I have a placard for handicapped parking and I have taken full advantage of it. Before the accident I never really paid much attention to how accessible places may or may not be. For those that do not have any issues with mobility I doubt many of you have given it a second thought as well. Most places are good. I have not yet run across anyone parked in a stall when I was looking for parking that did not have a handicapped tag. A few places of businesses I found to be a little dangerous trying to navigate uneven rickety stairs with nothing to hold onto. I have always been pleasantly surprised how people, anyone really, will lend a hand to help me navigate something. Washrooms are the biggest problem, you would be surprised how many I needed to use that do not have a simple thing like grab bars to make your life easier.
In Alberta my handicapped parking tag is good until 2030 and I do not have to pay anything for it. The big thing I needed it for was to open my car door as far as possible so I could get my legs out wity my limited range of motion. For that you need a wider parking space, regular spots are too narrow for me. That is getting betting though. Mobility is getting better and I can bend a bit more. Sometimes I do not take the good parking so I can prove to myself that one day I will not need those spots. My goal, one of my goals, in 2027 is to get to the point where I put the handicapped placard in the glove box and use regular parking spots.
