Dan,

The intent of the federal introduction of the law was to provide for people
with disabilities.  The feds left it up to the states to enterpret.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Rossi" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 10:01 PM
Subject: Re: Visually Impaired And Disabled Tags.


George,

that is exactly my point, it wasn't my interpretation of the law.
According to Mary Blanton it wasn't the intent of the legislature to allow
blind people to use these parking spaces.  She had to have the law
changed.

You bring up some fine points, I don't typically use drivers.  I am
usually with sighted friends who are doing the driving, or I walk to my
local shops independently.  I agree that I would not want to be wandering
around in a busy parking lot looking for a car which I could not see.  But
your point just doesn't seem to be valid about the intent of the
legislature to include the blind, if that had to be ammended to the law.
That is where I am coming from.


On Fri, 14 May 2004, George Cassell wrote:

> Dan said ...
>
> "The idea behind the handicapped parking spaces
> is to allow those who are "mobility impaired" better access to public
> places."
>
> That's your interpretation, Dan.  But it's obviously NOT the intent of the
> lawmakers who wrote the laws, and included those of us who are blind or
> visually-impaired.
>
> If the lawmakers had intended these parking spaces to be reserved solely
for
> those who are,"mobility impaired," they would not have made them available
> to those of us who are visually-impaired as well.
>
> As for what is "required" by a visually-impaired person, it is not for you
> to say.  If you can do without utilizing such parking spaces, then by all
> means, park elsewhere.  But some of us do find such parking spaces to be,
> not just niceties, but necessities.  For instance, I can't find our car
when
> it's parked somewhere out in the lower forty of a mall.  I can't even see
it
> when I'm standing right next to it.  So what am I supposed to do?  Wander
> aimlessly up and down the aisles of a busy parking lot, where cars are
> coming and going, and backing out of parking spaces, without even looking
> where they are going, endangering life and limb?  I'm not about to
endanger
> my life, just to be, what you may well consider to be politically correct.
> My life is worth far more than some high-minded ideal.
>
> When we park our car in a handicapped stall, I do not have to cross
against
> any traffic -- we're along the sidewalk that leads into the stores we're
> going to shop in.  I am capable of doing much of my shopping without
further
> inconveniencing the driver who brought me there.  And so I do.  When I
have
> my packages, I want to be able to take them to the car that brought me,
> freeing myself up to do additional shopping.
>
> I can't do that, if I can't find the car, and I can't find the car, if
it's
> parked among the hundreds, or even thousands of vehicles in a busy parking
> lot.
>
> But as I said, anyone who doesn't want to park there, doesn't have to do
so,
> and nobody is going to hold a gun to their head to force them to do what
> they don't want to do.  All I ask, is that people leave the rest of us
> alone, and allow us to do whatever it is that we want to do, whether or
not
> others like it.  We're perfectly legal, and entirely within our rights.
And
> if we're not, then we'll be cited, and brought to trial in a court of law,
> and not by some kangaroo court of idealistic, yet not realistic people .
>
> -- George
>
>
> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
> To join or leave the list, send a message to
> [log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
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>
>
>

--
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel:    (412) 268-9081


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html