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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
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    1

    Default Using a Handicap Parking Space for a Business You're Not Patronizing

    I am handicap. I am in a wheelchair and I have a state issued handicap decal on my truck. Last night I went to a restaurant in downtown Nashville TN. The restaurant has no parking of it's own. People park along the street. Nearby there is a business with a large parking lot with 4 handicap parking spaces. The business was closed by this time and the lot was empty. I parked in one of the handicap parking spaces. When I came out of the restaurant my truck had been booted. I have been told in the past that according to the ADA once a parking spot it designated as a handicap spot it is no longer private property and it becomes public property subject to the ADA. I have been told that a handicap person by law cannot be denied parking in a handicap parking spot regardless of location. Have I been told wrong?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    19,901

    Default Re: Using a Handicap Parking Space for a Business You're Not Patronizing

    You were told wrong. A handicapped placard doesn't give you rights over private property. The only thing the handicap space does is keep those without placards/plates from parking there. You still need to be legally allowed to park in that lot.

    The ADA says nothing of the sort that you are asserting. The ADA says that a business must make reasonable accommodations for its disabled patrons. It doesn't say that it has to give accommodations to people NOT patronizing his establishment.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Posts
    8,238

    Default Re: Using a Handicap Parking Space for a Business You're Not Patronizing

    Quote Quoting sethcc0311
    View Post
    I have been told in the past that according to the ADA once a parking spot it designated as a handicap spot it is no longer private property and it becomes public property subject to the ADA. I have been told that a handicap person by law cannot be denied parking in a handicap parking spot regardless of location. Have I been told wrong?
    That is not the law. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) certainly does not say that designating a spot as a disabled parking space means it is no longer private property. Indeed, had Congress done that, it would have had the perverse effect of reducing the willingness of businesses to provide disabled parking places as they would not want to lose their property by providing such spaces. Indeed, the ADA itself says nothing about disabled parking spaces. What the ADA says is that places of public accommodation (which includes pretty much all businesses) must provide equal access to their goods and services to disabled customers. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued standards for disabled parking for businesses that offer parking to their customers. See the DOJ Disability Primer for Small Business for an overview of the ADA as it applies to small business. But no rule in the ADA requires a business to provide any parking, disabled spaces or otherwise, to persons who are not customers.

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