By Barbara Ortutay Daily Bruin Senior Staff
More than six months after 19 current and former UCLA football
players pleaded no contest to illegally obtaining disabled parking
placards, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa came to campus to
announce legislation intended to curb future abuses.
Amid cheers of support from members of the disabled community,
Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) spoke at the Faculty Center March 24
at a news conference announcing Assembly Bill 1792, which among
other things would impose a mandatory minimum fine of $250 for
wrongful use of disabled parking placards and require the
Department of Motor Vehicles to conduct an annual random audit of
placard applicants.
"Illegally parking in a disabled person’s parking space has
become the latest spectator sport in California, and it won’t be
tolerated anymore," Villaraigosa said.
He likened a non-disabled person parking in a disabled space to
a "bully on a school playground picking on the small kid with
glasses."
People forging placards or obtaining them from friends and
relatives are the most common forms of misuse, he added.
The bill currently requires a disabled placard applicant’s
doctor to make information available to the DMV for inspection. To
an audience member’s question regarding medical information being
made available to the DMV, Villaraigosa replied this part of the
bill is being changed to protect people’s privacy.
Much of the attention to disabled parking placard abuse came
after the charges against the current and former UCLA football
players were announced in July.
They pleaded no contest to the charges and were sentenced to 200
hours of community service, two years of probation, time in a
victim impact program with disabled people and a $1,485 fine.
In addition, the university suspended the current players for
two games and hosted a meeting with the current students and
members of the university community to discuss the impact of their
actions.
UCLA’s support for the bill comes from a long-standing
commitment to the civil rights of disabled people, Executive Vice
Chancellor Rory Hume said at the conference.
He said it is "entirely appropriate" that Villaraigosa chose
UCLA to announce the bill.
"UCLA has zero tolerance for disabled placard abuse," he said,
adding that the university was ranked among the top 10
disability-friendly colleges by New Mobility Magazine.
Hume said 724 disabled students were enrolled at UCLA in the
1998-99 school year, a number that has been steadily increasing in
the past decade.
Among other things, the university has installed access ramps on
Bruin Walk, wheelchair access lifts on all Campus Express buses and
"teletypewriter" devices on many campus payphones for deaf and
speech- and hearing-impaired people.
Sharon Morris, executive director of the L.A. Commission on
Disability, said the parking spaces are essential for disabled
people to lead independent lives.
"The parking issue is one of the largest complaint areas in our
department," Morris said.
She added that disabled parking spaces are not only closer to
buildings, but are also wider to provide easier access for disabled
people as well as their caregivers. She said this "doesn’t occur to
most people."
She added that not all disabled people are visibly disabled.
People with chronic fatigue syndrome or severe respiratory failure,
for example, may not appear disabled when getting out of their car
but still need the close parking spaces to access supermarkets and
stores "without having to cross a parking lot the size of a
football field."
But it’s not only able-bodied people who may misuse parking
placards.
"Placard holders don’t always know their rights and
responsibilities," she said.
For example, grandparents may not know their grandchild can’t
run an errand for them using a disabled placard if they are not in
the car, Morris said.
Villaraigosa said he expects AB1792 to become law by the end of
the year.
"We are all vulnerable to become disabled at any time, losing
the mobility we take for granted," he said. "I believe that
Californians with disabilities should be able to live their lives
with dignity and the assurance that we as a society value their
contributions."
"This bill will put disabled drivers on equal footing with every
other driver in the state," he added.