[nfbmi-talk] FW: [Chapter-presidents] NE tulsa OKlahoma . sues alaska zipline for descrimanation and wins

Sun Dec 1 01:28:09 UTC 2013

-----Original Message-----
From: Chapter-presidents [mailto:chapter-presidents-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Veronica Smith
Sent: Saturday, November 30, 2013 5:46 PM
To: 'NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list'
Subject: Re: [Chapter-presidents] NE tulsa OKlahoma . sues alaska zipline
for descrimanation and wins

Wow!

-----Original Message-----
From: Chapter-presidents [mailto:chapter-presidents-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Steve C
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 6:51 PM
To: NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list
Subject: [Chapter-presidents] NE tulsa OKlahoma . sues alaska zipline for
descrimanation and wins

As many of you may remember, Selena   & I were discriminated against when we
were in Alaska last year.  For those of you that don't know, here is the
short story.  We had prepaid for a zipline tour in Talkeetna.  When we
arrived they told us that we could not go on the tour because we could not
see hand signals.  We have both ziplined many times before in several
different countries.  We suggested to them that they simply say the words go
and stop as has been done in the past and they said, "Our people aren't
trained to do that".  We got our money back, spoke to Charley Brown at
national office, & then filed a complaint with the DOJ.  We handled the case
on our own without any attorneys.  Both parties agreed to mediation.  On the
mediation call was the owner of the zipline company, his attorney, a judge
acting as mediator, Steve and I.  The lawyer started out with a grand speech
full of excuses.  They were a new company, we can't expect them to change
how they do business at a moments notice, etc.  I explained to them that a
new zipline company had just opened in Tulsa last summer as well and we took
a group of blind people there and they did not have any problems using voice
commands.  I told them that ignorance of the law is no excuse and that every
business in America whether they are just opening on their first day or they
have been open for 20 years or more, they are all responsible for abiding by
the ADA.  They argued that not all ziplines have a self-breaking mechanism,
but that theirs does.  We told them we have done self-breaking before.  They
argued that the zipline itself is not the only dangerous part but that there
are open-air platforms as well.  I told them that first of all, you are
tethered when you are on any platform.  Second of all, we have been on
open-air platforms before.  Third of all and most importantly, they needed
to get this notion of blind people being more klutzy or clumsy out of their
heads because this stereotype was not based in reality and they had no proof
to substantiate that.  I told them that whenever a sighted person
discriminates against a blind person you can bet your butt that they are
waiving the safety flag, but that a false belief is not enough to break the
law.  They argued that their insurance company would charge them more if
they let blind people zipline.  I told them that in order to deny us from
ziplineing they would have to be able to prove that blind people are more
dangerous when ziplining then sighted people and that they can't prove that
because I have the pictures to prove the opposite.  I also told them that
their insurance company is not allowed to charge them more for obeying the
ADA.  When I checked on auto insurance I was given a quote from Century 21
and when I told them that I was legally blind and asked them how much more
they were going to charge me they said that they could not charge me more
because their statistics showed that blind drivers are safer drivers.  They
were very quiet when I told them that.  If the insurance industry can't
prove that blind people are more dangerous drivers, there isn't a chance in
hell that you can prove that we're more dangerous ziplining.  When they
apologized for our inconvenience I told them that if they were really sorry
then they would have tried to contact us after the incident.  The owner said
that he did not contact us because he was so inedited with letters from NFB
members telling him what a terrible company they were.  This made us very
happy since we had posted it on our FaceBook pages and requested that people
write to them.  Steve told them that he knows some sighted people have
gotten scared and closed their eyes and what do they do then, catch them
right?  The owner said that when a sighted person comes in too fast they are
warned the first time.  The second time they are given a more stern warning
and the third time their tour is ended.  Steve said, "So you give sighted
people 3 chances and you wouldn't even give us one chance".  They were
speechless again.  They said that they have spoken to the experts on
ziplining and they said that tandem is the way to go.  I told them that they
may have spoken to some so called zipline experts but that when they are
developing a policy relating to blind people they need to contact the
experts on blindness and that was us, the NFB.  Steve brought up the
Norwegian Cruise Line case that the NFB had assisted with several years ago.
He explained to them that this was the same type of situation, sighted
people believing that blind people are a safety threat and that therefore we
had to do things differently - their way.  Norwegian said that among other
things, blind passengers had to have a sighted person in their cabin with
them.  Steve also told them the amounts that Norwegian had to pay to the
blind passengers and to the government for breaking the law.  This seemed to
scare them.  We asked for 3 things; a letter of apology, a written policy
that is legal, and a financial settlement.  I thought that by now, a year
later they would have read the ADA and have an understanding of it.  I
thought that the policy would be the easiest thing to get and that we would
spend most of our time arguing about money.  Boy was I wrong!  They were
hell bent on requiring tandem.  They told us that they took some people with
Downs Syndrome tandem and they loved it.  I told them that physical and
mental impairments are different and that I really didn't care who likes
going tandem, we don't.  They said that they didn't WANT to change their
policy.  I told them "This is America and I don't care if you WANT to change
your policy or not.  You don't get to choose which laws you obey and which
ones you don't.  I promise you when this is all over, you WILL obey the
law!"  The attorney got very upset stating that I said they couldn't offer
tandem at all.  I clarified once again saying that they can offer it to
whomever they wanted, they just could not require it.  The attorney said
that it was a reasonable accommodation under the law.  I informed him that
under the law, we have the right to refuse any reasonable accommodation
offered to us.  The attorney said, "I don't think that is entirely true
Selena".  I said, "You don't THINK because you don't KNOW.  You don't KNOW
because you still after a year have not READ the ADA.  After you READ it
then you will KNOW that I am right!"  I gave him another 2 weeks to do his
job and read the applicable law.  Although I can't disclose the amount of
money that we received, I can tell you that we asked for more then we wanted
and we have now received the check.  We have also received the letter of
apology and most importantly, their new policy that we helped write is on
their website and any subsequent changes will be on their website so we can
always check on them.  Steve donated part of his money to our chapter.  
written by; Selena Sundling

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