Disability parking bill moves through the House

Earlier this week, the disability parking bill addressed at the Day of Activism passed the Washington House of Representatives. The bill is intended to crack down on the fraudulent abuse of disability parking placards, but the Society expressed concern about its detrimental impact on people living with MS. The bill moved forward after legislators removed the section that concerned MS activists, preserving parking privileges for people living with MS.

A recent article from Everett's Herald newspaper provides a good overview of the issue, and quotes the Society's advocacy director, Jim Freeburg. The National MS Society has been urging lawmakers to focus on increasing enforcement rather than taking away privileges from legitimate users. House passage of the bill suggests that lawmakers are listening.

House Bill 2463 now moves onto the Senate where it will need to receive a hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee before March 3 in order to become law.

Our Day of Activism in Olympia....Success!

Over 65 MS activists descended on the Legislature last week to talk to lawmakers about the importance of accessible transportation and disability parking for people with MS. Despite the cold, volunteers came from all over the state and met with half the Legislature - an incredible feat! It was an inspiring day and made me so proud to be a member of the MS community. 

Activists met with legislators to talk about House Bill 2463 - an effort to crack down on illegal users of disability parking placards that would restrict the ability of people with MS to get free and unlimited parking. Because of our advocacy, lawmakers removed the restrictions on parking privileges for people with MS and other mobility impairments. The bill moved out of the House Transportation Committee last week and should move forward.

Lisa and Martin Boon

Sue Dahlin-Morales meeting with Senator Andy Hill's staff

Cermit Rickey on the Capitol steps

Jane Foy and Nora Gibson

Veronica Chase discussing our priority issues.

Additionally, volunteers advocated for additional funding for accessible transportation. Too many people with MS are unable to get around their communities and the legislature should increase funding for accessible transportation (also known as the special needs transportation fund). While the legislature isn't expected to pass a new transportation package anytime soon, we will be working with them to ensure they don't forget about the transportation needs of their constituents who live with MS and other disabilities.

Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler (photo courtesy of Martin Boon)

One highlight of the day - Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler joined us to provide a quick update on the Affordable Care Act. Commissioner Kreidler is a long-time supporter of the MS community and is always a favorite speaker at the Day of Activism.

Thanks to all the Activists who attended the Day of Activism. And for all those who weren't able to attend, you can still make a difference. Email your legislators today and ask them to fund accessible transportation - it's not too late!

Should the state have new rules for disability parking placards?

A new report to the Washington legislature recommends that the state allow fewer people with disabilities to qualify for free or unlimited street parking. This proposal, meant to crack down on fraud and abuse of disabled parking placards, may prevent many people with MS from gaining access to free or unlimited on-street parking.

The report does not propose revising eligibility for the blue disability parking placards, but instead suggests creating a new orange placard that allows for free parking and parking beyond the posted time limit. Currently, state law says that anyone with a disability placard can park in a metered space for an unlimited amount of time. This provision would be eliminated and under the new proposal, blue placards could not be used for free, unlimited on-street parking.

Nearly 700,000 permanent disability parking placards are in use throughout the state and it is thought that many of these placards are being used fraudently. The abuse seems to be most rampant in Seattle where many blocks are filled with a disproportionate number of disabled parkers during the work day. The City of Seattle has tried for many years to fix this problem and asked the legislature for a solution.

The new orange placards would have a much stricter definition of disability, and allow someone to qualify if they meet any of the four criteria:

• Cannot insert coins in parking meters or obtain tickets from ticket machines in parking lots or ramps due to a lack of fine motor control of both hands.
• Cannot reach up to 42 inches from the ground, due to lack of finger, hand, or upper extremity strength or mobility.
• Cannot approach a parking meter due to use of a wheelchair or other device.
• Cannot walk more than 20 feet due to an orthopedic, neurological, cardiovascular, or lung condition which is so severe that the ability to walk is almost completely impeded.

These criteria seems to eliminate people with MS who experience fatigue and gait, except in the most extreme circumstances.

