Honest ParkingMD Review: Improving Handicap Parking Accessibility
This is a contributed post.
Handicap parking permits are usually hard to come by, even if you’re eligible for them. The process usually involves contacting your DMV for the right forms, filling them in, speaking to a licensed medical professional to certify your condition, and then submitting your application.
It can take an outrageously long amount of time as you’re contacting different people, waiting in phone queues, and heading back and forth from the busy DMV. The whole thing is also incredibly counterintuitive when you consider that the people applying for these permits may have disabilities or health conditions of some kind. As such, you’re either getting other people to ferry forms back and forth or struggling to do it all on your own.
This is a terrible system, and there’s no two ways about it. That’s why I was intrigued to find out about a service called ParkingMD, which looks like it's solved a lot of the accessibility issues surrounding handicap parking permits. The service claims to help you get a permit in three simple steps - so, after checking out the website and testing the service, here’s an honest review of what it’s like.
About ParkingMD - How Does It Work?
Okay, so what exactly is ParkingMD, and how does it work? This is a leading online handicap parking permit evaluation service - and that second-to-last word is important. The whole aim of the platform is to evaluate if you’re eligible for a handicap parking permit. It doesn’t generate one for you to use, but it puts you in the best position to submit a successful application with your local DMV.
As mentioned before, the system works in three simple steps, so let’s break them down for you:
Step 1: Book Your Online Appointment - ParkingMD lets you book an appointment online, so you don’t need to go to the DMV or your doctor’s office. It’s a telehealth service that handles everything from the comfort of your home.
Step 2: Consult with a Licensed Doctor - After booking an appointment, you’ll be matched with a licensed doctor who you can chat with however you like. This includes video calls, phone calls, direct messages, and so on. Your doctor will listen to your symptoms, check your medical conditions, and determine your eligibility.
Step 3: Gain Approval - Following your consultation, you’ll either be denied or approved for a handicap parking permit. Your doctor then signs the forms for you and sends them straight to you, ready for download. All you have to do is download the forms and take them to the DMV.
That’s all there is to it - and you’re now in a position where you a) know if you can obtain an accessible parking permit, and b) have the forms ready to submit so you can get the permit from your DMV.
ParkingMD’s Biggest Advantages
As you can probably tell, there’s a lot to like about this type of system. ParkingMD yields plenty of benefits for anyone using the platform, and some of the biggest advantages are:
Makes The Application Process Easier: You don’t have to faff around with multiple DMV visits or trying to call your doctor’s office. It can take weeks before you get all the necessary appointments, but this service completes everything in minutes. You could literally download your forms and take them to the DMV on the same day.
A More Accessible Service For Those Who Need It: A large majority of the people who need an accessible parking permit will have mobility issues of some description. With that in mind, the physical act of going to the DMV or doctor’s office (many times on multiple occasions) is difficult. ParkingMD removes this problem and caters its service to individuals with mobility issues. Do everything from the comfort of your home and then make one trip to the DMV.
Partners With Licensed Medical Providers: There’s no risk of your application falling through because you’ve gained approval from licensed medical providers. The signature on your application is from a genuine doctor.
Available In All 50 States: This is a statewide service that you can access from any of the 50 states. It means people across the country can get the handicap permits they deserve and need.
Some Of The Downsides Of ParkingMD
Honestly, there aren’t many negative aspects of this service, but you may point to a couple of things that aren’t ideal.
More Costly Than The Traditional Method: If you were to apply for a handicap parking permit through the traditional route, it wouldn’t cost as much as going through ParkingMD. This is a business after all, so it needs to make money somehow. It becomes a case of weighing up if the benefits are worth the financial costs.
You Still Have To Apply For Your Permit: Perhaps the biggest way this service could improve is by implementing the permit application into the platform, too. It’s a bit annoying that you still have to go to the effort of filing an application with your DMV - we’d like to see this service do that for you in the future.
Looking at things from an impartial point of view, the downsides of ParkingMD aren’t that serious. They don’t stop it from being a great service, especially for those who need it. In most scenarios, it will be beneficial for you to spend a bit of money if you can expedite the approval process. Would you rather deal with the constant back-and-forth calls to your doctor’s office, plus multiple trips to the DMV?
Final Words On ParkingMD
All in all, ParkingMD looks to have improved handicap parking accessibility by quite some distance. There’s no doubt in my mind that this platform will encourage people to apply for a permit when they wouldn’t have done so before. Yes, it costs a fee, but that fee is worth it when it means you gain a doctor’s approval in minutes. Something that could legitimately take over a month now takes a few minutes - and with the forms available to download straight away, you can print them and take them to your DMV.
A really great service, and a must-use for anyone who thinks they’re eligible for a handicapped parking permit.
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