Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!89.0!David.Andrews
From: David.Andrews@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (David Andrews)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Chances Are!
Message-ID: <12564@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jun 90 16:59:58 GMT
Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: David.Andrews@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org
Distribution: misc
Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89.0 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA
Lines: 43
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 8979

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 EB> Maybe we could put this airline seat problem (I nearly wrote  
 EB> "airline seat thing."  Bushspeak will creep up on you if you  
 EB> aren't careful!) into perspective by considering another  
 EB> safety-related situation.    However, it turned out that the main criterion
 EB> the city used in deciding whether to grant such approval was  
 EB> the nationality of the laundry's owner; if the owner was  
 EB> Chinese, the approval was almost never granted, and if the  
 EB> owner was a native-born American, it almost always was granted.  
 EB>  The court ruled that the mere fact that the mere fact that  
 EB>  safety was the end purpose of the ordinance did not entitle  
 EB>  the city to discriminate based on nationality.
 

Eric,  As always, you don't speak often, but when you do, you
always have something useful, interesting and instructive to say.
If the airlines can prove that all blind persons are unsafe sitting
next to exit row seats, then I will be the first to accept it.  If
it is truly a safety issue, they let them act more consistently
towards everyone.  However, if they are assuming that most, if not
all blind people are unsafe, because of their pre-conceived
notions, which they seem to be doing, then we can't just ignore it,
even if it is unpleasant, which it is.

A number of years ago, a group of blind people went out to
Baltimore-Washington International Airport and evcacuated an
airplane.  It did not take them any longer then it did a sighted
group.  What problems there were were caused by sighted airline
attendents trying to help in the wrong way.  I have talked
personally to people who participated in this exercise.  Anyway,
this all will ultimately be straightened out, but I think things
will get worse before they get better.

David Andrews

... Your Sound Alternative

--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!89.0!David.Andrews
Internet: David.Andrews@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org