Valid Anywhere but Next Door

By John Kelly
Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Blenheim Palace, near Oxford, England, is one of those opulent historic properties that British nobles open to fee-paying visitors. Why, they even let Americans in.

Don Vitale is one of those Americans. The 72-year-old Colesville resident has a couple of herniated discs in his back that make walking distances or carrying heavy objects difficult. Because of this, the state of Maryland issued him a handicapped placard that allows him to park in specially designated spaces. It's something Don takes with him when he travels.

When Don visited Blenheim last July, the parking attendant there pointed him toward a row of spaces out in a nearby field. It was only when Don asked if there were any closer spaces that the attendant saw Don's placard and directed him to a spot right near the palace's wall.

"He was very apologetic that I hadn't been directed to it earlier," Don said.

That's the power of the placard.

Don has used his mighty placard while steering rental cars through all sorts of countries. "Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium," he said. "I may have left somebody out there."

He's also used it in countless of these United States. There's one place he hasn't used it, however: the District of Columbia. That's because D.C. -- alone among U.S. jurisdictions -- doesn't recognize anyone's placards but its own.

"It just doesn't make sense," Don said.

He's not alone in feeling this way. "Basically, every other jurisdiction in the U.S. recognizes parking permits issued by other jurisdictions," said Kathleen Walsh of the Equal Rights Center.

"In Virginia, you can use a handicapped parking permit issued by the District to park in a handicapped parking space. If you go to Pentagon City mall, you can hang up your D.C. parking permit."

Just don't try to hang your Virginia permit in D.C.

Disabled tourists need to stop first at a DMV service center, where they can fill out a form and get a one-week disability permit. Or they can fax or mail in ahead of time. The one-week form doesn't require a doctor's approval.

Regular visitors to D.C. might prefer a long-term placard, which does. (For info, call 202-727-5000 or go to http://www.dmv.dc.gov .)

Of course, this is all a lot of rigmarole for something that works everywhere else in the country -- and in a lot of the world.

"It's bizarre. It's as if the District didn't give reciprocity to people with out-of-state driver's licenses," said Elaine Gardner of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

Until 2001, D.C. did recognize out-of-state handicapped placards. Placard-bearing vehicles could park all day for free at meters. A survey revealed that nearly a third of metered parking spaces were being used for all-day parking by vehicles with handicapped placards.

The rules were tightened to clamp down on abuse.

"We all know that parking in the District of Columbia is at a premium," said the DMV's Janis Hazel.

A couple of things are in the works that might bring some changes: In 2001, a group of disability rights advocates sued the city. Their complaint isn't just that out-of-state placards aren't any good; it's that many parking meters are too high or are positioned in such a way that people in wheelchairs can't reach them.

That case may be resolved soon.

And the D.C. Council is considering a bill that would change the law, once again making reciprocity a two-way street.

It seems a no-brainer.

Doors Closing, Curtain Opening

As everyone knows, Randi Miller is the new voice of Metro (the subway system, not the newspaper section). Her voice is slowly being rolled out across the system.

The perks have already started. Thanks to her Metro fame, a company called Wurld Media hired Randi to record all the spoken parts of the online interface of a new product.

"That's a paying job," she told me. "I'm pretty excited about that.

"They're going to fly me out to California next month."

Hexagon, the group that stages an annual satirical revue for charity, invited Randi to appear in a sketch spoofing the Metro audition process. She was on stage last week, with her parents and an old friend in the audience.

"All three of them asked me to sign their programs," said Randi. "I looked at my parents, and I said, ' Hello , I'm your daughter.' People do treat me a little differently."

Randi will be at tomorrow night's Hexagon performance, at the Duke Ellington School theater in Northwest Washington. (So will I.)

This year's show raises money for Capital Hospice and Hospice Caring Inc. For information, visit http://www.hexagon.org or call 202-333-7469.

Julia Feldmeier helped research this column.