WATCHDOG REPORT: Disabled group photographs parking obstacles

They don't wear badges or carry ticket books, but their tactics may be just as effective when it comes to identifying parking cheaters.

For the past year, a group of area residents with spinal cord injuries has canvassed sidewalks, streets and parking lots across the Lowcountry to photograph the types of obstacles that disabled people encounter. They've documented a variety of problems such as wheelchair access issues and handicapped parking violations, said Susan Newman, a nursing student at the Medical University of South Carolina who created the project as part of her doctoral dissertation.

For the project, called Photovoice, Newman teamed with the Disability Resource Center in North Charleston and distributed digital cameras to 10 participants.

"The purpose of the project was for them to document, with pictures, barriers and supports to their ability to participate in the community," Newman said. "It quickly became apparent that parking was a huge issue."

A recent Post and Courier Watchdog investigation revealed widespread abuse of handicap parking placards by able-bodied people looking for free and convenient parking, particularly in downtown Charleston.

Photovoice documented similar misuse. Participants also photographed other types of handicapped parking violations that make it difficult, if not impossible, for disabled residents to get around and maintain their independence.

Among the most common issues project participants encountered were problems with handicapped parking spaces intended to accommodate wheelchair lifts. Such spaces include an adjacent striped area to allow room for the lift to open and the wheelchair to maneuver.

But participant Ruth Jones, who is paralyzed from a spinal cord injury, said many people misunderstand the purpose of these striped areas and treat them as regular parking spaces or block them in other ways.

It's particularly a problem in grocery and retail store parking lots, where people dump their shopping carts in the striped areas. One local grocery store placed its shopping cart return corral directly on top of the area designated for the wheelchair lift.

Since the project's launch last summer, the group has amassed an archive of some 600 photos. Each photo is accompanied by a personal description from the photographer about how a particular obstacle affected his or her life and mobility.

One disabled man photographed a series of brick steps outside a local restaurant where his co-workers hang out after work. "These steps provide access to much of the social interaction between my friends at work, the insight to private jokes and conversations of people I really enjoy. These steps stop me in my tracks."

Newman hopes to organize a public exhibition of some of the photographs to help educate people about how they may unintentionally create obstacles for the disabled. For now, the project has achieved one of its goals: empowerment

The cameras give disabled residents a voice and a sense that they can do something about the challenges they face, Newman said. "It's a community-based project that does research with people and not on them."

Jones said the newspaper's recent series on handicapped parking abuses renewed interest among the group's participants, and another photographic crackdown is in the works.

Jones also hopes to get some of the photographs in front of state lawmakers who recently wound down the legislative session without taking action on a bill aimed at tightening the rules for handicapped parking placards. "We need to educate these guys up in Columbia," she said. "Pictures can educate."