RICO’s Q – Accessible parking spaces can be found everywhere. However, many are unaware of the laws that govern the use of these spaces, including businesses that must provide such spaces and to their security staff.
The most obvious is when a person has a situation of obvious disability, such as being in a wheelchair, they have nothing to prove to use that space.
This also applies to a person with an obvious, temporary disabling condition, such as a person in a cast, they can also use those spaces.
An obviously pregnant woman, who is not a person with a disability, but one of the people who, by law, can use these spaces.
Official poster by the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT)
This also applies to “adultos mayores” (seniors). In Costa Rica, the legislation indicates 65 years as the age from which a person is considered an ‘adulto mayor”. This is based on Law no. 7935 comprehensive for the elderly person, whose purpose is to guarantee all people aged 65 or over equal opportunities and dignified life in all areas.
However, when the condition is not obvious, it must be proven with a certification.
The most common is having a special license plate or disability parking permit on the dash, for example, to indicate the certification, which extends also to the driver of the person with the disability or others as indicated earlier.
