Woman’s Facebook post about handicapped parking is going viral

A woman’s Facebook post about parking etiquette has gone viral and her message is one we all should remember.

Most people already know that it’s wrong — not to mention illegal — to park in a spot reserved for people with disabilities if they don’t have a disability parking placard. But what they might not realize is that it’s also important to park in those spaces in the correct way, even if you have permission to park in the spot in the first place.

Rachelle Chapman was paralyzed from the chest down following a freak accident when a friend playfully pushed her into a pool at her bachelorette party in 2010.

Now, Chapman relies on a wheelchair and has used the visibility she gained from her tragic story to become a motivational speaker and to publicly advocate for equal rights for those living with disabilities. She recently took to Facebook to explain why improperly parking in a so-called handicapped spot is such a serious problem.

Have you ever noticed how many disability parking spots have diagonal lines around them? It turns out those lines serve a specific purpose. They are there so that a person who uses a wheelchair can enter, exit and lower a ramp or wheelchair lift from their vehicle.

This means if someone parks a car in a way that blocks those lines, that means the person in the disability space next to it may be unable to enter or exit their vehicle.

“What people don’t realize, is that those lines are for a ramp and/or for wheelchair users to transfer. Because of the way this person parked, I cannot get back into my car independently and it keeps me from wanting to branch out and drive on my own,” Chapman wrote.

She pleaded with people to take notice of their parking habits.

“Please, PLEASE Park within the lines,” Chapman wrote. “If you need the space on the passenger side, then back in. If you are driving a car and you have a choice between a van accessible spot and a regular accessible spot, please don’t use the van spot.”

Chapman urged her followers to like and share the post to draw greater attention to this important issue.

“I seriously need to let the world know so that this stops happening and people in wheelchairs can have as much accessibility as possible,” she wrote.

Chapman’s post has now been shared nearly 1,000,000 times and liked over 348,000 times. Hopefully, people will take notice and make sure that they are parking their cars properly so that those in wheelchairs have equal access.

RELATED: This man parked in a handicapped spot, and you won’t believe what they did to his car:

Female Veteran’s Powerful Response To Sexist Note Left On Car

When Rebecca Landis Hayes parked in a veteran parking space at her local North Carolina grocery store, she didn’t think twice about she was doing — considering she spent eight years in the United States Navy. Unfortunately, a passerby didn’t think that was a possibility, as when she returned from the store, she found the following note on her windshield: “This parking is for veterans, lady. Learn to read and have some respect.”

After receiving the note, and assuming the note-giver thought she couldn’t be a veteran because she was a woman, Hayes took to Facebook to vent her frustrations and respond to the sexist note writer, emphasizing that she was sorry that the person’s “narrow misogynistic world view [sic] can’t conceive of the fact that there are female Veterans.”

Her post will definitely make you think twice about jumping to conclusions!