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

Mon Sep 6 23:35:10 UTC 2010

I feel that the following statement is true. Major Corporations do not properly inform there employees on service dogs and there use.  
Last month, I was in a situation where a manager of a restaurant wanted me to either stay in the rear of the location or place the dog outside or in a back room because of the board of health issues surrounding food as well as fielding complaints from other customers.  As I persisted on educating the manager and even putting humor that “we learn something new every day”, he later apologized and recanted his story before admitting me inside informing me that several calls to his management staff informed him that the training they went through was vague saying “do not discriminate” and there head supervisors mislead them during there staff training in to thinking that the dogs could go to all places; however, the board of health in New York City had other rules and regulations that they had to abide by.  

--- On Mon, 9/6/10, Julie McGinnity <kaybaycar at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Julie McGinnity <kaybaycar at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Cab drivers in DC pass blind people with guide dogs
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Monday, September 6, 2010, 12:56 PM
> I think this all stems from one
> thing: what the cab drivers are told
> in their training.  I don't take cabs oftin here in
> St. Louis because
> I live on a college campus and don't need them, but I would
> think the
> cab drivers go through some kind of training.  Why
> isn't it required
> that they are told about service dogs in their
> training?  Why aren't
> they told that if they pass by a person with a service dog
> it is
> breaking the law?  It seems pretty logical to
> me.  I guess it would be
> hard to figure out that they are actually passing by people
> with
> service dogs, but I think it would still help a bit. 
> They should lose
> their jobs for doing things like that, immigrant or
> not.  They want a
> job in the US.  They need to comply with our laws, but
> it circles
> around again because if their not told about service dogs
> how would
> they know about the laws in the first place?  I think
> these kinds of
> things are a matter of what these people are tought in
> their job
> training.  If they are not told the right things, they
> are going to
> keep doing things by their own rules, not the by the
> law.  Just let me
> know if I really don't know what I'm talking about.
> 
> On 9/6/10, William ODonnell <william.odonnell1 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > The same thing goes on here in NYC.  If you need
> a cab, you can get a yellow
> > cab in Manhattan; however, outside the city, it is a
> hit or miss issue with
> > the car companies.  First, you need to call for
> the cab and go on explaining
> > and waiting for approval of the supervisors,
> dispatchers, and drivers.  If
> > you are trying to get a cab on the street, well, good
> luck.  The yellow cabs
> > I mention above are the ones from the medallion Taxi
> and limousine
> > commission (TLC).  They will usually pick you up;
> however, then you need to
> > go on with the explanations that the dog is a service
> dog and will not harm
> > anyone because very often you here the fear from the
> driver that the dog may
> > harm them.
> > --- On Sun, 9/5/10, Dan Weiner <dcwein at dcwein.cnc.net>
> wrote:
> >
> >> From: Dan Weiner <dcwein at dcwein.cnc.net>
> >> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Cab drivers in DC pass blind
> people with guide dogs
> >> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association
> of Guide Dog Users'"
> >> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> >> Date: Sunday, September 5, 2010, 7:42 AM
> >> Granted, Sherri,  the wording is
> >> regrettable, but the fact is we're not
> >> going to win on some of these points and in the
> case of the
> >> article  we'd be
> >> missing the forest for the trees  pointing that
> out,,
> >> or however that goes.
> >> At lease when I lived in Maryland I can tell you
> that
> >> access was a problem
> >> when it came to cabs.
> >> And, those friends of mine who lived in DC would
> confirm
> >> the estimate of
> >> half the drivers passing by or not taking you.
> >>
> >> This is the height of absurdity and even shameful,
> that
> >> we've had eighty
> >> years of guide dog training here in the USA and
> it's still
