[nagdu] [Fwd: [Njagdu] A blind eye toward guide dog discrimination?]

[Tracy Carcione]

This article doesn't look very professionally written to me, but the
substance is interesting.
Tracy

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [Njagdu] A blind eye toward guide dog discrimination?
From:    "Ginger Kutsch" <GingerKutsch at yahoo.com>
Date:    Wed, November 14, 2012 7:09 am
To:      "New Jersey Association of Guide Dog Users" <njagdu at nfbnet.org>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

A blind eye toward guide dog discrimination?

By John Kelly, Published: November 13

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-blind-eye-toward-guide-dog-discriminat
ion/2012/11/13/4a7ffeac-2db5-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_print.html



It must be hard enough being blind without mean or clueless people making it
even harder.



Take, for example, the essential act of finding a place to live. The fact
that you're visually impaired and use a guide dog shouldn't give landlords
the right to put unreasonable conditions on your lease or deny you one
altogether. According to the Equal Rights Center, federal housing law
prohibits discrimination against the blind. To determine how well those laws
are being followed, the ERC did a test.



One hundred rental properties in the District, Maryland and Virginia were
contacted, first by an advance caller who asked about availability and made
no mention of having a guide dog, then by a person who said he had a guide
dog.



Two landlords said guide dogs weren't allowed at all. Three said only little
dogs were allowed. (Ever seen a Chihuahua seeing eye dog?) Six said there
was an extra fee for tenants with a guide dog. Two said guide dogs were
allowed, but only in ground-floor units.



In all, ERC says about a third of the rental properties indicated that
they'd make it hard or impossible to provide housing for people with guide
dogs. At a news conference Tuesday, Eric Bridges, director of advocacy and
governmental affairs at the American Council of the Blind, said he had
encountered resistance when he moved to the area 12 years ago. A high-rise
apartment building in Arlington wanted him to pay a pet deposit. He talked
them out of it.



"My guide dog did no damage," said Eric, his current black Lab, General,
resting at his feet. "He was a calm and gracious animal who just wanted to
chew on his bone and play."



Also attending the news conference was Shawn Callaway, president of the
National Federation of the Blind in the District. He said discrimination is
especially bad when it comes to workplace and college campus accommodations
for the blind.



Then Shawn raised an issue I confess I hadn't thought of: The District's new
gun law allows anyone over 18 to register for a firearm - as long as they
pass a vision test. Shawn thinks it's wrong that a blind person can't own a
gun.



Yeah, but Shawn, I mean, really - a blind person with a gun?



He explained that many burglaries and home invasions happen when it's dark,
when a sighted homeowner has no advantage over a blind one. Blind people
need to protect themselves, too.



"You can't exclude a whole group of people," Shawn said. "That's totally
discriminatory."



I love a man in uniform



I wanted to make sure I spelled the name of Eric's dog right.



"Is that 'General' as in 'Petraeus'?" I asked.



"I prefer to think of him as 'MacArthur' these days," Eric said.



In other words, General may be a dog, but he's not as much of a dog as
Petraeus.



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