Why are there so many handicap placards?

Question

seems like every tom, dick & harry has a handicap placard
displayed in their car but if you actually watch many of those
people, they look and act as healthy as me. They need a better
system.

Answer 1

Not everyone who is disabled looks disabled. I'm blind, but you wouldn't know it by looking at me (unless you took the time to really look close and pay attention for a while). ANd I don't always travel with my cane, so when we park in a handicapped space and I get out of the passenger seat it could appear that neither me nor the driver is disabled in any way.

Someone with a heart condition who CAN walk, but can't walk far may not look disabled.

Someone who is deaf may not look disabled

Someone with a mental disability may not look disabled.

Someone who is coming to wherever to pick up someone who is disabled may park in the handicapped spot because they need the extra space for when they bring so-and-so out to the car.

There are countless other conditions as well that could require you to use a handicapped spot without really looking disabled.

At the same time there ARE a lot of people who have the stickers for a family member or something but use them even if the disabled person isn't with them. That has to stop.

There may be people who were temporarily disabled and got the sticker but continue to use it even once they're back to normal

And then there are people who don't even have permission to park there but do anyway. All of that has to stop.

Answer 2

Great responses. Obviously a subject with many diverse facts and opinions. However, I decided to focus not on my response initially but to your question and how it is worded and displayed. "Why are there so many handicap placards?" Should there be a cap on them, a quota that automatically shuts down when full? Even if the amount for those who qualify were to double, have you taken note that there are very, very few parking spaces available in any given retail or private business lot? "Seems like every tom, dick & harry has a handicap placard displayed in their car.." wrong again. Temporary placards must be displayed on the inside rearview mirror, but permanent blue ones are far more common on the license plates to avoid theft (the green eyes of envy!) and for easier identification for security and/or police checks. "..if you actually watch many of those people, they look and act as healthy as me" speaks volumes of how you view the disabled in our society and yourself. The term "those people" is not very kind, is it? In fact, instead of sitting in your vehicle judging who is or isn't deemed worthy of this minimal privilege allowed by the DMV, you would have realized that there is no such thing as a "handicap placard". Check out the blue sign on the metal post above these folks you're complaining about and notice it reads "DISABLED PARKING ONLY." Big difference. I already know you just look and act as healthy as you're pretending to be, now go get some help and be grateful for having fingers to type out this ingrate question. I've been confronted personally by folks like you due to my disabilities and this was the first time in 40 years I chose to expend my energies to speak up, but only because this is public and maybe someone else might get the picture besides only you. Have a nice one.

Answer 3

While a doctor must sign off on the disability placard application, I think many of the forms are forged. When I got my placard in NC, it seemed that it would be too easy to forge the form, and I do not think there is any effort made to verify them. One of the local news stations went out and checked them on the street and found a large number that were expired as well. I agree, the system needs to be improved, but until it is, it would be wrong to assume that a person with one is not disabled.

Answer 4

The system is just fine. Many disabilities are invisible. Nobody in the US can get one of the handicap placards unless a doctor signs a paper certifiying their disablility.

Why does it bother you so much? Do you wish you could get a handicap placard or what? Believe me, we disabled people would MUCH rather be able to walk far enough that we didn't NEED to park in the handicap spots!

Answer 5

The baby boomers are aging and getting at that stage of life when disabilities start showing up. The system for getting the placard tags is just fine. Very few, if any doctors, are going to put their careers on the line by filling out the paperwork for someone who doesn't need the tag. The types of disables allowed is spelled out clearing on the forms by each state.

Answer 6

The system is just fine. If anyone is abusing it - it is the doctors who give them out too freely. There are rules. If a person qualifies under the rules the doctor signs and they get a placard.

I do know people who are older who have no reason to have a placard. Being a certain age does not qualify you for a placard as some doctors appear to think.

If a person asks for one and gets it and doesn't really deserve it- I can hardly blame them if the doctor went along with it.

Answer 7

I do think that there should be a renewal system in place. Anyone who is ligitimately disabled can get a placard but people who don't need it any more shouldn't have one any more. Not rocket science.

I also really cannot stand people who park in handicapped without a placard. They should be grateful to be able bodied.

Answer 8

I love Paula's answer!

There are many, many disabled people with invisible disabilities. I try my best to mask mine, which may actually be making things worse.

For some of us, something as simple as walking across the parking lot creates breathing problems, exacerbated pain (yes pain can be disabling), or the increased chances of falling. Yes, everyone has a chance of falling, but with some conditions our legs can simply give out without warning. Myself, I grab a shopping cart for stability to ease things for now.

Yes there are people abusing the placards, many of whom have taken them from a disabled person. Most of us that have them need them, regardless of the fact that you cannot see our disability, we have one.

Personally, I'm putting off getting that placard as long as I can. I am in denial.

Answer 9

One can be disabled without it being visible on the outside. Some of those people who "seem" healthy may have heart diseases, lung diseases, fibromyalgia, arthritis or something else that you can't necessarily see on them, but which makes it difficult, painful or risky for them to walk far or do other daily things. They may look healthy, but be in a lot of pain or need a handicap placard for some other reason.

Answer 10

In most states, you have to renew every year. And it's a PITA because you have to go to the doctor, get a checkup, prove you are still disabled, go to DMV, apply for it, etc etc. Most of the people you see have invisible disabilities, and it's really quite unfair for you to judge them based on your own lack of experience. I'm 33 but have had arthritis since I was ten. Walking a block is nearly impossible for me sometimes, and at the end of the day, going to door at walmart just about makes me weep. I have friends who have cancer, who have arthritis, who have respiratory problems. They all have invisible disabilities.

It would have been helpful when my daughter with autism was younger. Even though it is a disability that only affects her brain and not the rest of her body, it was very hard to get her to the front door, especially in light of my fragile joint system. She didn't understand that she couldn't run off without being squished. The sound of all the cars scared her, making her twice as likely to run off.

Oh yeah, those were the days