ITA that this can too often be the case. But I do think that discrimination against guide dog handlers is sort of a separate beast...because guide dogs are separate beasts. Ha ha! Um. Sorry. Two in the morning. That is, the importance of there being a live animal involved can't be overlooked: most likely (though not certainly) this woman would not have been asked to sit elsewhere had she been using a cane instead of a dog, so to say that she was treated this way because of her blindness is a bit too simplistic.
I'm not at all trying to be an apologist for discrimination against guide dog handlers (I mean, obviously). And it is most definitely connected to blindness and its historical negative connotations. But I do think it's important to acknowledge some of the disparate roots of this subset of oppression if we're to be successful at combatting it.
I agree--the roots of the problem may be different (though I was once told that the staff asked me to go around rather than through a particular restaurant to get to my outside seat because it would be easier for me than going up and down those stairs...). Thankfully, we have not yet reached the point where someone would worry about liability if a blind person with a cane were left to sit unattended in a reception area. (Or have we? I once had an airline employee refuse to give me directions to my gate because "we would be in trouble if you got hurt on the way." This gate, BTW, was like six gates from the one where I was standing, and all I was asking was whether to turn left or right. When she wouldn't give me a direction, I took one at random, and she then decided to follow me, complaining the whole time about how I'd made her leave her post. Whatever. But I digress.) Both issues do provoke similar emotional responses for me, though.
There ... are ... no, words fail me on this one. Particularly since one of the largest schools and resource centers for the blind and visually impaired is there. But then, vis à vis blind people, Canada frequently feels like a different world to me when I've visited there-and during the ten years I lived ... actually ... in that city.
Really? This is interesting to me. Some people think it offers better disability access than the States and some people think the opposite is true. I can't comment--the only other country I've ever visited is Spaine (and that was pre-dog--fwhich, of course, is not meant to imply that all access issues must revolve around dog use).
I saw this. The remarks by the Human Rights Commission officer were off-the-charts inappropriate, not only for the reason you mentioned but because they violate the ethics of his position. What if this woman decides to bring her case to the Commission, and they're already on record with a biased statement like this?
Discrimination is discrimination. And using the fear and or allergic reasons are just excuses! I do not know how the wording is there in Canada when it comes to reasonable accommodations. But I could say that in the State it has reasonable accommodation in their laws. The problem of that is that no business including schools look beyond that part where it states clearly that place of business cannot segregate people with disabilities because of them having a service animal!
Personally they should really put that part up at the top with the reasonable accommodations. But like all politicians they hide these little facts. Just because somebody doesn't say leave the building doesn't mean that they are not denying equal opportunity, enjoyment, etc. And that's the issue I see from this school.
Guide dogs are trained around people including young children so the fear of liability is zero.
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I'm not at all trying to be an apologist for discrimination against guide dog handlers (I mean, obviously). And it is most definitely connected to blindness and its historical negative connotations. But I do think it's important to acknowledge some of the disparate roots of this subset of oppression if we're to be successful at combatting it.
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Personally they should really put that part up at the top with the reasonable accommodations. But like all politicians they hide these little facts. Just because somebody doesn't say leave the building doesn't mean that they are not denying equal opportunity, enjoyment, etc. And that's the issue I see from this school.
Guide dogs are trained around people including young children so the fear of liability is zero.
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