Judgmental note, left on car parked in spot for disabled, insults driver

By Nicole O’Reilly, Waterloo Record

Updated, first published Jul 4, 2007

Sue Foxton doesn’t wear her disability on her sleeve. She doesn’t want special treatment, or to be judged. But a few weeks ago while shopping in the region she returned to her car — legally parked in a spot for the disabled, with a visible permit — and was horrified to find a nasty note. “I came out to my car and it had a note on the windshield that was really, really insulting,” said the North Dumfries councillor.The note, scribbled on a single-slice pizza box, called her a horrible person and asked why she parked in the space. “I wear really, really long skirts because I’m a right-leg amputee,” Foxton said. The skirts hide her disability.

She lost her leg, and suffered other debilitating injuries including spinal trauma, in a car accident in 2002.

A team of five doctors said she is 75 per cent disabled, but it’s not apparent to others.

“So really I have the body of a 90-year-old,” said Foxton, who is in her 50s. “But why should I have to tell people about that? Mentally it will break you down. I want to have fun,” she said.

Thanks to strong muscles and a strong spirit, Foxton is in good shape.

“I walk and you’ll never tell, unless you walk beside me and I can’t walk quite as fast,” she said.

Foxton said she is often on the receiving end of dirty looks when she parks her Volkswagen Beetle convertible in accessible parking spots.

There are many reasons a person can be approved for an accessible parking permit, several of which are not overt disabilities. For instance, heart disease can’t be spotted by strangers.

Permits are issued by the Ministry of Transportation and require a doctor’s note.

Maidment said the nasty note is the result of the public’s lack of faith in the parking-permit system. A lack of faith which he said is well deserved.

‘There is a big issue of people abusing disabled-parking permits,” Maidment said. “There are people getting permits through fraudulent avenues.”

Many people abuse the system by using permits designated for friends and family, even after their loved one is deceased, Maidment said.

It is easy for these abusers to get away with their offence, he said, because they claim the disabled person was in the car with them.

In hindsight, Foxton said she knows the note writer’s intentions were good, but she implores people not to make judgments they are not qualified to make.

People wishing to report illegal parkers can call the city, or police, who will alert city parking enforcement officers.”But by the time we get there (most of the time) they’ll be gone,” Maidment said.

Pam Phillips, supervisor of enforcement for Kitchener, said almost all tickets issued in connection to spots for the disabled are for parking without a permit.

Maidment believes the answer is not to issue more tickets but to reform the whole process, starting with how permits are granted. “You really have to look at the whole system,” he said.

The Highway Traffic Act allows police officers to remove permits on the spot. But it is city enforcement officers who are in charge of ticketing.

“We don’t have the authority to ask you to identify yourself,” Maidment said. This means many permit abusers walk away scot-free.

Maidment and Foxton are concerned about accessible parking in relation to our aging population.

“It’s a real fine line; we haven’t planned for the aging population,” Foxton said.

“There are statistics that have indicated that in the next ten years, because of the aging population and baby boomers,” Maidment said, “there will be a huge growth in the need for disabled parking.”

Many parking lots have one space for the disabled, he said, but there could be a need for 20 in the future.