> >> that way.
> >> And like it or not, nine times out of ten in my
> neck of the
> >> woods in
> >> Maryland it was people from the mid East, Africa
> and Asia,
> >> emigrants in
> >> other words, who did the worst offending in this
> regard.
> >> This is the first
> >> time in my life, sorry to say, that I started
> feeling a
> >> real hostility to
> >> emigrants, who, in my way of thinking, were
> dishing out to
> >> people from here
> >> worse treatment then they were getting. They had
> jobs and
> >> could find them
> >> quickly again, no skin off their nose to treat a
> blind
> >> person like dirt.
> >> And, guys, don't start with me the old chorus of
> how
> >> they're afraid of dogs,
> >> etc. I couldn't care less, it isn't a dog
> popularity
> >> contest we're in here.
> >> The reasons are immaterial to me, how to reverse
> this trend
> >> is what I'm
> >> interested in.
> >>
> >>
> >> Sad but true it was a lot of folks from other
> lands who did
> >> this.
> >> .
> >> Not  that there weren't any good old native
> American
> >> born, white and black
> >> guys, who had their chance to step up to the plate
> and be
> >> butt holes because
> >> there were.
> >> So, you were lucky if you got drivers who knew
> you, or I'd
> >> take numbers of
> >> cabbies I liked and give them some business on the
> side,
> >> but frankly, the
> >> fact that we have  to do that means there's
> something
> >> seriously wrong.
> >> I mention that because some blind friends there
> said
> >> rather  superciliously,
> >> "well, what I do is make sure I get the drivers
> who don't
> >> mind dogs".  I'm
> >> beating my head against a wall, here, guys, but
> the cabbies
> >> are supposed to
> >> take us, ain't up to us to get a little black book
> of
> >> people who decide it's
> >> convenient to follow the law.
> >> Now, here in Florida, I've only taken a few cabs
> recently
> >> as I'm trying to
> >> save money, so what can you tell me about access
> here, or
> >> Marian in Tampa,
> >> etc?
> >>
> >> There would be only two reasons that at some point
> I decide
> >> not to choose a
> >> guide dog as my main means of mobility:
> >> 1.  It's hard on me to see them get old and so
> on,
> >> very hard.
> >> 2. This access situation.
> >> When I call a cab, I should not have to have my
> heart in my
> >> mouth wondering
> >> whether they're going to see me and drive away. 
> One
> >> of the drivers who
> >> liked me told me that several of them who didn't
> like dogs
> >> would just not
> >> come if they knew it was a dog user and say they
> came and I
> >> wasn't there, or
> >> other little tricks.
> >> In Prince George's County, Maryland, the company
> had some
> >> GPs system whereby
> >> they could tell which driver was nearest to
> whatever
> >> location I was calling
> >> from and he would be assigned.  Now, that would
> mean I
> >> could very often and
> >> would get a person for whatever reason, decided to
> drive
> >> away or in some
> >> other way treat me like the scum of the Earth
> because I
> >> dare to want to be
> >> independent and use a guide dog.
> >>
> >> Of course they're computers, the cab company's may
> not be
> >> the most accurate,
> >> I called once from my cell phone when at Dunkin''
> Doughnuts
> >> and every time I
> >> called from my cell  they'd say "Oh, we'll send
> >> someone to the Dunkin'
> >> Doughnuts, and I had to make sure they got it
> before they
> >> hung up.
> >> One day I got really frustrated and said, I don't
> care who
> >> you send but make
> >> it someone who understands English and make sure
> they're
> >> not an idiot."
> >> I swear, one of the cab drivers thought this was
> funny
> >> because whatever
> >> dispatcher had put that under my phone number on
> the
> >> computer, so it would
> >> come up as "has a guide dog, wants someone who
> understands
> >> English, doesn't
> >> want an idiot.".
> >> Still, all of those qualifications didn't help
> >> sometimes--smile
> >>
> >> Rant over
> >>
> >>
> >> Dan W.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> >
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Julie McG
>  Lindbergh High School class of 2009, participating member
> in Opera
> Theater's Artist in Training Program, and proud graduate of
> Guiding
> Eyes for the Blind
> 
> "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so
> that
> everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have
> eternal
> life."
> John 3:16
> 
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