Disability group protest exposes parking spot abuse on P.E.I.

Members of the P.E.I. Council of People with Disabilities hopedto senda message to those abusing designated parking spots with a protest held on Sunday.

The peaceful protest took place in the parking lot of the Sobeys in Stratford with wheelchairs and walkers taking the more "valuable" non-designatedspots closer to the door, says Marcia Carroll,executive director of the council.

• P.E.I. disabilities group to hold protest over parking space abuses
• Concerns raised about enforcing fines for parking spots for people with disabilities

Sobeys allowed the council to perform the demonstration in the parking lot.

Here we are putting wheelchairs out, building awareness and people are still behaving badly.Marcia Carroll

Demonstrators stuck signs to the chairs thatread"I'll just be a minute" or "I sprained my ankle so I'm entitled," hoping to expose some of the excuses people use when parking in the designated spots.

"Those are the messages that we hear everyday from people who have been confronted about using a designated spot," Carroll said.

"Some people actually believe that people with disabilities are getting all the good parking spots."

'Equal rights are just that:equal rights'

Roughly 15chairs and walkers took up spots across the lot.

According to Carroll, during their demonstration someone even tried to parkin one of the designated spots without a permit.

"Here we are putting wheelchairs out, building awareness and people are still behaving badly," she said.

When able-bodied people take the designated parking spots, Carroll added, it dramatically affectshow someone with a disability can navigate in their community.

She hopes the protest, which forced some to stop, look and walk longer distances, was an eye opener forthose knowingly taking spots they shouldn't park in.

"Equal rights are just that: equal rights. It's not special rights," she said.

"If you're able bodied, and can park and walk across the parking lot, why would you use a designated spot."

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Meet Gus Hillstrom, the man behind P.E.I.'s iconic commercial jingles
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Why some former P.E.I. politicians have gone Green