[nfbmi-talk] implications for blind here should be noted

[joe harcz Comcast]

On other counts the State of Michigan from the Michigan Commission for the Blind to DTMB and back again violate the rights of the blind in both physical access and in its thousands of image based documents on its web sites and in its failure to remit information in a timely and accessable manner upon request let alone pro forma.

Joe

Stolen Spaces -- coming Monday: Ever wonder why some drivers park in handicap spots when they're clearly not handicapped? Come along as Free Press reporters

confront scofflaws who think it's their right to park wherever they please. MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press

 

By

Jennifer Dixon,

Jim Schaefer

and

Kristi Tanner

 

Detroit Free Press Staff Writers

 

List of 1 items

• Filed Under

list end

List of 5 items

• Local News

• Michigan news

• Westland

• Lansing

• Somerset Collection

list end

 

Related Links

List of 12 items

• Handicap parking abuse starts with doctors, critics say

• Warren cracks down on handicap parking violators

• What Michigan law requires to use handicap parking

• Who qualifies for handicap parking spaces?

• Infographic: Handicap drivers cheated across Michigan

• Handicap parking abuse starts with doctors, critics say

• An official's e-mail sets off a furor

• Behind this report

• Warren cracks down on handicap parking violators

• What Michigan law requires to use handicap parking

• Who qualifies for handicap parking spaces?

• Infographic: Handicap drivers are cheated across Michigan

list end

Purchase Image

Zoom

 

Photos by MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press

Exasperated: "You can't do anything if you don't have the proper spots," says Michael Harris, executive director of the 500-member Michigan Paralyzed Veterans

of America.

Zoom

 

Exasperated: "You can't do anything if you don't have the proper spots," says Michael Harris, executive director of the 500-member Michigan Paralyzed Veterans

of America.

Exasperated: "You can't do anything if you don't have the proper spots," says Michael Harris, executive director of the 500-member Michigan Paralyzed Veterans

of America.

Zoom

 

Exasperated: "You can't do anything if you don't have the proper spots," says Michael Harris, executive director of the 500-member Michigan Paralyzed Veterans

of America.

 

More

 

If you're reading this on a mobile device,

tap here

to play the video.

 

On a busy Saturday at the Meijer in Westland, Michael Harris scopes the parking lot, looking for a space he can use.

 

"I'm not seeing anything," he said, exasperated.

 

Harris finally takes a spot far from the store and parks at an odd angle. He has learned that this is the only way to make sure he's not boxed in too tightly

to get back in the car from his wheelchair.

 

"This is where the frustration sets in," said Harris, a 55-year-old ex-Marine who is paralyzed from the chest down.

 

Too often, he said, unthinking, uncaring and undeserving drivers illegally take a handicap spot, discouraging or preventing people with disabilities from

shopping or taking care of their everyday business.

 

• Infographic:

Handicap drivers cheated across Michigan

 

It's a widespread problem affecting thousands of Michiganders -- while others get away with breaking the law. A State of Michigan official even told her

colleagues recently to use handicap spaces at their Lansing building when assigned spots were taken.

 

At a time when the number of handicap parking permits has exploded in Michigan, a Free Press examination found that enforcement of handicap parking laws

is haphazard at best with little control or oversight by the Secretary of State's Office.

 

The examination included a review of more than 41,000 parking tickets from 21 law enforcement agencies or courts, in-person observation, interviews and

a survey of 10 other states' handicap parking programs.

 

As it stands, the system in Michigan invites fraud and abuse. Other states are much more aggressive about protecting handicap parking spaces for the people

who need them.

 

Harris of Westland, executive director of the 500-member Michigan Paralyzed Veterans of America, said that after health care, handicap parking "is our No.

1 issue, by far. We get so frustrated -- you can't do anything if you don't have the proper spots."

 

Parking, he said, "is a critical element of providing independence for our members."

 

More than that, parking is a safety issue. People in wheelchairs worry about being hit by drivers who cannot see them, a risk that rises the farther they

must travel to enter a store.

 

The Free Press examination of records, tickets, regulations and actual spaces for handicap parking in Michigan found the problems facing disabled drivers

are compounded in many ways:

 

• Able-bodied drivers freely take up spaces, many by using handicap placards or license plates that are not registered to them.

 

• Police in metro Detroit don't often ticket for such fraud, according to records produced by the communities surveyed. Some communities leave ticket-writing

to civilians and volunteers, who generally are not permitted to access law enforcement data to check permit registrations.

 

• The Michigan Secretary of State's Office, which issues handicap parking permits, only began tracking when permit holders die last October. Placards are

supposed to be surrendered, but an untold number of family and friends of the deceased continue to use them.

 

• Unlike other states, Michigan does not track or audit the doctors or other medical professionals who sign handicap permit applications. Critics say some

doctors dispense the applications like aspirin.

 

• Unlike other states, permit-holders in Michigan do not have to provide the state with periodic medical updates.

 

• The number of handicap plates in Michigan has surged in recent years -- from 93,357 in late 2000 to 249,047 as of May. An additional 628,003 placards

are in circulation. Drivers can have only one placard and as many plates as they have registered vehicles.

 

• Placards, which are hung from rearview mirrors, can easily be tampered with because the expiration date is handwritten. A 2013 expiration date can become

2018 with the stroke of a Sharpie.

 

• Michigan's fines for handicap parking violations are lower than some states; the worst scofflaws are not singled out for harsher penalties.

 

Markets, malls

 

Free Press reporters fanned out across metro Detroit in recent weeks, interviewing drivers who parked in handicap spots, tracking down chronic violators

and riding with ticket-writers. It was not hard to find people parking illegally.

