Born without hands, Mark Speckman has overcome many challenges in his life. Driving a car isn’t near the top of the list.
The football coach says he has been driving in California since he was 16 years old. Now 60, he says he has never been in an accident and has a clean driving record.
That still wasn’t good enough for Speckman to get a Wisconsin driver’s license. Speckman feels he’s being singled out by the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles because of his disability.
“It’s highly discriminatory,” Speckman said. “I get it, people are going to look at you differently, but when people in an institution are discriminating against you like this, there’s something wrong.”
Speckman was an honorable mention All-American linebacker during his playing days at Azusa Pacific University. He coached high school for eight years, winning division titles two years in a row.
“I drove players up and down Highway 99 … for weight-lifting tournaments and other events. Nobody ever questioned me,” he said.
After a couple of seasons coaching in the Canadian Football League, Speckman recently took a job as the offensive coordinator at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.
Two weeks ago, Speckman, wife Sue and Lawrence University head football coach Rob McCarthy all went to the DMV office in Appleton to get Wisconsin driver’s licenses. McCarthy had moved from Minnesota.
Sue and McCarthy had no problems getting their licenses. That wasn’t the case for Speckman.
“They singled me out. They didn’t know what to do,” he said. “They asked if I could come back, and I told them I wasn’t going to take another day off from work.”
Eventually Speckman was asked to take a road test, similar to a beginning driver. Speckman didn’t pass.
Speckman offered paperwork from his insurance company with his driving record to prove he was a safe driver. He said it wasn’t good enough.
Speckman tried other DMV offices in the area. At the Oshkosh office he was told he needed a medical form filled out by his doctor. In Green Bay, he was told he needed to take an hourlong test.
Steve Pazynski, the Wisconsin DMV Medical Review & Fitness Unit supervisor, said DMV policy allows that “the department may conduct a special examination to determine whether a person adequately compensates for a medical condition or functional impairment.”
“The word ‘may’ gives us the opportunity to examine or test those individuals who, through that close observation of their functional ability may, again, not be able to exercise the reasonable control of a motor vehicle,” Pazynski said.
Associated Press
