Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!wtm
From: mcgrew@ichthous.Eng.Sun.COM (Darin McGrew)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Message-ID: <12926@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jul 90 21:13:15 GMT
References: <12771@bunker.UUCP>
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Reply-To: mcgrew@ichthous.Eng.Sun.COM (Darin McGrew)
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Index Number: 9319

In article <12771@bunker.UUCP> Tom.Gerhart@f210.n273.z1.fidonet.org writes:
>A blind person I know tried to take a charter bus this past week and was
>told by the driver that the company rules did not permit her to ride
>with a dog guide.  Most of the people who were on this bus stated that
>they did not want to sit with her because of the dog.

My wife has used a guide dog for eight years.  Guide Dogs for the
Blind (San Raphael, CA) provides a booklet with the guide dog
laws of every state and Canadian province.  Typically, she just
explains that the dog is a guide dog.  Usually, that is enough,
but when it isn't she asks the person to read the state laws
pertaining to guide dogs.  Having the person read the laws
themselves is important; it forces them to mentally shift gears
and helps break any confrontational attitudes that are present.

Unfortunately, there's no way to force people to want to sit with
each other on a bus.

>                                                       Then about twenty
>minutes later they did find someone who would sit with her but by that
>time she was very upset and decided not to take the trip.

We've found it critical to remain calm and non-confrontational
throughout the whole process.  The one time she had to call the
police, the entire episode lasted almost an hour.  It was a long,
stressful hour, and we prayed and talked to each other the whole
time.  But it was worth it in the end knowing that we had done
the right thing and that she would (hopefully) be the last guide
dog user refused service there.

>Okay, here is the problem, should she have stayed on the bus for the 27
>hours with people who did not want her or should she have said alright
>and stayed home?

Sigh.  This is a tough call.  I certainly understand why she
might want to forget the whole thing.  What it came down to for
us in the above situation (when we called the police), was that
the restaurant manager was doing something wrong, and we had to
hold him accountable so he wouldn't keep doing it.  If you will,
we perservered because of the principle involved (it sure wasn't
because we were dying to have lunch at a fast-food restaurant).

Darin McGrew			mcgrew@Eng.Sun.COM
Affiliation stated for identification purposes only.