The report also suggests additional changes to crack down on fraud, including increasing penalties for fraudulent use of a disabled parking placard. The whole report is available here. The Chapter's Washington Government Relations Committee is reviewing the report and will ensure that the legislature understands the perspective of the MS community when they are reviewing the proposal.

What do you think about this proposal? Should it be harder for people to get a disabled parking permit? What else can be done to crack down on the abuse of disability parking placards?

Disability parking - how can we fix it?

This past session, lawmakers in Olympia tried to get a better handle on a problem that impacts many people with MS: the abuse and misuse of disabled parking. People with MS often rely on disability parking placards to help manage the fatigue that so often accompanies MS. Unfortunately, too many others take advantage of the placards and park in disabled parking spots, leaving people with MS without accessible parking. 

The bill considered by legislators would have given additional tools to city officials to crack down on fraudulent drivers. However, it also raised concerns that legitimate users could be harmed by the crackdown.

In the end, legislators decided the problem needed some additional research before they could determine a fix, so the Department of Licensing (DOL) created a task force to ask the public for possible solutions. The DOL's blog post requesting public comment has already received quite a few suggestions in the comment thread. The comments also show the biggest challenge associated with this problem - cracking down on abusers could hurt people with invisible or intermittent disabilities, like people with MS.

The National MS Society has followed this issue closely for some time. In 2011, in an effort to free up parking spaces, the City of Seattle proposed ending free all day parking for people with a disabled parking placard. The Society opposed the effort and met with the Seattle City Council to voice our opposition to the effort, expressing concern that it would harm people whose extensive medical appointments require long parking stays. The City dropped the plan but has since continued to research other ideas.

What do you think we should do about this problem? Do you see it in your neighborhood? Give us your thoughts in the comment thread below and send your comments to the DOL task force at DPWorkgroup@dol.wa.gov.

How do you define disability?

A few things coming across my desk recently have really made me think more about the definition of disability. The first item was an extensive segment on NPR that described a significant increase in the numbers of people who are on government disability programs (SSDI and SSI).  The author's point is that disability programs have become the "new" welfare for the unemployed and it's too easy to get on disability. The piece has been widely criticized by disability advocates for being unfair and missing the point that the increase is due largely to demographic changes (an aging workforce) and that it's actually very difficult to get disability benefits. A quick google search will point you to many of these criticisms, though this long one gave me much to think about. Whether the claims made in the NPR story are true or not, you can't deny that more people are on disability programs and we need to figure out a sustainable way to pay for them - and figure out what we can do to increase the self-sufficiency of people with disabilities (more on that below).

Then I saw an announcement about a speaker from the Disability History Museum, an online effort to educate the public about the disability movement over the years. It has some great exhibits and helped me understand that "disability" has so much attachment to paid work, it's no surprise that articles like the NPR segment and this one on disabled firefighters keep popping up.

In particular, both these things made me think about the diverse groups of people within the "disability community" - if there is such a thing. For example, someone with an MS-related disability likely acquired it during their adult life. They are aware of what it is like to not have a disability and so to them, a disabled life is a different life. For someone who has been disabled since birth, disabled life is not different, it just is. So it gives me a better understanding of why disability groups have traditionally played in different circles in Olympia - a problem I'm trying to correct by the way. Most excitingly, I'm working to bring disability advocates of all stripes together to support a major initiative to increase employment for people with disabilities.

This debate of what it really means to have a disability is also front and center to the disabled parking discussion that is going through the Legislature and the City of Seattle. Many assert that there is systemic abuse of disabled parking placards by people who don't really need them or have obtained them illegally. With too many placards in circulation, the City of Seattle asserts that people without disabilities are being left without any place to park. I know many people with MS have been accused (either silently or otherwise) of not being disabled enough, and shouldn't use these placards. But what are the real problems in the system? Are too many people disabled? (I know too many people live with MS in Seattle, but I don't have an easy way to fix that.) Do we make it too easy to have the government say you are disabled? I don't think many people with MS who have applied for disability would say that.

How do you think we should write laws that help people with disabilities (including unpredictable and sometimes temporary symptoms like those associated with MS) while not giving everyone a free pass?