Member-only story
It’s Not “Special Treatment” When A Disabled Person Gets The Support They Need
It wasn’t a money grabbing landlord that water-blasted the universal disability parking symbol from the four parking spots. It was a state government provider of social housing.
And it wasn’t just any housing complex, it was one that included apartments purpose-built for people requiring wheelchair access. The Queensland Department of Housing told a wheelchair-using resident that the spaces were removed in response to a complaint from an able-bodied resident of the complex.
The undercover parking spaces were pretty essential to the wheelchair-using man so that he would be protected from the weather while getting in and out of his car. But the Department didn’t even leave one of the four disabled spots. The man didn’t have the energy to argue with them when they informed him, no doubt blindsided by the decision. He later challenged it with the support of his family.
The Minister for Housing intervened, prompting review of the particular decision as well as the Department’s policy. Obviously the Department wasn’t able to raise the ‘isolated incident’ defence to justify an entrenched systemic problem.
