4/22/26 - Parking, self-image, and web accessibility

Good afternoon ...

Today's links are fairly random. It's that kind of day. But they are all worth reading and thinking about.

Advocates Urge More Parking Access for All, Challenge Florida Law Impacting Disability Spaces

United Spinal Association - April 15, 2026

"On April 14, United Spinal Association and others filed a complaint in the Northern District of Florida federal court challenging a Florida law which lets anyone who is pregnant get an Expectant Mother Parking Permit and park in disability parking spaces ... Under the new Florida law, the only requirement to receive a pregnancy parking permit is pregnancy. The applicant does not need to show any mobility impairment or other disability. As a result, thousands of Floridians without disabilities are parking in accessible spaces that, under federal law, are reserved for people with disabilities. The complaint alleges that this violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which trumps state law ... People with disabilities already have a hard time finding accessible parking. 'Every time we go out, we have to leave early for events or appointments,' said Kimberly Harrison, a plaintiff in the case, 'Spots fill up fast.'"

I don't think I would have a problem with this Florida law if it also required adding more spaces for both disability and pregnancy – or, more spaces just for pregnant people. But apparently that's not what the law does. Instead, it opens up the same supply of accessible spaces to a whole additional population. Do we need a reminder of why accessible parking, a.k.a. "handicapped parking" is actually important? Maybe we do. Maybe what we really need is to remind people of who accessible parking spaces are for and why we need them:

• People who use wheelchairs, who need space to park and unload a wheelchair, and a smooth, shorter path to the door.
• People who can walk, but with difficulty, sometimes using a cane or walker, or just walking really slowly and carefully, who also need a bit more space to maneuver and a shorter distance to walk.
• People who may not appear at first glance to have mobility issues, but who can't walk long distances without being utterly spent on arrival, unable to do the business they came to do, and dreading the long walk back to the car.

And we all need at least a somewhat higher chance at finding a parking space at all, which accessibility designation makes more likely. I wonder how the law got passed in the first place, without at least some expansion of the number of spaces offered.

What do we lose when we erase ugliness?

Constance Grady, Vox.com - April 21, 2026

"Yet Fairyington, at least, makes it clear she doesn’t appreciate such compliments. She notes that any time she describes herself as ugly, people (especially women) interrupt her and assure her that she isn’t."

This piece isn't about disability. But any article that quotes Mia Mingus is likely to be relevant to people with disabilities. And even as a man in my 50s, nearly every sentence resonated with my own ongoing work to shape my self-image as a visibly disabled person. Plus, I keep thinking that the arguments and social dynamics described in this piece could be almost the same if you replaced "ugly" with "disabled." Much as Fairyington doesn't find it helpful for people to insist that no, she isn't "ugly," many if not most disabled people don't find it comforting to be told by others that we shouldn't call ourselves "disabled." Owning and reclaiming supposedly negative terms is definitely something people do, and with some success. At the same time, it is complicated, and apparently not just for people with disabilities.

Why the "Easy" Web Accessibility Fixes Are Still Failing Half the Web

Laura Wissiak, A11y News - Accessibility in Tech, UX and IRL - April 20, 2026

"... according to the latest WebAIM Million report, the “easy fixes” such as missing alt text, and empty links or buttons remain the top offenders, affecting nearly half of all homepages. So apparently, most people still don’t know how to fix them."

This is part of a series of helpful guides to making websites more accessible. I'm going to read it a few more times and see if there are improvements to make here at Disability Thinking Weekday. Relying on what's supposedly built into a platform, or using some automated web accessibility app, doesn't seem to be enough to get the job done. Maybe that's a good thing. Learning to do it ourselves helps us better understand why it has to be done at all, and what web accessibility actually means for disabled users.

Disability Thinking Weekday is a Monday-Friday newsletter with links and commentary on disability-related articles and other content. You can help promote Disability Thinking Weekday by forwarding it by email or posting on your social media. You can also comment by sending me an email at: apulrang@icloud.com. Collected comments are shared on the first of each month. A free subscription sends a newsletter to your email each weekday. Benefits of paid subscription include:

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