• International Symbol for Accesshandicap image by Byron Moore from Fotolia.com
  
  In California, a person with a disability may be entitled to obtain a disabled-person (DP) parking placard that allows them to take advantage of additional parking privileges. To receive a placard, a person must obtain written documentation from his physician and send in a claim to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
  
  

Eligibility

• To obtain a DP parking placard, a person must have one of the following conditions confirmed by a physician: impaired mobility; heart or circulatory disease; a disorder that limits the use of the lower extremities; the loss of lower extremities or both hands; or vision problems.
  
  

Parking

• Those with DP parking placards can park in spaces that are designated by the International Symbol for Access (wheelchair symbol), next to a blue curb, which is designated for use only by drivers with disabilities, and on streets where preferential parking privileges are designated. Also, those with placards are allowed to park in green curb zones for as long as they wish instead of for only the indicated time limit, and they may park next to in-street meters without having to pay.
  
  

Limitations

• A person with a DP parking placard cannot park in crossed-out spaces next to handicap spaces that are reserved for wheelchair access and wheelchair ramps or next to red, yellow or white curbs. In those instances, the person with the placard must follow the same rules as drivers without placards.
  
  

Abuses

• According to California law, it is illegal to lend a placard to someone else, forge the signature of a physician, use someone else's placard or a counterfeit placard, use false information to obtain a placard or alter a placard. If a person is found guilty of any of the above offenses, she risks losing her placard privileges and being fined $250 to $3,500.