[nagdu] Cab drivers in DC pass blind people with guide dogs

[Marion Gwizdala]

I am pretty confident that, if a similar study were done in Tampa, the
results would be very different. Merry and I have worked very hard
"educating" the cab companies. (smile) For those who are unaware, this
"education" took the form of several criminal cases against individual
cabbies in which the taxi companies asserted the drivers were independent
contractors over which the companies had no control. It wasn't until the
owners found themselves facing charges of discrimination themselves that
effective changes were made! As I said, if this were done in Tampa, there
would be pretty high compliance, I believe. Now, getting the public transit
company to comply with their responsibilities, that's a different story!

Fraternally yours,
Marion

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sherri" <flmom2006 at gmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>; "Florida Association of Guide 
Dog Users" <flagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2010 11:02 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Cab drivers in DC pass blind people with guide dogs


> An interesting message. Just giving credit to the sender. Wonder what 
> would happen if we did a similar study in say the Tampa or Orlando area? 
> Only problem I have with the article is that it said the blind people were 
> "put" in certain places. I would have preferred the word "stood", because 
> being "put" makes us sound like inanimate objects! Just being picky I 
> guess.
>
> Sherri
> From: leadership-bounces at acb.org [mailto:leadership-bounces at acb.org] On 
> Behalf Of Eric Bridges
> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 1:04 PM
> To: leadership at acb.org; announce at acb.org
> Subject: [leadership] In study, half of D.C. cab drivers pass by blind 
> people with guide dogs
>
>
>
> The below article appears in today's Washington Post. ACB is proud to have 
> provided all of the testers for this study and looks forward to continuing 
> our work with the Equal Rights
>
> Center.
>
>
>
> Eric
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR2010090102344.html
>
> By Henri E. Cauvin
>
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Wednesday, September 1, 2010; 10:04 AM
>
> In a study by a civil rights watchdog group, taxi drivers in the District 
> often drove past blind people who were trying to hail a cab while 
> accompanied by guide dogs.
>
> This Story
>
> In study, half of D.C. cab drivers pass by blind people with guide dogs
>
> Shedding light on sidewalk safety
>
> The Equal Rights Center, in a report released Wednesday morning, said it 
> conducted 30 tests earlier this year and that in half of the tests, 
> drivers passed a man or woman with a guide dog to pick up a person who did 
> not have a guide dog. In three of the cases where the taxi did stop for 
> the blind person, the driver attempted to impose a surcharge for 
> transporting the dog, the Equal Rights Center said.
>
> Under local and federal law, businesses, including taxis, must make 
> reasonable accommodations to blind people and their service dogs and may 
> not impose surcharges for transporting a service dog. But blind people in 
> the District have complained for years that some taxi drivers flout the 
> law.
>
> Prompted by such concerns, the Equal Rights Center, which is part of the 
> Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, 
> undertook an investigation, assisted by the law firm Hogan Lovells.
>
> In each of the 30 tests, which were conducted between March and May, the 
> Equal Rights Centers placed a blind person with a guide dog and a sighted 
> person on a high-traffic thoroughfare in the city. The blind person was 
> placed about 100 feet closer to oncoming traffic so that he or she would 
> be the first prospective passenger a taxi would encounter.
>
> With a video camera rolling, the Equal Rights Center recorded 15 taxis 
> bypassing the blind passenger for the sighted person standing farther 
> away. Video clips of some of the encounters can be seen here. In its 
> report, the Equal Rights Center said its findings made clear that more 
> needs to be done to ensure that the rights of blind people are protected. 
> Taxi drivers in the District and elsewhere have long faced scrutiny for 
> passing up prospective black passengers, and several years ago, the D.C. 
> police conducted sting operations intended to deter discrimination by taxi 
> drivers.
>
> The Equal Rights Center said that the police, the D.C. Taxi Commission and 
> the D.C. Office of Human Rights need to adopt a more aggressive approach 
> to addressing taxi-driver bias against the blind, stepping up both 
> education and enforcement.
>
> "The law is in place," said Ashley N. White, outreach manager for the 
> Equal Rights Center, "but no one is really enforcing it."
>
>
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