About a month ago, I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. I parked in a handicapped spot as usual, put up my handicapped placard, got my walker out, and went to enjoy lunch. When I was done with lunch, I came outside only to realize a huge SUV was parked in the access ramp space beside my car and was close enough to my car that my walker couldn’t get between my car and the SUV (and there was no access ramp on the other side of my car). Due to my Cerebral Palsy, lifting my walker above my head to get it out from between the cars was not an option. I also couldn’t collapse my walker and turn it sideways because I needed it for stability. I was, quite literally, stuck. Stuck in a situation that shouldn’t have even happened in the first place. And yet, I knew something similar would happen again, and I was right.

About a week after the incident at Cracker Barrel, my fiancé and I went out to dinner at Applebee’s for date night. We parked in a handicapped spot and he provided me with his arm for stability to help me get inside. Going out to dinner was just what we needed. It had been a while since we had a date night, and we wanted to further treat ourselves after a fun day of shopping. It was a great ending to an already perfect day. We came out of Applebee’s, hand in hand, and when I looked at our car, my smile instantly faded. Beside our car, another car was parked in the access lane, blocking the access ramp, preventing me from getting to the car, much less get inside it. The other car was parked so close to ours that opening the passenger door wouldn’t even be feasible. Infuriated, my fiancé marched inside and spoke to the hostess standing right inside the front door. He explained the issue, pointing outside at the two cars. At that point, a manager was called over, and the story was repeated.

A few minutes later, my fiancé came back outside, followed by a woman in her 60s who seemed extra annoyed to have been interrupted during her dinner. She looked at me, apologized, and simply stated, “I was helping my friend inside. She is in a wheelchair.” That meant nothing to me, not because I don’t support every member of the disability community, but because the woman was parked in an access lane and there was a perfectly free handicapped spot next to her that was not being used, not to mention the fact that where she had parked would have prevented her friend from using the ramp to get up on the sidewalk because the woman’s entire car was blocking access to the ramp. I was so mad, I couldn’t even respond.

And please, hear me out. I understand she was helping her friend. I totally get it. However, she could have helped her friend out of the car, gotten her settled into her wheelchair, and then moved her car to the available handicapped space next to her, or any other free parking space. Instead, she left her car parked illegally in an access lane for the entirety of her dinner outing, preventing another disabled person from using the access lane to safely and comfortably get inside the car.

My point is this: Please don’t park in access lanes. They are there for a reason! And there’s a reason there are blue cross marks through the space…because they are NOT parking spaces! That extended space is there for people who require more space entering or exiting a vehicle because not everyone has the luxury to move with ease. Please consider that the next time you go to park in a handicapped space (if you’re parking there without a handicapped placard or have parked in the access lane). You may be taking away someone else’s ability to enter a restaurant/building/business with ease.

Disability rights are human rights.