[nfbwatlk] FW: [Blindtlk] Polocies Against The Blind...

[Kaye Kipp]

Good grief.  I've never heard of that one before, but it feels like we're 
going back half a century.

Kaye
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 11:15 AM
Subject: [nfbwatlk] FW: [Blindtlk] Polocies Against The Blind...


> Apparently, at least one of the situations cited by Dr. tenBroek in his 
> "The
> Cross of Blindness" speech from 1957 still happens. Read on.
>
> I believe, however, there is one mistake in what the good pastor told the
> manager: I don't think any Federal antidiscrimination statute applies 
> unless
> a blood donor site is a place of public accommodation, program or service.
>
> Anyone who sees no need for the NFB should ponder the message below.
>
> Mike Freeman
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of James Kelm
> Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 10:23 AM
> To: Blind Talk Mailing List
> Subject: [Blindtlk] Polocies Against The Blind...
>
> Dear friends,
>
>    Well an interesting thing happened to my wife and I last Friday, and I
> thought that I'd see what you all thought.  It seemed to be a relevant
> story, based upon the recent conversations here on this list.
>
>    Wanting to do something good for our fellow human beings, my wife and I
> decided that we would donate blood at one of our local blood banks.  We
> arrived, filled out the necessary paper work, and waited in the waiting 
> room
> to do our duty.
>
>    After a few minutes, a gentleman came out and requested that we follow
> him to his office.  I am assuming that this gentleman was some kind of a
> manager.  After entering his office, he politely informed us that he had
> spoken to his corporate office, and learned that they currently had no
> policy in place to assure my safety in the case of an emergency, so
> unfortunately they did not allow blind people to donate blood.  He then
> turned to my wife, who is sighted but like many middle-aged people, wears
> reading glasses.  The gentleman went on to explain that unless my wife 
> went
> home to retrieve her reading glasses and thereby demonstrating that she 
> was
> not blind, they also would not allow her to donate.  I politely explained
> that the corporate office should be aware that their company policy 
> violated
> Federal anti-discrimination laws, and they did not have the legal luxury 
> of
> determining which laws they were, or were not prepared to follow.  The
> gentleman told me that he understood, but that he had to comply with his
> corporate office's instructions to not allow the blind to donate blood.
>
>    This situation came as a bit of surprise to me.  Of course most of us
> blind folks are use to vague and concealed discrimination, but I was 
> caught
> off guard to face such an open and obvious demonstration of one's civil
> rights being disregarded.  It was rather shocking to be directly told by a
> business, that they did not want the blind!
>
>
> Your Brother in Christ,
> Pastor James Kelm
> True Hope Church of Duluth
> Web Site: www.thcduluth.org
> Office E-mail: office at thcduluth.org
> Phone: 218-727-4186
>
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