Request By:
Chief Tenny A. Mitchell
Princeton Police Department
206 North Jefferson Street
Princeton, Kentucky 42445
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
You seek an opinion as to whether a deaf mute can be considered handicapped within those statutes permitting special parking spaces and permits for persons having handicaps.
You want to know:
Does a person who is a deaf mute have the legal right to park in a handicapped zone and are they to be considered a handicapped person?
In OAG 71-120 (copy enclosed), we advised that the statute, KRS 189.455 refers only to persons with specific, functional handicaps and does not extend to other types of handicaps.
KRS 189.456(1) provides:
On the application of any person who has lost the use of a leg or both legs, or an arm or both arms, or any combination thereof, or any person who is blind, or any person with a severe respiratory ailment, the county clerk in the county of such person's residence shall issue the handicapped person a special parking permit. The special parking permit issued shall bear the universal handicapped symbol and such permit shall contain the handicapped person's name, the special parking permit number and such other information as the transportation cabinet may by regulation require.
Subsection (3) provides:
For every person seeking a special handicapped parking permit, proof of such handicap shall be required by:
(a) Evidence that the individual has a license plate for a disabled veteran as provided by KRS 186.041 or KRS 186.042; or
(b) The county clerk issuing the permit ascertaining that the applicant is obviously handicapped; or
(c) A statement from a licensed physician that the applicant is a person whose mobility, flexibility, coordination, respiration or perceptiveness is significantly reduced by a permanent or temporary disability to that person's arms, legs, lungs or eyes.
Apparently, the General Assembly did not consider a deaf mute as handicapped to the extent that he needed to park in a special area, because his type of handicap did not substantially limit his mobility or flexibility to ambulate.
The language of KRS 189.456 does not appear to cover a person who is deaf.
The General Assembly would need to amend KRS 189.456 to cover persons with hearing handicaps.