Lagos Is Planning Special Number Plates for PWDs. What Could They Actually Change?

Getting around Lagos can be hard enough, and for people with disabilities, a simple journey can come with problems that many other people may not have to think about.

A wheelchair user would definitely need a clear path to get into a building, while someone with a visual impairment may have to navigate roads and walkways that are not easy to use.

Finding a suitable parking space can also become a problem when the available ones are being used by other motorists.

This is the background to a planannounced by the Lagos State Government on July 29.

The state is planning to introduce special vehicle number plates for persons with disabilities (PWDs). The proposed system could also cover parents of children with disabilities and their caregivers.

TheLagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA) and the Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVAA) have started discussions about how it could work. The MVAA has also begun discussions with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

The plan is still being worked out, so application process, start date or list of benefits has been announced.

What will the plate actually do?

The government has described the plan as a disability-friendly vehicle identification system. But it has not explained what someone will be able to do with the plate that cannot be done with an ordinary one.

If it gives vehicles carrying people with disabilities access to designated parking at hospitals, schools, government offices and other public places, it could make some journeys easier. It could also help officials stop other motorists from using those spaces.

If the plate is only meant to identify the vehicle, its use may be limited. The government still needs to say what will happen when traffic or parking officials see one.

Who gets to use it?

One concern already being raised is that people could use a relative's disability to obtain the plate and then enjoy any benefit attached to it, even when that relative is not in the vehicle.

Who, then, is the plate really for: the person with the disability or the vehicle?

A parent may need it when taking a child with a disability to school or hospital. A caregiver may also be the person who drives. In those cases, it makes sense for them to use whatever parking or access the plate provides.

The problem begins when the parent or caregiver uses the same benefit while travelling without the person covered by the registration.

There is also the question of people who do not always use the same car. Someone may travel with a parent on one day and another relative or caregiver on another.

A removable permit may be more useful than a plate fixed to one vehicle, although it could also be passed around. These are the details Lagos will need to settle before the system begins.

The application process should not send people from one office to another with a pile of documents. There will need to be checks, but those checks should not make the scheme difficult for the people who qualify.

Privacy should also be considered. A special number plate could reveal that the owner, a passenger or someone in the family has a disability.

Some people may not mind, while others may prefer something they display only when they need to use the parking or access that comes with it. Applying for the plate should be a choice.

A number plate cannot fix an inaccessible city

One person responding to the announcement argued that Lagos should first focus on wheelchair-friendly walkways, safer paths for visually impaired people, covered drains and mandatory accessible parking at public facilities.

The proposal appears most useful to people with disabilities who own or regularly travel in private vehicles. It says little about those who depend on public transport or have to navigate Lagos on foot, where many of the city's accessibility problems begin.

That does not make the number plates a bad idea, but it does show their limits. Lagos still needs to explain what benefit comes with the plate, how it will work for caregivers and whether that benefit belongs to the vehicle or to the person with the disability.

That last point should guide the policy. The plate will be fixed to a car, but the support it provides should follow the person it was created to help.