[blindlaw] Jury finds IA Dept. for Blind's guide dog policy does not discriminate
Shane D
chatter8712 at gmail.com
Fri Feb 20 21:10:48 UTC 2009
I agree. I just think, from reading, that the express purpose of this
training was to volluntarily learn to live with no guide dog or cane.
To show up with one and then call it discrimination sounds extremely
stupid to me. You signed up.
On 2/20/09, Craig R. Anderson <mar.cra at comcast.net> wrote:
> 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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>
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--
-Shane
Website: http://www.blind-geek.com
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