HB1782

Report Title:

Parking for persons with disabilities

Description:

Allows a person who is legally blind to obtain a disabled parking permit, which may be used by the person's driver.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1782
TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to parking for persons with disabilities.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Persons with disabilities often face difficulties, which affect their daily lives. One difficulty is the problem of finding parking that adequately addresses their needs (e.g., a large enough space to allow for wheelchair accessibility). Part III of chapter 291, Hawaii Revised Statutes, attempts to solve this problem by regulating parking for persons with disabilities.

Although the law has worked well, some persons with disabilities are not covered under the strict definition of a "person with a disability" in the statute. Persons who are legally blind are not covered by this definition, even though they have a severe impairment, which often makes it difficult to perform everyday tasks without the assistance of others. Persons who care for the blind are often unable to assist them because of parking difficulties. Parking long distances from their intended destination is not often feasible, especially when the legally blind individual needs assistance with walking.

The purpose of this Act is to allow an individual who is legally blind to obtain a disabled parking permit, which may be used by the person's driver.

SECTION 2. Section 291-51, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "person with a disability" to read:

""Person with a disability" means a person with a disability, which limits or impairs the ability to walk, and who, as determined by a licensed practicing physician:

(1) Cannot walk two hundred feet without stopping to rest, due to a diagnosed arthritic, neurological, orthopedic, renal, or oncological condition;

(2) Cannot walk without the use of, or assistance from, a brace, cane, crutch, another person, prosthetic device, wheelchair, or other assistive device;

(3) Is restricted by lung disease to such an extent that the person's forced (respiratory) expiratory volume for one second, when measured by spirometry, is less than one liter, or the arterial oxygen tension is less than sixty mm/hg on room air at rest;

(4) Uses portable oxygen; [or]

(5) Has a cardiac condition to the extent that the person's functional limitations are classified in severity as Class III or Class IV according to the standards set by the American Heart Association[.]; or

(6) Is legally blind."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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