Guide Dog Access

[jayuk]

Susan

Thats EXACTLY what I was thinking..what if this was late at night, female alone, etc etc..........and she was rejected on the fact that she had a guide dog!...

J

(Not trying to be sexiest and suggest women cant look after themselves BTW!)

[Drew Radcliffe]

Thanks all

I don't really think sex comes in to this. I 'BRICK' myself when I am out alone in the dark as I can only see car head lights.

So even I can be a bit 'girly'

D

[Prue B]

Ihe law here in Oz is guide dogs must be allowed access anywhere. No exceptions. It is the law. To refuse a guide dog is discrimination as you are refusing entry to a blind person.

[John Smith]

I was convinced that we now have the same laws here. I know for example that guide dogs are allowed in restaurants which would not allow dogs for health-and-safety reasons.

Can you expand on this, Drew?

[Andrew MacLean]

Hi Jay.

The regulations changed a few years ago

This link

Is a clear explanation of the current legislation

Drew

John

Drew posted a link to the current regulations. Click the link; it makes very interesting reading, and makes clear that the drivers had no right to refuse to carry Yates.

[Sweet]

Hey Drewy!!

Am so sorry to read of the hassle you are having with taking Yates by taxi that sounds totally unfair to me and i would back others up here in saying to push for your rights here. We won't sadly get anywhere unless we make a stand, which would help others in your same position. So i am behind you 100% hehe or maybe that is Yates sneaking up on you and hoping for a choccie treat!! LMAO!!

Take good care of you both and let us know what happens. Also it is ok to be a little 'girly' st times although i would kinda say that maybe pink wouldn't be Yates colour for a harness!

Gareth i am sorry to read about your accident and am really hoping that everything turned out ok for you. It must have been terrible for the family to know that it was their dog that caused a death. Sometimes life is so dam cruel at times.

Take care all, love Sweet X x X

[Andrew MacLean]

I didn't know that guide dog harnesses came in pink!

Just after I became unable to wear lenses I was making my way down the brae (scottish word for hill) to the centre of the town where I work. I was going very gingerly, because I really could not see and was just getting used to my white stick.

The 'brae' is made easier to navigate by the inclusion, at the steeper parts, of stairways, made up of ten to fifteen steps each

The stairways are at irregular interals, and the number of stairs in each is irregular. so I was going with some trepidation when I heard some loud voices ahead. there had been a football match and a group of supporters was making its way up the hill that I was descending.

I froze.

when the drunken rabble came alongside me they asked where I was going. I told them. They saw my white stick and wanted to know hos long I had been blind. I told them about three weeks.

Each of them gave me a hug and they took me down the brae, telling me at each stairway how many steps there would be. They stopped the traffic at the bottom of the brae so that I could cross safely to the pavement.

They gave me another hug (each) at the foot of the brae.

And then they set off to walk back up the brae. I guess they had gone up about 120' above sea level before walking down again with me and then they'd have to climb as far again before they would be back to the point at which they had let off their original climb.

a lesson I learned: just because I was afraid did not mean that the people were hostile!

by the way their team (Glasgow Celtic) had won.



Andrew

[Prue B]

I truly believe most people are decent. I know some are not but most are. It is stories like yours Andrew that strengthen this belief.
As far as dogs being projectiles in cars, this shouldf not be a risk with a guide dog as you can thread the seat belt through most dog harnesses. Guide dogs wear harnesses so it is easy enough done.

[rosemary johnson]

I don't have a dog, guide or other, myself.
I gather from friends that it is very common to find in London that minicab firms won't take guide dogs. It is nothing to do with health and safety, nor allergies - it is because the drivers are ethnic minory members and come from cultures where dogs are not "clean" animals that one has in one's home or one's car. The firms won't take the prospective customer - meaning the controllers won't take the booking - because none of their drivers will do the job.
If the forms insist, the drivers would probably still refuse and go and work for another minicab company.
In this part of London at least, very many of the minicab drivers do seem to be minority-ethnic men.
If one, as a would-be customer, kicks up a fuss, the controllers don't say they won't take dogs, they just never have anyone available in that area.

It sounds like one of those cases where different forms of equal opps conflict - the answer from the minicab drivers to claims of disability discrimination would doubtless be that making them accept religiously and culturally unacceptable animals intheir cabs (most minicabs are the private property of the drivers) then this is racism or religious discrimination.
Sigh.
I don't know an answer. But it does sound like there is a niche market for a guide-dog friendly minicab network.
Rosemary

[james mckinlay]

IM BEHIND YOU 100% HERE LIKE OTHERS SAY ITS NOW LAW THAT THE FIRM ALLOW GUIDE DOGS OR HEARING DOGS OR ANY KIND OF SUPPORT DOG IN A CAB UNLESS THE DRIVER SUFFERS ALLERGIES.

THIS I KNOW BECAUSE I USED TO WORK WITH BLIND PEOPLE AND I LOOKED INTO THIS IN DETAIL AND AS FAR AS I KNOW THE COUNCIL ARE WITHIN RIGHTS TO REMOVE HIS/HER LICENCE FROM THEM ALSO THE FIRM THEY ARE EMPLOYED FOR CAN BE FINED UNDER THE DDA.

DONT LET IT GO AND FIGHT IT ALL THE WAY IF IT HAPPENS ONCE IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN MAYBE NOT TO YOU BUT TO SOMEONE ELSE

ALSO THERE ARE NO LAWS TO STOP ANIMALS CARRIED IN CABS AS I USE CABS TO GET MY DOG TO TRAINING CLASSES WHICH ISNT A GUIDE DOG THOUGH MAY NEED ONE IN THE FUTURE LOL.

KEEP US POSTED

JAMES


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