Monday, June 28, 1998
Disabled are capable of abusing privileges
BY DEBORAH KENDRICK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Disability is our most equal opportunity minority: It strikes any age, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.
It doesn't care how much money you make or who your mother was. Logic follows that people with disabilities will represent all attitudes toward life in general - and some of those attitudes tend to be narrow.
''You think the world owes you a living,'' a teacher of mine used to reprimand us as irrepressible brats in junior high.
That phrase comes to mind when I hear the attitudes of a minority within our minority - people who believe that with the arrival of the disability package comes a guarantee that common rules no longer apply.
Accommodation and adaptation are critical words in the vocabulary of any person with a disability who genuinely wants equality.
A student with a significant learning disability, for instance, needs an accommodation when taking the SAT. That doesn't mean this student should be given less than the whole test or be given the answers. It often means giving the student additional time to finish, or an assistant to read the questions aloud.
Accommodation on a job might mean equipping a computer with a 20-inch monitor so someone with impaired vision can read the screen, or adjusting the height of a work station to make room for a wheelchair. It does not mean allowing a person to do less work or expecting another non-disabled worker to carry two jobs.
A Kentucky reader wrote to me recently with a complaint regarding parking spaces. His lament, regrettably, is a perfect example of how people sometimes think having a disability means entitlement, period.
Spaces designated for ''handicapped parking'' are an accommodation. An eligible driver or passenger with the required placard for using these spaces is entitled to park there. The placard or license plate is not an open permit to park just anywhere. Our Kentucky reader writes:
I work for a local hospital. In our garage, there are 10 spots (marked for handicapped parking) very close to the door. Closer yet are two more ''handicapped'' spots, and next to them, four spots with signs reading FOR HOSPITAL AND CLERGY EMERGENCY PARKING ONLY.
Many times I have observed open spots in the garage handicapped area, but someone with a ''handicapped parking'' placard has parked in the spaces marked for hospital vehicles and clergy.
These areas are kept available for good reasons. They are for clergy who may be called in during a serious illness or sudden death in a family.
They are also kept for times when we need delivery of some important piece of medical equipment, or of a medication that we have run out of and requested from another hospital.
Handicapped people who want to be treated like anyone else should have consideration for signage and not park wherever they please.
Let's all play by the same rules.
I couldn't agree more.
Deborah Kendrick, a Cincinnati free-lance writer, is a nationally recognized advocate for people with disabilities. Write: Deborah Kendrick, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; e-mail: 71340.473@compuserve.com.
KENDRICK ARCHIVE
