DRAFT 3: 17.9.19
TITLE:
Lots of Anxiety
VALIDITY:
reasonable levels of inclusiveness, cars
DESCRIPTION:
It's long been the case that vehicles with mobility-impaired drivers and passengers get special permit-controlled parking privileges, often including entitlement to free parking and access to disabled-only spaces. Now there's calls for the criteria for accessing these permits to be broadened to include less-visible disabilities, including learning disabilities, dementia, mental illness and even severe anxiety.
OPTION 1
Campaigner and activist @@randomname@@ confidently strides up to you to speak first, firmly shaking your hand and fixing you with a winning smile. "Not every disability is visible, @@LEADER@@. Why, I myself suffer from crippling social anxiety that makes it impossible for me to even speak to anyone but the closest of friends. A @@MAN@@ like me needs the compassion and recognition of society as much as a crippled veteran or hemiplegic accident victim does. So broaden those criteria, and give me access to those free parking spaces already. I have a singing class to teach, and it's be really handy to be able to park outside the studio."
OUTCOME:
stress over finding a parking space is considered a reasonable justification for parking in a disabled bay
OPTION 2
Another activist interjects, rising from @@HIS@@ wheelchair to jump inbetween you and the first speaker. "Look, I'm not saying that there aren't people with genuine invisible disabilities, but you're risking leaving those of us with real mobility problems without a needed space. Before you start giving out more permits, you need to legislate to significantly increase the number of disabled parking spaces. Once we're sure there's spare capacity, we can look at this again."
OUTCOME:
car park planners seem to believe that two out of every three drivers are disabled
OPTION 3
"Honestly, I'm sick of trying to work out who is disabled and not," complains Permit Assessor @@randomname@@, whose hair is falling out from anxiety and who is on crutches from the chronic back pain thirty years of deskwork has given @@HIM@@. "Let's just make a nice simple test. If you can walk ten yards without falling over, you pass; if not, you don't. That'll keep the admin costs down, right?"
OUTCOME:
having your shoelaces tied together is officially a disability
OPTION 4
"You're looking at things from the wrong direction," counters baseball enthusiast @@randomname@@. "If someone wants a badge and they haven't got obvious mobility problems, you break their knees with a bat, and then they qualify. That's called logic, you government types should try it sometime."
OUTCOME:
it's always crunch time in @@NAME@@
DRAFT 2: 11.9.19
DRAFT 1: