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David - we do this for students - we will even allow temporary parking on just seeing an application form for a blue badge for a student. The issue here is with a regular visitor (who incidentally was turned down for a blue badge) who says that it shouldn't make any difference legally speaking. We say it does. Who is right? We have offered to allow a car through to drop him off and to pick him up, but this isn't what he wants. -----Original Message----- From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Filmer Sent: 21 October 2004 09:51 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Parking query As a disabled driver myself, I am not in favour of expanding parking schemes to those who do not qualify for blue badges. This bypasses the assessments that are already in place for identifying those individuals who have real difficulties, and therefore need to park in wide space or nearer to buildings. Here at Portsmouth we have significant parking limitations and the university has a blanket policy not to provide parking for students. We recommend that disabled students firstly apply for a blue badge. If successful, then a University parking permit is granted and they can park in the 'disabled' bays. If they are not successful, we use the DSA to cover the costs of using taxis to get the student around (thus avoiding the parking issues). Some students with mobility issues also obtain scooters through the DSA in order that they can get around the campus without relying on a car at all! David === David Filmer, Disability Co-ordinator AdditionalSupport and Disability Advice Centre Student Advice Services, University of Portsmouth, Nuffield Centre, St Michael's Road, Portsmouth, PO1 2ED Tel: (023) 9284 3462 ~ Fax: (023) 9284 3460 On 20 Oct 2004 at 10:44, Caroline Davies wrote: > > When I managed the service for disabled students at the University of > North London we did exactly what Phil Satchell suggests. Parking was > considered as part of the internal needs assessment process. Access to > certain adjustments required evidence and this was one of them. If a > student provided evidence and was considered to need a place but did > not have a Blue Badge we gave them an institutional badge. This was > reviewed on an annual basis. We were not flooded because we looked > very carefully at all requests.This approachmeant that we could give a > space to a member of staff with Crohn's Disease who could not risk > using public transport and to a student with phobic mental health > problems. Looking back, the system could probably have done with > tightening up but it worked well enough and there were no complaints. > > I should also say that our parking was almost non-existent. It was > strictly controlled and only available for university vehicles and > disabled students, staff and visitors. Even the Vice Chancellor did > not drive in! > > At the time UNL also had a stated 'orange badge only' policy and we > just worked around it. I think such a policy would now be potentially > discriminatory and it could not be regarded as providing a > 'reasonable' response to individual needs. Clearly the overall amount > of spaces would have to be taken into account when deciding what was > reasonable. > > The issue of whether a student from another HEI should expect a > parking place is another issue (irrespective of whether your uni > validates the course). If the university has a policy of allowing such > students to use their library then I suppose technically they are > visitors. Just thinking aloud: if this facility is available, would > not this then make the university liable to provide reasonable > adjustments under Part 3 of the DDA, access to services? > > Caroline > > ************************************************* > Dr Caroline Davies > consultant in disability provision in HE > [log in to unmask] > 07905 79 91 40 0207 731 4058 David David Filmer, Disability Co-ordinator Additional Support and Disability Advice Centre Student Advice Services, University of Portsmouth, Nuffield Centre, St Michael's Road, Portsmouth, PO1 2ED Tel: (023) 9284 3462 ~ Fax: (023) 9284 3460