[nagdu] On D.C.'s streets, blind injustice

[Dan Weiner]

Yes, folks.
I can attest to the veracity of this article having lived in Maryland and
having gone to DC a few times.
Why even have guide dogs if the law is violated with impunity so often it's
not even funny.
Of course, murder's against the law too and it still happens, right?
And, don't think that the sting operation solved the problem in the Big
Apple because when I've been there I always have had  problems.
The New Carleton train station near DC was mentioned in the article and I've
been there and yes I have had  a problem.

It has gotten totally out of hand.

Any guide dog user who claims there's no problem is living in a dream world.

Let's discuss more often what type of joint campaign or action we as blind
people with guide dogs can take to nix this problem.
It's not something that one person can do alone as I've done the reporting
and filing stuff and it doesn't solve the problem, just one case at a time.

Somehow the consequences of violating the rules have to become sufficiently
unpleasant to convince people violating the law to cease and desist.
I've been thinking about this a long time and do think it's probably the
most significant issue we as guide dog users face.


Cordially,

Dan W. and the hounds  

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ginger Kutsch
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 10:25 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] On D.C.'s streets, blind injustice

On D.C.'s Streets, Blind Injustice
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120303
752.html
Jim Dickson, with his 3-year-old black Lab, Pearson, says he and others with
guide dogs or wheelchairs often have trouble getting cabdrivers to stop for
them in the District. (By John Kelly -- The Washington Post) 

By John Kelly
Thursday, December 4, 2008; Page B03
The Washington Post
Jim Dickson had the feeling empty cabs were zipping past him without
stopping as he stood at 17th and L streets NW the week before last, his hand
raised for a taxi. He didn't know for sure, though. Jim is blind. Standing
next to him was his 3-year-old black Lab guide dog, Pearson. 

I watched for a few minutes as taxis -- their rooftop lights lighted, their
back seats vacant -- ignored Jim and Pearson, then I walked up and suggested
he might have better luck at the Mayflower Hotel's cabstand. 

"This is not a unique experience to me," Jim said. "People with guide dogs
and people with wheelchairs complain all the time about cabs refusing to
take them." 

That seemed pretty cold -- refusing to stop for a disabled person? -- but
then we got to the Mayflower. There were no cabs at that moment, but
National Cab No. 64 soon pulled up and disgorged a passenger. The hotel
doorman held the door for Jim and Pearson, but when the cabdriver saw them,
he started shouting. The cab rolled forward a few inches, the door still
open. Then the driver got out and started swearing at the doorman. After the
door was shut, he got back behind the wheel and drove off. 

The doorman was as disgusted as I was. Jim took the next cab. 

A few days later, I spoke with Jim, who is vice president of government
affairs for the American Association of People with Disabilities. Lots of
drivers don't like dogs and won't stop, he said. "The only place it doesn't
happen is up on Capitol Hill," said Jim, 62. "I usually get a Capitol
policeman to flag the cab for me." 

Mario Bonds, a 21-year-old student from Bowie who travels with his black
Lab, Sydney, said the same thing. He often needs a cab at the New Carrollton
Metro station. "I've felt quite stupid standing there for a long time, when
a regular sighted person says, 'There's plenty of cabs here. I don't know
what these guys are doing.' " 

George Merriweather said it was so hard to get a cab for him and his
standard poodle guide dog, Gambit, that he stopped coming into the District
from Olney for doctor's appointments. "They're hard on blind people," said
George, 61. "Especially if you've got a dog, you don't get in a cab." 

Why wouldn't a cabdriver stop for a blind person with a dog? Some might be
concerned that dogs would make the vehicle dirty, though Jim makes Pearson
sit on the floor and on wet days carries paper towels to wipe the seat. Some
might be allergic, though Jim said that if so, they're supposed to have a
doctor's letter on file. Jim and Mario said some drivers have told them it's
against their religion to have a dog in the car. Could that be true? 

Some Muslims believe that dogs are unclean, said Abdullahi An-Na'im, a
professor at Emory University who specializes in Islamic law, but this is
more a cultural notion than a religious one. He said nothing in the Koran
stipulates that dogs must be avoided. What's more, two Islamic tenets would
override any reluctance to take a guide dog: the imperative of being helpful
to someone in need, and what's known as darura, or necessity. If you're
blind and need a dog, darura means that's okay. The same goes when you're a
taxi driver who encounters blind passengers. 


Said the professor: "I don't think that's acceptable for a Muslim" not to
take a service animal in his cab. 

The Big Apple solved this problem nine years ago with an awareness campaign
and an undercover sting operation, said Allan Fromberg of New York's Taxi
and Limousine Commission. Plainclothes officers and guide dogs were used to
catch drivers who wouldn't stop. 

tent that you post. 

Who's Blogging> Links to this article
When I called Leon Swain, chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, and told
him what I'd heard from visually impaired people, he was furious. "That's
something that I have zero tolerance on," he said. "If you have a bona fide
service animal, you need to be transported to the location." He invited Jim
to file a complaint and has set up a meeting between cab company owners, the
Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and other local disability rights groups. 

I asked the owner of National Cab Co., Balwinder Singh, to look into what I
saw. He said the driver of No. 64 told him that he already had a passenger
in his cab (an invisible one, I guess). "It's hard to prove for me," Singh
said. "I'm telling you what he told me." He said licensed drivers "should be
picking up whoever comes next" -- blind people and their dogs included. 

Anyone can see that -- and every time I take a cab in the future I'll be
reminding the driver of that fact. 

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