There are few lower acts than parking in spots reserved for those with disabilities.
Such actions bring out a whole new level of contempt in us, an outrage so palpable it spills over and turns us into red-faced finger waggers.
Even though I don’t generally like conflict, the community policing of the spaces makes my heart swell a little.
Heaven help those able-bodied souls who swoop in, hoping for a quick park or an easy getaway – a situation I observed this week at Kawana.
Like seagulls on a chip one, then two, able-bodied people jumped in and raised their voices in defence of the disability space.
It was not pretty. The would-be parker reversed out and slunk off, rightly cowed and henpecked. The defenders of the space did little fist pumps.
Disability spaces are necessary because without them, people with mobility problems would be excluded from libraries, sports grounds, educational institutions and community spaces and denying them access violates anti-discrimination legislation.
Under Queensland law, a driver who slots into a designated spot without a permit can be slugged with a $533 fine.
The permits are hard to get: applicants pay $18.65 to the Australian Disability Parking Scheme with a satchel of paperwork, and only some are successful in getting their hands on the purple prize.
A person must be deemed by a medico to always need a wheelchair; or have their ability to walk severely restricted by a permanent medical condition; or be severely visually impaired; or to have their ability to walk severely restricted by a temporary condition they will have for six months or more.
Some of it seems strange, because very obese people might qualify, but people with severe but healing injuries don’t. Neither do the severely intellectually impaired or the very, very sick.
The permits are for mobility issues, not disability alone, and apparently our population’s mobility is so poor that the number of people who now qualify for permits is outstripping available spots.
Advocates say the abuse of disability parks is increasing and I have a solution to the shortage of spaces: give the ‘parents with prams’ spots to those with disabilities and take the seniors’ ones as well.
The seniors who really need a special park would qualify for the disability permit anyway and even when my three kids were little, I did not understand why parents had special parks.
Prams are schmick these days and children need to learn the way of the carpark, not have it designed around them.
Parks for parents and seniors are a courtesy, not a legal requirement.
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General expansion around waistlines suggest that older people and parents of young children need to walk far more than they do, so parking with the rest of us and getting the legs working would seem prudent.
Disability parks are needed for people to give them equal access to facilities and include them in the community.
Parents and oldies should step back for those who can’t step out at all.
Dr Jane Stephens is a USC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer. The views expressed are her own.
