WILBRAHAM, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Every year, the state issues tens of thousands of disability placards — granting access to handicapped parking spaces. Despite that high number, the application process can be cumbersome and lengthy, taking weeks and sometimes more than a month to complete.

We spoke with a local man who experienced firsthand how long it can take, and the local politician calling for change. It’s estimated that upwards of 30 million drivers nationwide have disability license plates or placards.

In Massachusetts alone, the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) authorizes about 140,000 annually — both on a temporary or permanent basis. So, you’d think they’d have it down to a science by now, but you’d be wrong.

“It’s antiquated. Here in Massachusetts represents itself as a very highly technical state and yet when it comes to getting a handicap permit, it’s like going back to the Sears catalogue days,” In May, Dave from Wilbraham, who wanted to remain anonymous decided it was time to get some help. He’d been in poor health recently with his heart and arthritis, “I can walk from here to 50 feet in a parking lot comfortably and after that I got to find a bench, or something to sit down or I got to get a walker.”

So, like thousands of others, Dave started the process of applying for a disability placard. What he found was a system he says is unnecessarily complicated, time consuming, and out of date, “really, it is. There’s no internet. You can’t get it online. You can’t go there personally.”

According to the state’s website, you can download and print the 2-page application, but it has to be filled out by hand, by both you and your doctor, then mailed to Boston. From there it’s reviewed – a process that can take up 6 weeks - and if approved, your tag is sent back to you through standard mail, taking even longer.

“Now I checked with Conn., N.Y., N.H., and Vt., two days in and out. I mean within 2 days you can get a (expletive) permit. Why is Massachusetts so antiquated,” Dave said.

That’s exactly what we asked Dave’s state representative, Angelo Puppolo, who Dave eventually reached out to. Puppolo told Western Mass News, he’s well aware of the lag time for applicants — especially those who need a temporary tag, “if someone has an urgency, an urgent need to get that placard it does not good if you need it for 3 or 4 weeks and it takes you 6 weeks to get it and you’re already better by the time you get it, so that’s no good. So, I think if we could streamline at least the initial application, I’d certainly be in favor of that, but I also think we can decentralize it.”

Puppolo says right now, all the thousands of applications are mailed to a single office in Boston.

He’d like to see that change, with multiple locations across the state, possibly at local RMV offices. He also thinks the RMV should transition to a model used in health care, comparing the current prosses to the old days when doctors wrote prescriptions on a pad of paper that patients had to bring to a pharmacy, “So now nobody writes out a prescription. They just automatically send it to the pharmacy you chose so and it gets filled a lot faster so I think we can utilize that technology,” Puppolo said.

Earlier this year, the state did roll out a redesigned disability placard it said would improve efficiency — specifically by cutting the time it takes to make them by about 25 percent. It does not, however, cut down on the application time.

In the end, and with the help of Representative Puppolo, David did receive his tag, about 5 weeks after first mailing in the paperwork, “this Wilbraham office and the staff that Puppolo has is just wonderful. Without them I would have been really depressed, and dejected and frustrated because I felt I had no alternative just to sit on my hands a wait.”

Puppolo said the people of Massachusetts deserve better and shouldn’t have to call their rep to just get an essential service from the state, “this is all about people in need, and I think that the sooner that we can get a legitimate placard into the hands of the person that needs it the better off everybody is.

Representative Puppolo said he’ll be speaking soon to the registrar and governor about exploring new ways to update and expedite the process.

Copyright 2026 Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.