Motor Vehicle - Persons with Disabilities Parking Privileges

Disability plates are issued to a vehicle or individual when someone is disabled with qualifying criteria as listed below:

  1. Persons who cannot walk without the aid of another person, a dog guide, a companion dog, a walker, a cane, crutches, braces, prostheses, or a wheelchair.
  2. Persons are mobility impaired by best corrected central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye as measured by the Snellen Test, OR persons who have central visual acuity better than 20/200 with a limitation of the field of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle of 20 or less.
  3. Person who are restricted by pulmonary condition to the extent that the Arterial Oxygen Saturation, on room air, at rest, is 90% or less or the patient desaturates to 90% or less on mild exercise, OR who use prescribed portable oxygen during the day.
  4. Persons who have a cardiac condition to the extent that the person's functional limitations are classified as class III or IV according to the standards of the New York Heart Association.
  5. Persons who have a disability that would be aggravated by walking 150 to 200 feet under normal environmental conditions and a resultant mobility impairment of the same degree as described in the four criteria above.

Disability plates enable the driver to park in the specially marked parking zones. An application form - DR2219 for Persons with Disabilities Parking Privileges, which includes a doctor's verification of the disability, is required to obtain the placards or plates. Although the application states that there is a fee this fee has been waived.

Three types of registration are available:

  1. Permanent License Plates Only - Application fees are calculated the same fees as for license plates and are issued to a person with a disability who owns and drives a vehicle.
  2. Permanent Placards - For persons with permanent disabilities who do not own or who own more than one vehicle. The placard will be issued which is to be placed inside the vehicle when the person with a disability is riding. The placard is movable from one vehicle to another. This does require re-certification every 3 years.
  3. Temporary Placards - are issued for a time period of up to 3 months to a person with a temporary disability.

Once approved you may be issued the following combinations:

  • 1 set of plates and 1 placard, OR
  • 2 placards.

<< Back to Motor Vehicles Home