A new bill passed in the Maryland General Assembly would, once signed into law, allow for driver’s license applicants to ask for a nonapparent disability designation.
If Gov. Wes Moore signs HB0707, also known as Eric’s ID Law, it would go into effect on Oct. 1.
License applicants could choose to show that they have a condition that isn’t visibly apparent, such as deafness, autism, or other mental or developmental disabilities, on a driver’s license, moped permit or other official identification card issued by the state.
If the bill becomes law, it will cost about $75,000 for vendors that create the forms of ID to create templates for cards that have the designation.
On the cards themselves, the words “hidden disability” and a butterfly appear, per an image of a sample license shared with WTOP-FM by Silver Spring resident Linda Carpenter-Grantham, one of the people who proposed the bill.
Her son Eric, 20, for whom the bill is named, has autism. In light of the George Floyd protests, mother and son, both of whom are Black, were worried about him being stopped by the police.
“‘I would like to make something to go onto the ID so that the police will know that me and my friends have autism so that they won’t hurt us if we ever get stopped,’” Mr. Carpenter-Grantham told his mother, she explained to WTOP-FM.
The butterfly symbol was inspired by magnets the family keeps on their fridge at home and represents “hope, peace, freedom and change,” Mr. Carpenter-Grantham said.
The bill was first proposed in both houses of the Maryland Legislature by Sen. William C. Smith Jr. and Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins, both Democrats for District 20, which includes the Carpenter-Grantham residence. The other two delegates for District 20, Democrats Lorig Charkoudian and David Moon, co-sponsored the House of Delegates version of the bill.
Both the Senate and House of Delegates versions of the bill passed unanimously, according to Maryland Matters.
“The significance of that bill is that it was an idea that came from a constituent. We went out to coffee, explained some of the concerns with their situation, and that’s the majesty of this process,” Mr. Smith told Bethesda Magazine.
