Parking on campus at Wichita State can be a nightmare. However, for the many students and teachers at WSU who cannot easily traverse long distances because of physical or mental disabilities, parking takes on a whole new set of challenges. 

While most might assume that construction has limited handicap parking, Grady Landrum, director of the office of disability services, said the difficulty of parking for handicap students keeps increasing regardless of construction.

“I’ve been on campus for 22 and a half years now,” Landrum said. “Every year it seems to become more and more of an issue, whether there’s construction or not construction.”

By law, parking lots are required to have a certain number of handicap spots in them. Landrum said that WSU has more spots than required, but people still have trouble finding handicapped spots. Construction has not reduced the number of handicap spots on campus, but they have been moved to different lots. 

Landrum said the cause might be more sinister than construction. He said that it’s possible people are using fraudulent handicap placards or license plates to take parking spots that they do not need.

“They’ll use the accessible permit when they’re not eligible to do so,” Landrum said. “That happens on our campus, I would say, on a regular basis.”

Landrum said that people borrow handicap tags from friends or relatives and use them to park in those spaces without getting a ticket. He says that his office receives complaints and he has seen it himself.

“I, myself, have seen people get out of their car, put two gym bags onto their back, and run into the Heskett Center,” Landrum said. “The main issue is that you have to catch them in the act.”

The law requires people with handicap tags to carry an identification card with them at all times to prove that they are eligible. However, campus police do not have any enforcement procedures in place during school hours. 

According to WSU student Nick Taylor, this would be the first step to solving the problem. Taylor said that campus police routinely asking people who park in those spots to present their identification would help stop people from abusing the system.

“I don’t want to say you would eliminate this issue,” Taylor said. “But you would lower the times that you can’t find a handicap spot dramatically.”

Taylor, who has been at WSU for 15 years as a student, teacher and assistant tennis coach, needs a wheelchair for transportation. He says that he often has to park across the campus from his destination because his usual spots are taken. 

Taylor says that instances similar to the one that Landrum described occur regularly on campus.

“Watch the amount of people who get out of their car and run into buildings because it’s cold,” Taylor said. “If they have the ability to run into buildings, they don’t need [handicap spaces].”

However, just because someone can walk does not mean that they are ineligible for a handicap permit.  

The Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles has a list of qualifications on their website. It includes, but is not limited to, having severe visual impairments, being unable to walk 100 feet without stopping to rest and certain cardiac or lung diseases.

These hidden disabilities make it difficult to judge whether someone truly needs a handicap space, but Taylor says that the solution is to just ask everyone to show their identification.

“In my opinion, if you truly need a handicap spot, you should not be offended that they’re asking you for that identification card,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re in a wheelchair or you have a hidden disability, the whole reason that’s being enforced is to try to help you.”

Although this is apparently not a new issue, Taylor says that the construction on campus has only made it worse. He compares it to supply-and-demand economics. 

The amount of parking in general has dropped because of construction. This causes an increase in demand, causing people to go to further lengths to get parking on campus, Taylor said.

“It is completely fraudulent,” Taylor said. “It’s just as bad as not having a tag at at all, it’s just easier to get away with.”