Dan Abel wrote:

>
> What's the big deal about a parking space? Why would somebody walk up
> to a perfect stranger and start yelling at them because they didn't look
> sufficiently handicapped?

I don't worry too much about those spaces because, from what I have seen, people
with handicapped parking permits in their vehicles abuse them as much as other
people. ASFAIC, there are a lot of cases where a handicapped person is driven to a
mall, plaze or downtown area and could be dropped off at the front door and the
car could then be parked in a regular spot. I usually did that when I drove my
mother. She had the permit and I could have used it to park in a handicapped spot.



> How can somebody decide that deafness isn't a
> handicap as far as parking, when some doctor has decided that it is?

In this province, deafness is not a condition for which a permit is issued.

The elegibility requirements are :
- Cannot walk without assistance of another person or a brace, cane, crutch, a
lower limb prosthetic device or similar assistive device or who requires the
assistance of a wheelchair.
- Suffers from lung disease to such an extent that forced expiratory volume in one
second is less than 1 litre.
- Portable oxygen is a medical necessity.
- Cardiovascular disease impairment classified as Class III or Class IV to
standards accepted by the American Heart Association or Class III or IV according
to the Canadian Cardiovascular Standard.
- Severely limited in the ability to walk due to an arthritic, neurological,
musculoskeletal or orthopaedic condition.
- Visual acuity is 20/200 or poorer in the better eye with or without corrective
lenses or whose greatest diameter of the field of vision in both eyes is 20
degrees or less.
- Condition(s) or functional impairment that severely limits his or her mobility.

Deafness in not listed.