My name is Jessica Stewart and I live in Lorain, Ohio. I'm creating this petition because I have concerns with accessible parking. I'm wheelchair bound and I have dealt with parking issues for a long time. Particularly, people obstruct the required clear width of adjacent accessible routes. So, there isn't enough space for my van lift to come down and I'm unable to get into my van. I even have a blue sticker on the side door of my van that say, "wheelchair lift vehicle, please allow extra space" but it seems to be ignored.  In private facilities, I feel there are insufficient van accessible spaces and poor enforcement with violations. How do I know that this driver owns this placard and not just "borrowing it" for convenience with parking? I feel accessible parking guidelines needs to change to prevent people from taking advantage and inconvenient the people whom really needs accessible spaces since they're limited in facilities.

I have ideas that can help accessible parking issues. One idea I have is the placard number along with a picture of the owner on it. This will let other people know who the violators are and not just "assume" they're violators based on how they look. The second idea I have is to make the punishment of violations more severe. I was thinking people should treat accessible parking as fire lanes. I feel people don't take accessible parking very seriously as blocking fire lanes because the consequences are not as severe. The final idea I have is to have camera/sensors on every accessible parking space. This will take pictures and notify the police when the vehicle does not have placards or park incorrectly. This way when people exit the facility, they don't have to go back in the facility to complain to the managers, wait for the violators to move their vehicles for access, and it's already too late by the time the police arrives to punish the violators. 

I also have a group on Facebook; it's called Given Accessibility  ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveofAccessibility/ ) and my goal is to spread awareness and advocate for the disabled community. The Perspective of Accessibility is also on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8879052/ I have talked about my experiences with accessible parking and people gave me feedback on their experiences and opinions on accessibility parking issues. Here's are all the links to the posts pertaining accessibility parking:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveofAccessibility/permalink/368577713799642/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveofAccessibility/permalink/378406446150102/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveofAccessibility/permalink/402907823699964/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveofAccessibility/permalink/357415074915906/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveofAccessibility/permalink/406156716708408/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveofAccessibility/permalink/358788504778563/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveofAccessibility/permalink/385399808784099/

I want this to change because I'm not alone on this issue and it's not just where I live. This is nationwide and it's for the disabled community. If you think about it, we're all connected by disability one way or another at some point. We are also connected by disability through empathy not sympathy.

So, I’m spreading awareness and advocating about handicap parking. Will you help us give the accessibility we need? Thank you.