[blindlaw] Jury finds IA Dept. for Blind's guide dog policy does not discriminate

[Craig R. Anderson]

I don't own a guide dog but nonetheless think the policy at issue in this case to be both legally unsound (why did they need a jury here anyway?) and otherwise quite preposterous.  It's  supposedly illegal for a governmental entity to deny services to an otherwise eligible recipient solely because the recipient uses a service animal.  This is true despite any justification the program's operator may advance for the discrimination.  A judge could clearly not get away with excluding from his courtroom a blind witness/lawyer/juror with a guide dog by claiming that the dog's presence would disrupt solemn judicial proceedings.  Similarly, a rehab agency ought not be heard to say that a client's use of a guide dog would require some undue alteration of itgs orientation program.  That program's purpose, after all, should be not so much to imbue uninitiated participants with a pre-packaged "philosophy" as to impart relevant skills a  student hasn't previously learned.  A client with a guide dog might well thus dispense with the curriculum's cane travel component and concentrate instead on Braille or computer training -- activities with which noone seriously suggests a dog can interfere.  I can't fathom what would be so bad about such tailoring of an orientation program.  Regards.

Craig---- Joanne Wilson <JWilson at nfb.org> wrote:
> 
> ----------
> From: Brammer, Robert [AG] [mailto:rbrammer at ag.state.ia.us]
> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 1:53 PM
> To: Brammer, Robert [AG]
> Subject: Atty. Gen. release: Jury finds IA Dept. 
> for Blind's guide dog policy does not discriminate
> 
> To News Editors.   From Bob Brammer (Iowa 
> Attorney General’s Office – 515-281-6699.)
> Please find a release pasted below.  This will be 
> posted soon at 
> <http://www.iowaattorneygeneral.org/>www.IowaAttorneyGeneral.org 
> .  A jury entered a verdict Wednesday in this 
> case in Polk County District Court.
> Best regards,  Bram
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> For immediate release – Thursday, February 19, 2009.
> Contact Bob Brammer – 515-281-6699
> 
> Jury finds Iowa Department for the Blind’s
> Guide Dog Policy Does Not Discriminate
> 
>              Des Moines.  A Polk County jury has 
> rejected a Des Moines woman’s claim that the 
> State of Iowa Department for the Blind 
> discriminated against her by refusing her request 
> to use a guide dog while she attended the 
> Department’s orientation and adjustment training program.
> 
>              The Department for the Blind 
> orientation and training program is a 
> comprehensive program that utilizes a totally 
> non-visual approach to teaching blindness 
> skills.  Students with partial vision are 
> required to wear eyeshades to prevent reliance 
> upon any visual cues during training.  Department 
> policies prohibit the use of any visual aids 
> within the orientation and training program, 
> including guide dogs.  The Department has no 
> objection to guide dogs in other situations.
> 
>              Stephanie Dohmen, who is legally 
> blind, attended the program for several months 
> beginning in September 2000 and sought to 
> re-enter the program in June 2002 accompanied by her guide dog.
> 
>              Dohmen claimed in her lawsuit that 
> the Department’s policy violated her rights under 
> the Iowa Civil Rights Act and under federal laws 
> that prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability.
> 
>              After a six-day trial, the 
> eight-person jury rejected Dohmen’s claims in a verdict entered Wednesday.
> 
> 
>              The Department for the Blind, which 
> was represented in the trial by the Iowa Attorney 
> General’s Office, argued that a totally 
> non-visual approach – and training without 
> assistance of a guide-dog or other visual aids – 
> is the most effective approach for 
> visually-impaired persons who are learning skills 
> and techniques for dealing with blindness.
> 
>              The Department places no limitations 
> upon the use of guide dogs in other settings, 
> including in the Department for the Blind 
> building in downtown Des Moines.   For example, 
> Karen Keninger, the Director of the Department, 
> uses a guide dog, and the dog accompanied 
> Keninger during her testimony at the trial.
> 
>              The orientation program typically 
> includes about six months of full-time training 
> in various problem-solving skills, such as 
> cane-travel on public streets, using Braille, 
> using computers, and dealing with many other situations.
> 
>              The Department for the Blind’s 
> orientation and adjustment program was 
> established in 1959 and is considered by many to 
> be one of the most effective in the country.
> 
>              During the trial, the State 
> Department for the Blind presented testimony from 
> Joanne Wilson and Frederic K. Schroeder, each a 
> former Commissioner of the U.S. Rehabilitation 
> Services Administration, which oversees programs 
> for the blind around the country.
> 
>              “Iowa’s orientation program 
> profoundly changes lives,” said Wilson, who also 
> is Executive Director of the National Federation 
> of the Blind.  “It works.  It’s a cutting-edge 
> program and a model for other states.”  Wilson is 
> a Webster City native and ISU graduate who went 
> through the Iowa Department for the Blind’s orientation program herself.
> 
>              Schroeder said:  “To me the central 
> point is that individuals have a choice in the 
> type of training they take.  While programs must 
> and should make reasonable accommodations, they 
> cannot be required to alter the fundamentals of the program.”
> 
> - 30 -
> 
> 
> 
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