Dennis Borel, executive director for the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities does not agree with case photo: Rodolfo Gonzalez/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Settlement agreed $5 fee for disabled sticker violated ADA and legal access to disabled parking

With a story from News-Journal.com

The State of Texas has settled a $24 million class action lawsuit and agreed that 12 years of collecting $5 for disability parking tags is illegal.

The suit filed on behalf of all Texans with disabilities claimed people had rights to accessible parking that could not be restricted by an administrative fee.

The blue placards cost $5 and were valid for 4 years.

PEI has a similar arrangement except the parking placards are only valid for 1 year and the PEI Council of Persons with Disabilities forces people to pay a membership fee as well.

The logistics of refunding the settlement to tens of thousands of people, many of whom did not get or keep receipts, are daunting.  The agreement with Texas stipulates that money not refunded will go to organizations who work with the disabled.

Lawyers working on the case earned $3.9 million.

The coalition group that is supposed to advocate for people with disabilities in Texas did not agree with the lawsuit.

Coalition of Texans with Disabilities staff photo

“I don’t think it’s a meaningful issue,” said Dennis Borel, executive director for the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities. “I think people want their rights. But they’re also willing to pay reasonable fees.”

The Coalition of Texans with Disabilities is a professional disability advocacy group with mostly employees without disabilities. This often creates an insensitivity to disability issues and gave rise to the credo “nothing about us without us” from disability rights advocates. Professional disability workers cannot represent people with disabilities when their connection with the issues are intellectual not shared experience.

Their group picture has one token person with a disability in a wheelchair. This is not a question of sincerity or dedication of people without disabilities. They just don’t get it.

This class action lawsuit is one of several filed by a Florida law firm.

“Stephen Senn said his Lakeland, Fla.-based law firm initiated about 20 class action suits against states from Florida to North Dakota to Oregon and Texas.  Senn said that several states, such as Vermont, settled early on and quickly did away with the fee. On the other end of the spectrum, similar cases are pending in California and Louisiana, he said. The lawsuits all claim that charging drivers with disabilities for the right to access violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.” News-Journal.com