Anna was thrilled to discover that her city had added a new sculpture garden to her local park. When she arrived, she found that while the park had a ramp and accessible path from the street to the sculpture garden, there wasn’t any accessible parking for visitors with disabilities. Concerned, she contacted the city public works department’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator. The ADA Coordinator told her the city did not need to create accessible parking because the sculpture garden did not have a parking lot, just on-street parking.

Anna felt confused about what she was being told by the public works department because it didn’t line up with her understanding of the ADA. She decided to call her regional ADA Center for more information. Her regional ADA Center let her know that Title II states that public programs should be accessible to people with disabilities. A park with an accessible sculpture park would be considered one of these public programs. The public works department is required to ensure accessibility, whether it’s through an accessible parking space in a parking lot or a dedicated parking space on the street.

Equipped with this information, Anna called the public works department back and talked to the ADA Coordinator’s supervisor. They met at the park and reviewed the parking options together. Anna requested an on-street ADA parking space with signage and explained why this was necessary using the information she received from her regional ADA Center. The supervisor agreed, and an accessible parking space was added to the street. Thanks to the ADA, Anna was able to ensure everyone had access to the new sculpture garden!