[Quietcars] Iowa decision goes against dog users

[michael townsend]

Narrow-minded, antiquated and ludicrous.  

For your information, as per this article sent to me.

Mike T

Jury finds Iowa Department for the Blind's Guide Dog Policy Does Not
Discriminate

Des Moines. A Polk County jury has rejected a Des Moines woman's claim that
the State of Iowa Department for the Blind discriminated against her by
refusing her request to use a guide dog while she attended the Department's
orientation and adjustment training program.

The Department for the Blind orientation and training program is a
comprehensive program that utilizes a totally non-visual approach to
teaching blindness skills. Students with partial vision are required to wear
eyeshades to prevent reliance upon any visual cues during training.
Department policies prohibit the use of any visual aids within the
orientation and training program, including guide dogs.
The Department has no objection to guide dogs in other situations.

Stephanie Dohmen, who is legally blind, attended the program for several
months beginning in September 2000 and sought to re-enter the program in
June 2002 accompanied by her guide dog.

Dohmen claimed in her lawsuit that the Department's policy violated her
rights under the Iowa Civil Rights Act and under federal laws that prohibit
discrimination on the basis of disability.

After a six-day trial, the eight-person jury rejected Dohmen's claims in a
verdict entered Wednesday.

The Department for the Blind, which
was represented in the trial by the Iowa Attorney General's Office, argued
that a totally non-visual approach - and training without assistance of a
guide-dog or other visual aids - is the most effective approach for
visually-impaired persons who are learning skills and techniques for dealing
with blindness.

The Department places no limitations
upon the use of guide dogs in other settings, including in the Department
for the Blind building in downtown Des Moines. For example, Karen Keninger,
the Director of the Department, uses a guide dog, and the dog accompanied
Keninger during her testimony at the trial.

The orientation program typically
includes about six months of full-time training in various problem-solving
skills, such as cane-travel on public streets, using Braille, using
computers, and dealing with many other situations.

The Department for the Blind's
orientation and adjustment program was
established in 1959 and is considered by many to be one of the most
effective in the country.

During the trial, the State
Department for the Blind presented testimony from Joanne Wilson and Frederic
K. Schroeder, each a former Commissioner of the U.S. Rehabilitation Services
Administration, which oversees programs for the blind around the country.

"Iowa's orientation program
profoundly changes lives," said Wilson, who also is Executive Director of
the National Federation of the Blind. "It works. It's a cutting-edge program
and a model for other states." Wilson is a Webster City native and ISU
graduate who went through the Iowa Department for the Blind's orientation
program herself.

Schroeder said: "To me the central
point is that individuals have a choice in the type of training they take.
While programs must and should make reasonable accommodations, they cannot
be required to alter the fundamentals of the program."