[fcb-l] FW: [leadership] In study, half of D.C. cab drivers pass by blind people with guide dogs

[Debbie Drylie]

That's odd, because I don't think a cab driver has ever passed us up when we
are in D.C. for the Legislative Seminar with Debbie Grubb and her guide dog.

On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Edwards, Paul <pedwards at mdc.edu> wrote:

>
>
>
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> *From:* leadership-bounces at acb.org [mailto:leadership-bounces at acb.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Eric Bridges
> *Sent:* Wednesday, September 01, 2010 1:04 PM
> *To:* leadership at acb.org; announce at acb.org
> *Subject:* [leadership] In study, half of D.C. cab drivers pass by blind
> people with guide dogs
>
>
>
> The below article appears in today’s Washington Post. ACB is proud to have
>  provided all of the testers for this study and looks forward to continuing
> our work with the Equal Rights
>
>  Center.
>
>
>
> Eric
>
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> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR2010090102344.html
>
> By Henri E. Cauvin<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/henri+e.+cauvin/>
>
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Wednesday, September 1, 2010; 10:04 AM
>
> In a study by a civil rights watchdog group, taxi drivers in the District
> often drove past blind people who were trying to hail a cab while
> accompanied by guide dogs.
>
> This Story
>
> In study, half of D.C. cab drivers pass by blind people with guide dogs<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/09/01/ST2010090102410.html>
>
> Shedding light on sidewalk safety<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/12/AR2010071202124.html>
>
> The Equal Rights Center, in a report released Wednesday morning, said it
> conducted 30 tests earlier this year and that in half of the tests, drivers
> passed a man or woman with a guide dog to pick up a person who did not have
> a guide dog. In three of the cases where the taxi did stop for the blind
> person, the driver attempted to impose a surcharge for transporting the dog,
> the Equal Rights Center said.
>
> Under local and federal law, businesses, including taxis, must make
> reasonable accommodations to blind people and their service dogs and may not
> impose surcharges for transporting a service dog. But blind people in the
> District have complained for years<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120303752.html%20>that some taxi drivers flout the law.
>
> Prompted by such concerns, the Equal Rights Center, which is part of the
> Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, undertook
> an investigation, assisted by the law firm Hogan Lovells.
>
> In each of the 30 tests, which were conducted between March and May, the
> Equal Rights Centers placed a blind person with a guide dog and a sighted
> person on a high-traffic thoroughfare in the city. The blind person was
> placed about 100 feet closer to oncoming traffic so that he or she would be
> the first prospective passenger a taxi would encounter.
>
> With a video camera rolling, the Equal Rights Center recorded 15 taxis
> bypassing the blind passenger for the sighted person standing farther away.
> Video clips of some of the encounters can be seen here<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qz6IZep9vo>.
> In its report<http://www.equalrightscenter.org/site/DocServer/Taxicab_Report.pdf?docID=242>,
> the Equal Rights Center said its findings made clear that more needs to be
> done to ensure that the rights of blind people are protected. Taxi drivers
> in the District and elsewhere have long faced scrutiny for passing up
> prospective black passengers, and several years ago, the D.C. police
> conducted sting operations intended to deter discrimination by taxi drivers.
>
>
> The Equal Rights Center said that the police, the D.C. Taxi Commission and
> the D.C. Office of Human Rights need to adopt a more aggressive approach to
> addressing taxi-driver bias against the blind, stepping up both education
> and enforcement.
>
> "The law is in place," said Ashley N. White, outreach manager for the Equal
> Rights Center, "but no one is really enforcing it."
>
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