Background Research
Every year, hundreds of thousands of disability spots are taken by completely able people with no parking badge, leaving the people with disabilities nowhere to park. For people with wheelchairs specifically, this is a significant issue as they need space to open their doors, which also function as ramps. The only spots with space to do this are disability parking spots. This also greatly inconveniences people with mobility issues, as it may be hard for them to get where they need to go if they can't park close next to the building. Currently, many people with disabilities have trouble parking. According to wheelchair user Janet Sangle, people often wait by accessible parking spots in the hope of securing a spot. Our project would free up a lot of disability spots by preventing illegal parkers form stealing those spots. The issue of parking in improper spots is definitely an issue, as evidenced by the amount of students at Frisch who park improperly in the teacher designated lot. We polled 36 Frisch teachers, and almost 70% have witnessed this problem. If this happens to teachers, one can imagine how this may happen to those with mobility issues -- individuals who need these parking spots more! In fact, BraunAbility conducted a survey that found that 74% of people have personally seen a handicap parking space being improperly used.
