Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!104!810!Phil.Scovell
From: Phil.Scovell@f810.n104.z1.fidonet.org (Phil Scovell)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Emergency Exits
Message-ID: <13044@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 23 Jul 90 20:32:36 GMT
Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: Phil.Scovell@f810.n104.z1.fidonet.org
Distribution: misc
Organization: FidoNet node 1:104/810 - Electronic Library, Denver CO
Lines: 31
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 9418

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Ted,
Please go back and read my message again.  I didn't imply any such thing. 
The last thing I said was that a blind person should be allowed to sit 
anywhere he wishes on a plane.  By the way, I know first hand what 
discrimination is really like.  I worked in Omaha, Nebraska as a social 
worker.  My job in this particular department was to find and obtain jobs 
for the blind.  I had about forty blind clients for whom I sat in offices 
day after day trying to prove to employors that we, the blind, could do it 
just as well.  Later, after moving to Colorado, I was turned down, not once, 
but several times by those who said a blind guy couldn't do the job.  I even 
worked once in a particular situation where I was asked to be the head man 
until they could get a sighted guy to replace me.  I wasn't good enough for 
the job full time but I was good enough until they could get someone to 
replace me.  I think you read something into my message that wasn't there, 
or that I never intended.  I'm also not losing any sleep over this issue. 
After all, we're not being asked to sit in the back of the bus because of 
the color of our skin.  We are just being told that we are a safety risk by 
sitting in certain rows by those who don't have a good working understanding 
of the blind.  Is it wrong?  I already answered that question in my last 
message so please read it again.

Phil.  
 

--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!104!810!Phil.Scovell
Internet: Phil.Scovell@f810.n104.z1.fidonet.org