[nagdu] National Epidemic of Horrible People Pretending to Be Disabled |

Mon Oct 14 23:25:51 UTC 2013

Marion,

I do agree but also disagree. The article is clearly trying to make a mole hill into a mountain. Darnit I never get those stupid sayings right, anyways. Who ever wrote it is looking for the media hype. The part that I don't agree with is that people do actually use handicapp parking tags in illegal matters. Yes I know that is not guide dog related. But for example my ex-SIL bought a handicapp tag for her car off of ebay. She is using it now in the state of PA, it drives me crazy, and would love love love to turn her in. She is not disabled, none of her family is disabled, nor does she have anything to do with me anymore, ie drives me around. She is not the only one I know to use the handicapp parking tags in a illegal way. Yes the author of this article had a bigger agenda then just the statement of fake or annoying people. but to push service dog issues. 
JMO 

Also by no means am I opening the door for debate in regards to say that blind people need handicapp parking tags..Unfortunately blindness is not the only disablity I have. 

Marsha drenth  
Sent with my IPhone 

On Oct 14, 2013, at 12:25 PM, "National Association of Guide Dog Users" <blind411 at verizon.net> wrote:

> Dear All, 
>    I think we should be very skeptical of the flurry of such articles
> in the past couple months. Most of them have one thing in common: Most
> either refer to or are featuring CCI consumers. CCI is the organization
> promoting an online petition to regulate the online sale of service dog gear
> and identification. 
> 
>    These reports have asserted it is a federal crime to pass a pet off
> as a service dog. I find it very interesting, as violation of the ADA is not
> a criminal offense, rather, the aDA is a civil law with no criminal
> remedies. 
> 
>    It is my personal opinion that the prevalence of this sort of
> behavior is being intentionally exaggerated in an effort to support the need
> for certification. This would only benefit the training programs, not the
> disabled community. I am of the opinion that the best way to counter this
> issue - if it is really an issue - is to better educate places of public
> accommodation about what is really a service dog and that the rights of the
> disabled under the ADA are not absolute, but carry with it specific
> responsibilities of acceptable behavior. 
> 
>    I received a call from a restaurant a couple weeks ago about someone
> who came in with an untethered  dog, claiming it was a service dog. The
> owner asked if it was a service dog and the patron told her that it was none
> of her business and she could not ask any questions because doing so was a
> violation of HIPAA. I advised her that she could and gave her the questions
> she could ask. I was advised the patron came in again a couple days later,
> she asked the right questions, he again made the same assertions, he was
> asked to leave, and he told her he would see her in court. She handed him
> our brochure and told him to give me a call if he had any questions. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's a federal crime to
> use a fake service animal to take advantage of privileges reserved for those
> who genuinely need the assistance of such pets. Nonetheless, according to a
> recent report from the Associated Press, the use of phony "dog tags" is on
> the rise, with owners faking papers or buying badges off the Internet just
> so that they can bring their pooches into restaurants, shops, and other
> venues that don't usually allow dogs. Advocates of both pets and the
> disabled are divided as to how to police those who abuse service animal
> privileges, and some are calling for federal authorities to better regulate
> and enforce service animal rules around the country.
> 
> 
> 
> While it's assumed that only a small percentage of the population would even
> think of using a faux service dog to avoid leaving a pet outside a store or
> at home in order to grab a bite at a restaurant, even a single incident of
> phony service dog usage is enough to get people-disabled and able-bodied
> alike-up in arms. Outrage followed the story of a 33-year-old New Yorker
> named Brett David, who was featured in the New York Post over the summer.
> David bragged about bringing his fake "therapy dog" named Napoleon into
> movie theaters, restaurants, nightclubs, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and more
> mainly because "I was sick of tying up my dog outside," as he put it.
> "Sometimes, they'll give me a hassle and say bring the papers next time, but
> for five bucks, you order [a patch] off eBay, and it works 90 percent of the
> time," he explained.
> 
> 
> 
> People like David aren't the only ones pretending to be disabled to take
> advantage of special perks. In late September, the Walt Disney Company felt
> compelled to change its disabled guest policy at theme parks partly due to
> "abuse of the system." The announcement came after reports surfaced that
> wealthy guests were paying wheelchair-riding tour guides top dollar so that
> the group could use the line-skipping privileges granted to the disabled at
> Disney theme parks.
> 
> 
> 
> Meanwhile, over the years, police around the U.S. periodically engage in
> sweeps to round up drivers fraudulently using handicapped parking passes,
> and apparently it's pretty easy to snag people abusing the system. Last
> spring, over the course of a mere four hours, authorities in Oakland,
> Calif., confiscated 13 handicapped placards being used illegally by drivers.
> That's out of a total of 70 placards they came across, meaning nearly one in
> five was fraudulent.
> 
> 
> 
> A report in Seattle published over the summer estimated that one in eight
> drivers using disabled parking placards is doing so fraudulently, costing
> the city $1.4 million annually. Like in Seattle, drivers with such placards
> get to park for free in Providence, R.I., where it just so happens that
> there has been an influx of cars with disabled parking passes near train
> stations and bus stops. Police began routinely demanding verification and
> handed out multiple $500 fines to those who were using passes registered to
> someone else. "Not only is it an affront to the persons who have a
> disability and need the space, they're cheating the city out of revenue by
> parking there," one Providence police officer said of the offenders.
> 
> 
> 
> In yet another sting, in Orlando, Fla., police zeroed in on offenders like a
> 34-year-old woman using a placard registered to someone who was 85, and who
> had died a few months prior to the bust. Apparently, the driver, arrested
> just before 3 a.m., was using the placard in order to park in a convenient
> handicap spot downtown-so that her car was nearby when the bars closed.
> 
> 
> 
> Suspicions of disabled placard abuse have gotten so bad in New Jersey-where
> more than 500,000 people have special placard and license plate
> privileges-that the state introduced tougher regulations last spring. In the
> past, anyone who classified for a pass could renew automatically every three
> years. As of August 1, though, drivers must submit proof of their condition
> every three years before they're granted special privileges. Disabled
> parking placards were also redesigned so that it is easier for police and
> meter checkers to see expiration dates, and so that it's more difficult for
> drivers to unlawfully change the information on the passes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Brad Tuttle @bradrtuttle             
> 
> 
> 
> Brad Tuttle covers business and personal finance for TIME. He lives in
> Massachusetts with his wife and four sons, and also teaches journalism at
> UMass-Amherst. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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