I think this is something we should all recognize – the medical profession in particular.
Many years ago working on the Department of Transport, I was the senior research officer instrumental in introducing disable parking permits in Queensland. I cannot recall the exact numbers but we were thinking about 5000 to 8000 tops. We were looking at people who probably were in wheel chairs or had their cars modified so that they could drive. We handed it over to doctors to access the recipients of disabled parking permits. Huge mistake!!! The last number I heard there were in excess of 500 000 disabled parking permit holders in Queensland.
I won’t go into the whole reason why it happened, suffice to say patients went doctor shopping. If one doctor said no they went onto another one that did.
Again I won’t go into all the categories of disability, but a person who is old is not disabled. A person who is overweight is not disabled. A person with emphysema is not disabled. A person in a wheel chair is not disabled. They have a disability but are not disabled. I am sure all of us have worked with people in wheel chairs who do a great job. These people have a disability but they are not disabled. Almost all of these people can work. Probably not as well as a person without these disabilities, but if they have the commitment and desire, they can achieve anything.
So that brings me back to the first sentence. A person with a disability is not disabled. We have hundreds of thousands if not millions of people diagnosed as disabled but all they have is a disability. Probably harder for them to work but not incapable of working.
One of the first things they should do is revisit disabled parking permits. Only people permanently in a wheel chair or with modified cars should have access to disabled car parks.
