Gherkin Street

By Milton Montgomery:

As you would know, I am a staunch defender of anti-discrimination. Provided I am being paid to do so.

Thus, I am duty bound to report some of the instances of discrimination that our society continues to allow. Some might even say “condone” or “pardon”. It really does depend on whether or not they heard you properly.

For a start, society tends to classify people as being “disabled” or “not disabled”. Or, as I like to call this latter group, “normal”. The trouble is, this is discriminatory to so many people within the disabled community, many of whom suffer the consequences of being more severely disabled than others.

For example, parking spaces. As you know I have previously pointed out the inequity of a disabled person being granted a parking space closer to the shops that a normal person. Particularly where those shops do not comprise prosthetic limb or wheelchair retailers.

However, have you ever stopped to consider just how unfair disabled parking spaces are on other handicapped people?

I have a client who is blind yet society will not afford him the luxury of a disabled parking space. As a consequence, he is forced to park his car wherever it comes to rest or ceases to function. Yet, another client of mine who is deaf can secure a premier parking position regardless of how loudly you yell him its unfair.

What about another client who has no limbs? She is surely more disabled than either of the former clients, yet she is unable to get a disabled parking sticker for herself. Nor can she drive, unless she is roped to a motorbike with the throttle stuck on full. Ironically, that is how she came to have no limbs in the first place.

Also ironically, as her lawyer I was able to get a disabled parking sticker for myself by masquerading as her carer. Just quietly, you can too if you send me $1000 in a self-addressed envelope.

Now don’t get all uppity about that, its hardly going to matter. It’s not like she would be up in arms about it if I told her. Besides, I can’t remember where I left her. It might have been in the Jacuzzi, come to think of it. I hope she can swim. Oops.

So think about it. Someone who is wheelchair bound but has used their outrageous compensation payout to modify their car can happily park their car in a disabled space but my client who is a mentally challenged, dwarf with narcolepsy cannot. Needless to say, he is quite grumpy. And dopey. And sleepy.

Similarly, if you drive your car with three disabled passengers, say, one with mental disabilities, one who was blind and one with Tourette’s syndrome, you cannot park in a disabled space either. What’s more, the person suffering Tourette’s will be most unhappy about it. Mind you, you will look like any normal vehicle in New Zealand but that is beside the point.

Its just plain unfair how society allows some disabled people superior access compared to others. I believe that if you are able enough to drive a car then you should have to park where everyone else does. If you are not able enough to drive a car then (and only then) should you be granted a disabled parking space.

That disabled parking space need not exist, or if so, it need not impede on others who drive cars by having that space near where they park. It could be a nice parking little space near their house for example. Perhaps in their garage? Perhaps it could exist only in their mind. It might be the only thing that does.

Either way, it’s a much fairer way to take care of the parking needs of those who are able and those who aren’t. We should all stand-up for our rights. Especially those who can.