|
State law or Jacobs' law?
Discrimination against disabled people in new parking system
by Mark D. Sherry, UT-AAUP Executive Board
The new parking system which the Jacobs Administration is introducing discriminates against disabled people.
Under state law, a disabled person in Ohio may get up to two disability placards. Such placards are used for people with seven types of conditions affect mobility - someone who:
- Cannot walk two hundred feet without stopping to rest.
- Cannot walk without the use of or assistance from a brace, cane, crutch, another person, prosthetic device, wheelchair or other assistive device.
- Is restricted by lung disease to such an extent that the person's forced (respiratory) expiratory volume for one second, when measured by spirometry, is less than one liter, or the arterial oxygen tension is less than sixty millimeters of mercury on room air at rest.
- Uses portable oxygen.
- Has a cardiac condition to the extent that the person's functional limitations are classified in severity as Class III or Class IV according to standards set by the American Heart Association.
- Is severely limited in the ability to walk due to an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition.
- Is blind.
People in these circumstances are allowed two disability parking placards because they may rely on one person to drop them off and another to pick them up. This is common when someone may rely on the assistance of a spouse, friend, coworker, or others for transportation.
But Jacobs thinks he is a law unto himself. His new system decrees that disabled people are only allowed one parking permit. Never mind State law... this is Jacobs' law.
The new system has completely ignored the access needs of disabled people - there isn't even a link to ask for disability parking permits on the new faculty system!
By stating that disabled people can only have one parking permit, Jacobs is over-riding State law and unfairly discriminating against disabled people.
This is just one more example of the lack of planning and consultation which characterizes this administration. Whether it's incompetence or intolerance, the rights of disabled people have been attacked.
The UT-AAUP calls for the replacement of the 'one car, one sticker' policy for people with disabilities.
Reinstate State law, not Jacobs' law!
| 
