[nagdu] More information on Taco Bell incident

[Jenine Stanley]

Dan, you are far too modest about that horrific taxi incident. You were
nearly run over by one of the irate drivers. 

Folks, this was something that was just above and beyond horrible, and at a
hotel that prided itself on being very friendly and accommodating to blind
people. The hotel staff was mortified too. 

My frustration was for Dan but also over how the state legal rights agency
handled the settlement of the case. They never consulted him as to what he
wanted to happen, just assumed that unspecified training for drivers was OK
with no mention of who or how said training would be done and no guarantee
of if it would even be done. Pathetic. 

Did I get it right, Dan? I was also very angry that others would say that he
must have done something wrong to deserve 2 such incidents, one right after
the other. 

Generally we don't have too many access problems in Columbus, but one is
taxi cabs and particularly those called from hotels as they are usually
either Gypsy cabs or other small companies who hire many people without any
training at all. We have a large Somali population here but we also have a
number of other immigrant groups and a lot of blind people who work with
guide dogs. I think one figure I got from our county auditor's office on the
number of "Ohio Handicap Assistance Dogs", the wording on our licenses, in
Franklin County, which includes guide and service dogs, was around 300. 

With no enforcement though of laws and no agency really willing to push such
things as far as I thought they should have been pushed in Dan's case, it's
better to file a federal complaint and get a "right to sue" letter from DOJ.