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

Tue Sep 7 04:56:01 UTC 2010

I hear you, Dan! My setiments as well!  I'm tired of people coming here from 
other lands to then try to make us live like they do where they came from. 
You know the "When in Rome..."  Well, these cabbies are in OUR land with OUR 
laws and they should be expected to follow OUR laws in regards to assistance 
dogs and disabled folks.  My rant! LOL!  If I go to their countries, then I 
expect to obey THEIR laws and leave my dog at home!

We need to stand up for ourselves and use the mobility aide that works best 
for us - dogs included.  We should never have to have cabbies pass us by 
because the driver has a burr up his butt about dogs.  They should be fired 
on the spot if it is proven that they passed us up because of a dog.

Lyn ansd Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Weiner" <dcwein at dcwein.cnc.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2010 4:42 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Cab drivers in DC pass blind people with guide dogs

> 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.
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/linda.gwizdak%40cox.net 