I have a temporary “you can park anywhere” placard work gave me for use at work because they know I am battling Stage 4 cancer. Walking can be exhausting. If I need to park in handicap accessible parking for the day, that’s fine with them.
I am with this sentiment. The person should judge for themselves if it’s appropriate to snag a handicapped parking spot.
But, I also echo the sentiment not to be concerned much about it (so I selected Yes in the poll):
“If you gave money to ten beggars and nine were lying to you, you have done a good thing.” - Maimonides
This.
In addition to what Qadgop the Mercotan said, I believe Renaud’s causes pain and other symptoms in the extremities when exposed to cold. So when it’s chilly out (doesn’t have to be really cold) it would matter how long you’re exposed, so parking close might matter.
Yes, I should have fleshed out my response a bit. It’s none of my or anyone else’s beeswax and I don’t regularly think about questioning people I see in those spaces. I guess I meant I internally hope the individual will use it when he needs it but maybe not if he’s having a good day.
There are so many problems w/ the VA disability program. So much press goes to the supposedly disabled vets who face denials or limited benefits, whereas I cannot recall the last time I read/heard about the vets who are classified as 100% disabled - yet capable of considerable activity - including work.
Many people do not realize that a VA classification of someone as 100% disabled has nothing to do with whether or not that person can work.
The guy in the OP is working the system for all he can. IMO, he’s a greedy jerk. But in terms of American culture (and vet worship), he’s just taking advantage of what is available to him.
It should be specified in the state’s application for the parking placard. Here are Ohio’s requirements:
- Cannot walk 200 feet without stopping.
- Cannot walk without assistance (cane, walker, etc)
- Restricted by lung disease (spirometry requirements listed).
- Uses portable oxygen.
- Cardiac condition that limits function.
- Arthritic or orthopedic conditions.
- Legally blind.
Florida’s requirements:
- Inability to walk without the use of or assistance from a brace, cane, crutch, prosthetic device, or other assistive device, or without assistance of another person. If the assistive device significantly restores the person’s ability to walk to the extent that the person can walk without severe limitation, the person is not eligible for the exemption parking permit.
- The need to permanently use a wheelchair.
- Restriction by lung disease to the extent that the person’s forced (respiratory) expiratory volume for 1 second, when measured by spirometry, is less than one liter or the person’s arterial oxygen is less than 60 mm/hg on room air at rest.
- Use of portable oxygen.
- Restriction by 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.
- Severe limitation in a person’s ability to walk due to an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition.
- Legally blind.
Qadop, I know of a Deaf guy and a fellow with ADHD who have handicapped parking license plates. Obviously they qualify by state law, but being familiar with Deaf folks, it seems odd. I don’t know spit about ADHD. I would appreciate your input.
I basically agree with @Qadgop_the_Mercotan . It might be unethical for him to use it, but there’s no percentage in my passing judgment on him. I don’t know all the facts of the case, and my judgment won’t affect anything at all except my own well-being, so I may as well let him make the ethical judgments involved.
I really, really don’t care. I agree with QtM that it’s not for me to decide, or judge, it’s up to the person’s doctors and the agency that approves the placards.
My mom, dad, aunts and two best friends have placards. I know they can’t walk for shit - and each of them has a different diagnosis (back pain, bad lungs, bad heart, bad hip and foot, leg pain, multiple sclerosis, they got everything). I also know that THEY are not going to be golfing any time soon so nobody is taking a golf course parking spot from them.
Let’s give a mulligan (golf pun!) to the disabled golfing vet, and focus our rage judgement on people who really deserve our scorn - bored teenagers racing mobility scooters through department stores.
My mother has a placard and seven different spinal conditions. As a good son, whenever we go grocery shopping I run ahead, get a scooter and ride it back to the handicapped spot she parked in. I ALWAYS fear somebody will see me in the scooter, not know I am just fetching it for my mom, and assault me.
Speaking strictly for myself, I wouldn’t feel comfortable using a legally-issued handicap placard if my ability to walk/navigate was no less hindered than someone who was able-bodied. Naturally, I’m in no position to make that judgment for another person.
I have seen placards used disingenuously by people I know, since they comfortably shared with me that they were doing so. One person used his dad’s when driving his dad’s car, for example.
Part of my work involves site design, and this includes locating ADA accessible parking stalls. There’s a lot of work that goes into this, including making sure the parking spot isn’t too tilted, the sidewalks connecting it to the building are wide enough and flat enough, etc. Able-bodied people often don’t realize how difficult even slightly tilted sidewalks can be to navigate for those with limited mobility.
My wife had ALS and was confined to a wheelchair for 4 years. Invariably, when we went to large store, like Walmart or Costco, the handicap spots are all taken. We would have to park at the far end of the lot and hope no one parked next to us, blocking the ramp door of the van. If someone did park next to us, I would have to get in, and back out without a drivers seat using the hand controls, awkward at best. Our problem was not the distance to the store but having the extra space next to the van for the ramp. Using a handicapped spot for convenience is just wrong.
My company states that 80% of handicaps are invisible.
I have a child with autism. The handicapped plates were a godsend when younger when she would bolt or frequently have meltdowns. Now, nearing 18, she is much safer but there are still times.
Secondly, having handicapped plates is also helpful for access to special sections for sporting or other events where she simply couldn’t go without those special sections.
Net net, I park in handicapped when with my daughter. If there is no open handicapped, it’s no longer an absolute deal killer every time to walk from regular parking. However, there are still days where if there is no handicapped parking available, we have to skip.
Of course I agree with @Qadgop_the_Mercotan, and in real life I would certainly not judge, much less challenge, a person who parked in a handicapped spot because they didn’t “look” disabled.
However, I voted “no” in the poll as I took it to be a hypothetical of sorts, where we do have “all the medical facts,” and those facts indicate that the person is well now, but still has the disability plates/sticker/sign.
I think it is pretty loathsome to abuse handicapped parking privileges, although I know people do it all the time. My mother broke her wrist quite badly and was given a placard to dangle from the rear view mirror while it limited her mobility. Months after she was completely healed, she wanted me to use it to park in the handicapped spot at a restaurant. I refused, and said that if she didn’t want to walk across the parking lot I would gladly drop her off at the front door, park the car and walk back to her myself.
She was FURIOUS. But I was driving, so I won. 
I have asked for, and been turned down for a handicap tag. Even though some days I can barely move without my cane. But because my doctor hasn’t seen me on those days, she turned me down. So I sometimes I have to wait for a good day to roll around so I can go buy milk. On really bad days, my neighbor will go to the store for me.
If you are blind, how are you driving?
Absolutely. If I were to see someone park in a handicapped spot and then get out of the car and stroll on into the place of business without any hint of difficulty, I’m not going to give them so much as a halfhearted stink eye. It’s not my job to police stuff like that, I don’t want to police it anyway, we’re better off if I don’t try, and I really have no idea that a longer walk wouldn’t be a true hardship for that person.
But in a discussion, I feel okay about saying that “in theory,” if someone can make the walk from a nonhandicapped space, then I’d hope that person would leave the handicapped spaces for those who have greater need of them.
I don’t care. There are too many HC parking spaces and I have never seen them more than 1/3 full.
Have at it.
While I’ve seen plenty of places where there are never enough.