 

At Somerset Collection in Troy, a young mother in a late-model Yukon used her son's permit to take a handicap space at Nordstrom, although her son wasn't

with her. That's a violation.

 

At Papa Joe's Gourmet Market in Birmingham, a man in a tie bopped out of a $100,000 Mercedes-Benz after parking in a handicap spot. When he emerged 30 minutes

later, he confessed he shouldn't have parked there, and wouldn't give his name.

 

At city hall in downtown Detroit, a woman confronted after she parked illegally said she had to run inside for just a minute. Then she thought better of

it and moved her vehicle.

 

Such examples are vexing for disabled people, who say they aren't sure whether able-bodied drivers realize the problems they can cause by taking up a handicap

space.

 

"I don't know how many times I have to drive around and around and around in the parking lot waiting for someone to vacate one of the handicapped spots

... sometimes I'll just leave," said Teresa Weaver, who works for the Capital Area Center for Independent Living in Lansing.

 

"It's the most frustrating experience there is," said Angela Hoff, executive director of the Blue Water Center for Independent Living in Port Huron. "It

limits my ability to work; it limits my ability to be independent."

 

Dawn Daniels of Farmington has four children whose physical disabilities leave them with little endurance to walk across large parking lots to get to the

entrance of a big-box store, the Detroit Zoo or other venues.

 

"Sometimes it's a huge issue for us," said Daniels, who has seven children. "It's frustrating when we can't find spots when we needed them. There are literally

times when it will make or break the day for them."

 

Aging Americans

 

Marilyn Golden, senior policy analyst with the California-based Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, said that with the graying of America, the problem

is only going to get worse.

 

"As a wheelchair user, it is often very difficult to find accessible parking," Golden said. "The fact that there's abuse by people who don't really need

the parking is a very key reason for that."

 

Disability rights advocates say the system needs an overhaul.

 

"We want people to be independent. We want them to shop and be part of society, we want them to work and pay taxes and spend money and be part of the economy

-- and yet we don't facilitate that," said Mike Zelley, chairman of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission and president of the Disability Network in Flint.

 

Zelley organized a town hall meeting for disabled people in Genesee County two years ago and expected the 100 or so who attended to be most concerned about

health care, jobs and housing.

 

Instead, he said, he was "blown away" because "the No. 1 issue for all these people was accessible parking. They cannot find accessible parking. ... It's

the law and people are violating the law and nobody is enforcing it."

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires parking lot owners to set aside a certain number of handicap parking spaces, based on a formula. The

U.S. Justice Department investigates complaints of inadequate parking, but states and local police enforce parking laws.

 

How it works

 

Michigan residents can apply for a handicap license plate, a placard to hang from the rearview mirror, or both. There is no extra cost for a handicap plate.

 

The application process involves filling out a two-page form, and getting it signed by a medical provider. To qualify, a person must fall into one of seven

disability categories. Generally, that means being blind and requiring a driver; using a wheelchair, having problems walking, or having certain lung and

heart issues. Permit-holders can be drivers or passengers.

 

Once a health provider certifies the form, an employee in a Secretary of State branch approves it. Unlike other states, including Illinois and, soon, Florida,

Michigan does not require people with permanent disabilities to periodically reapply for their permits and update their health information. New York City

even has its own doctors to review applications.

 

A new Florida law also requires the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to conduct random reviews of handicap permit holders to ensure

compliance and to remove people who have died from the permit list. The Florida Legislature also required the department to create a way for people to

report parking permit abuse.

 

And in Maryland, handicap permit holders must always have their doctor's medical certification in their possession when using handicap parking, and must

show it to police upon request.

 

Mark Cody, a lawyer for the Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, said handicap parking placards are too easily altered.

 

"In this day and age, there ought to be technology to make a better product," he said.

 

Massachusetts, for example, issues laminated placards that include a photo of the permit holder.

 

A month after the Free Press asked Secretary of State officials about tampering issues, a spokesman said the department planned to start ordering placards

with preprinted expiration dates.

 

Spokesman Fred Woodhams said the new system would "further secure the document" but insisted the department remains "confident in the placards in circulation."

 

Michigan also puts holds on motorists who have two or more unpaid handicap parking tickets, meaning they cannot renew their driver's licenses until they

pay. But the state is notified only if two unpaid tickets were handled by the same court; there's generally no tracking multiple tickets in multiple cities.

 

A ticket for illegal parking in a handicap space carries a maximum penality of $250. Fraudulent use of a placard is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty

of $500 and 30 days in jail.

 

Critics say those penalties aren't tough enough. The Illinois General Assembly this year made using a dead person's placard a misdemeanor punishable by

loss of driver's license for a year and a $2,500 fine.

 

In Michigan, state Rep. Jim Ananich, D-Flint, has introduced legislation that would double the maximum fine for parking without a placard to $500. The minimum

fine would also double, to $200. Local communities set the fine.

 

Activists say other changes are needed and the state could start by requiring plate and placard owners to periodically submit updated information about

their disabilities. As it stands, once a doctor says someone is permanently disabled, that person never has to be checked again.

 

"There definitely should be a reapplication process," said Lisa Nygord, executive director of the Arc Dearborn, an organization for children and adults

with intellectual and developmental disabilities. "That's the biggest concern."

 

Contact Jennifer Dixon: 313-223-4410 or

jbdixon at freepress.com.

Contact Jim Schaefer: 313-223-4542 or

jschaefer at freepress.com.