accessible to the handicapped, and one of every eight of these handicapped parking spaces has to be van accessible. If there are 500 to 1,000 parking spaces, 2 percent of them must be handicapped accessible. For parking lots with more than 1,000 spaces, one of every 100 spaces must be accessible.
Darrel Clark of Fairfield, a diabetic who has a handicapped placard, said finding spaces can be difficult at times because “some businesses don’t have enough, depending when you go.
“I don’t think some places have the correct amount,” he said.
But even those establishments that do comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act can still come up woefully short in meeting the demand.
Matthew Sauer, the chair-elect of the Governor’s Council on People with Disabilities, works at the University of Cincinnati where the campus has more parking spaces than the law requires. Even with that, people still complain about there not being enough handicapped parking, he said.
“The reality is the ADA only requires so many parking spaces per unit of shopping and so on, and as the number of placards grows, there’s going to be a shortage of spaces,” Sauer said. “Individual shopping centers and individual store owners are not going to increase the number of spaces.”
Places frequented by senior citizens have problems as well, said Ann Munafo, the executive director of the Middletown Area Senior Center. Munafo said the senior center has about 16 handicapped parking spaces — more than the law requires — but “we never have enough handicapped parking spaces for the number of people.”
McMahon-Klosterman said it’s not the law that needs reform so much as people.
“I do think the general public needs to be educated about why those spaces are there, and (to understand) that not everyone has a visible disability,” she said.
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