A well-meaning but problematic idea has been circulating in some statehouses across the country: making things easier for pregnant women by letting them park in accessible parking spots. Florida passed such a law this year, Ohio lawmakers are discussing a similar bill and The Washington Post reports that lawmakers in Arizona and South Carolina are among those expected to soon follow suit. Florida’s law allows pregnant women to use accessible parking spots at any point during their pregnancy. Illinois passed a law in 2022 allowing women in the third trimester of pregnancy to use such spaces.
Nobody bothered to ask the people who depend on those spots how the change would affect them. If so, they’d have learned that there’s already a shortage of accessible parking across the country. That means letting pregnant women who aren’t disabled park in what’s already a limited number of spots would only make things worse for people who are disabled. Accessible parking is not a convenience but a necessity for Americans with disabilities. It’s clear from Florida’s new law and the legislation and expected bills in other states that lawmakers and the public need to be reminded of that. A Florida resident filed suit in October claiming the new law is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Letting pregnant women who aren’t disabled park in what’s already a limited number of spots would only make things worse for people who are disabled.
While certain complications of pregnancy, such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, are disabilities, pregnancy by itself is not, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Anyone who develops conditions during pregnancy that count as disabilities is already eligible, under the law, to obtain a temporary disabled placard.
But a law that grants every pregnant woman — no matter how early or advanced the pregnancy — permission to accessible parking hurts the people who need those spaces.
I have no desire to make things hard for pregnant women. But making additional groups — ones that don’t meet the ADA definition of disability — eligible for accessible parking placards will only exacerbate a terrible situation. Creating separate parking spaces for expectant mothers — something many businesses already do — is fine, so long as those spots are not taken from existing accessible parking.
Wheelchair users have long experienced a crisis hiding in plain sight: an inability to find open accessible parking spots when they need them. For Americans who aren’t disabled, that might not sound like a crisis. But for wheelchair users, it can mean the difference between being active in their community and being isolated.
I didn’t understand how fired up people could get about accessible parking until I became the advocacy director for the United Spinal Association, a national nonprofit serving wheelchair users. When a discussion at one of our monthly advocacy meetings turned to accessible parking, it was like someone had opened the floodgates.
Here are some of the comments we heard: “People keep parking in the access aisles.” “I have to leave my house an hour early to try and find a parking spot, or I’ll miss my doctor’s appointment and have to pay a late fee.”
Federal guidelines mandate that at least 2% to 4% of total parking spaces be accessible, but data from 20 states indicate nearly 10% of vehicles on the road have access to a disabled license plate or placard.
More than anything else, though, we kept hearing one thing: “There aren’t enough accessible parking spots!”
My organization set out to document the challenges the disability community faces in finding parking in hopes of identifying solutions. First, we found a supply-and-demand problem. Federal guidelines mandate that at least 2% to 4% of total parking spaces be accessible. But based on the data the United Spinal Association collected from 20 states, nearly 10% of vehicles on the road have access to a disabled license plate or placard. Simply put, there are not enough accessible parking spaces.
Second, the general public is largely unaware of accessible parking laws or know that access aisles, the striped areas next to accessible parking spaces, are there so wheelchair users can enter and exit their vehicles via ramps that extend from the side of the vehicle or have space to assemble and transfer into their wheelchairs next to their vehicles. One of the complaints we heard in the meeting I mentioned was: “I have a nice time out with my family, come back to find somebody is blocking the access aisle and I can’t get back in my van and go home.”
Third, placard fraud is a big problem, and enforcement of accessible parking laws is generally lacking. Law enforcement needs to make it a higher priority and be given additional tools to do that work. Given all those problems, I have no choice but to oppose legislation that would broadly treat pregnancy as a disability and further strain the system.
Disability advocates at the United Spinal Association have developed a series of solutions to address this complex problem. First, the federal government’s minimum standards for accessible parking, which were issued in 2010, aren’t sufficient, and as Americans continue to age, the demand for placards will continue to increase. So the minimum standards for accessible parking should be updated to meet not just the current demand but also future demand.
The fact that these state bills are being proposed shows that more awareness is needed about accessible parking. We can start addressing that issue by requiring questions about accessible parking and access aisles on state driving exams. Signage identifying access aisles — and highlighting fines for parking in them – should be far more universal and standardized.
The accessible parking minimum standards should be updated not just to meet the current demand, but future demand.
On enforcement, there’s a lot states can do. Cracking down on placard fraud should be made a higher priority, and states should incentivize local jurisdictions to issue more tickets for blocking access aisles. Eventually, we need a national standard like REAL ID for placards.
States should experiment with different antifraud elements for placards and determine which are most effective. Every state should empower local authorities to enforce parking regulations in private lots and garages, as Illinois and some other states do.
Too often, legislation is developed without consideration of its effect on people with disabilities. These empathetic but flawed proposals to grant accessible parking privileges for expectant mothers are a classic example. The good news is that states have an opportunity to course-correct, listen to their disabled constituents and develop solutions to existing problems — not make them worse.
Steve Lieberman is senior director of advocacy and policy for the United Spinal Association. In this role, he oversees the association's nationwide network of disability advocates and pushes for better policies on behalf on America’s 5.5 million wheelchair users.