blind man loses discrimination case

[fireheart17]

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/s...6-2682,00.html

A blind man who relies on a service dog lost a case against the courts because he was refused a taxi. The article makes it a bit vague as to whether he was refused because of his dog or because of the amount of luggage he had (this is at an airport). He HAS won cases against taxi drivers and other places in the past as they've refused to accomodate his guide dog.

I'm going to throw this one in freely and let you guys discuss at your own whim. Me? The only problem these days is that it's impossible to tell what is and isn't a legitimate service animal. I see a lady frequently on my bus who has a hearing dog. That's fine by me. The place I work for accomodates guide dogs and even has had a guide dog trainer in the past (one of the employees trained a guide dog...the guide dog stayed in a basket while the employee collected baskets and did other general front end duties that didn't require him to be running all over the store). However...someone could easily come in with a designer dog, claim that it's a service animal and then it's impossible to deal with...

[Slytovhand]

Hmm - dunno! I mean, we have to accept the court's decision on this. But I think he's really trying to push things too much with the 'now it's legal to discriminate against blind people'...

[Flyndaran]

What about if I were the taxi driver?
I'm very allergic to dogs.

[AFPheonix]

Service dogs usually have those nifty little vests on that advertise them as such, and one can usually pick out a blind person, especially if they let their eyes (if there's much there anymore) be seen.
Guide dogs in training usually have their own little vests, usually to ward off people who want to love all over the dog and screw its training up.

I can't tell if the taxi driver stopped to talk to the guy and said "sorry, you have too much stuff to fit", or if he motored on by. It's hard to say.

[telecom_goddess]

What about if I were the taxi driver?
I'm very allergic to dogs.

Well if that were the case I would think it would be appropriate to say you're allergic to dogs and find an alternate cab driver to take your place no??

[Lace Neil Singer]

What if the blind guy was being rude and/or abusive? Should he be allowed to get away with being like that just cuz of being disabled?

Not saying he was, just that a lot of people pull that card as an excuse to get away with disgusting behaviour.

[lordlundar]

Hmm, he's already sued someone for discrimination and then starts claiming, even after the tribunal ruled against him that the situation was for the same reason.

Seems like he has tunnel vision and there might be a dollar incentive behind it.

[Boozy]

I mean, we have to accept the court's decision on this.

And I, for one, am okay with that.

Personally, I've never seen much value in debating the merits of an individual court case when the only information we have is from news reports. Unless the case haas been very heavily reported on, we don't have much information. Could it have been discrimination? Maybe. In some similar cases, it might be. But this particular court, whose judge has heard all the evidence over the course of (presumably) weeks or months, has decided that this is not discrimination. Given that I haven't heard any evidence that the Australian court system is terribly corrupt or incompetent, I'm prepared to accept that.

[Gravekeeper]

Yeah, sounds pretty iffy. If the guy has a history of suing for discrimination and is considered a "Crusader" so to speak. It sounds like he just got overzealous and immediately assumed the reason the cab went by was because he was blind.

[Slytovhand]

No, Boozy, that's not what I was thinking...

TBH, what I didn't say is: there are a lot of taxi drivers around that I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them (and then, there are some that I would). If the taxi driver was lying, who's going to know?? He could make up any story, and as long as he didn't have to back it up in any way, he's going to get away with it.. That's all.