[216/365] a depressing story I read this morning

[cosmolinguist]

The most surprising thing about this story of a Sainsburys manager abusing a guy with a guide dog and threatening to call the police on him is that the guy is white. I saw a version of this story before I got to the link and was 100% picturing a Black man.

How sad if his daughter's anticipating her future here too.

(Sorry for the Metro link. But, perhaps usefully, note they've put this story in the "animals" category, so the related stories are about a shark bite and abuse of a seagull and a blind dog, rather than this being a story about people having their rights threatened.)

Another thing I'd like to point out, I think Mr. Valentine did a decent job of it but I'm not sure how well this comes across to sighted people: this is the store he and his dog have been trained to use. It's the only one. If he doesn't feel safe there, he's either stuck going there anyway (and he for sure is in the short term because this next option takes a lot of time and energy) or he and his dog have to get training -- which is in short supply because it takes expert skills! -- on a new route. If indeed there even is another suitable (accessible, well-located) store.

There's just so much that makes you vulnerable, as a blind person. People will read this and go "oh he wasn't kicked out, and the store apologized," but I can't help but think of the aftermath...both immediate (what did he do ahout dinner that night?!) and long-term: he's stuck with this Sainsburys! What was it like the next time he went in? Has this media attention helped or made it worse? He's stuck there, either way.

Comments

[lilysea]

*see icon of Oracle sitting in a wheelchair with Ninja sticks ready to attack ableists*

Oh for fuck's sake! :(

[davidgillon]

It's only a couple of months since both Tescos and Marks and Spencers were in the news for the same thing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-61468496 and https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/may/22/anger-as-man-with-guide-dog-told-to-leave-marks-spencer-shop

[cosmolinguist]

I'm absolutely not surprised by the security staff -- the Guide Dogs guy is right: they're outsourced, low paid, no doubt have had zero training -- but I'd like to expect better of a manager.

[jesse_the_k]

Oh this is such crap.

When I lived and worked with guide dog handlers in the 80s, I hoped that this bullshit would stop. 40 years!

[cosmolinguist]

It's tough to see these old problems still going on.

[lilysea]

I remember when someone was turned away from Stonewall Inn for having a guide dog

and also a doctor's surgery tried to turn someone away for having a guide dog

https://www.them.us/story/stonewall-inn-refused-entrance-to-a-blind-person

[otter]

I'm angry at those store employees on his and his daughter's behalf.

[haggis]

The thing that jumped out at me was that he is CEO of a charity for blind people - he knows his rights and has the contacts to kick up a fuss. Which suggests that this happens routinely to people with less ability to complain.

It needs way more than an apology - it needs a complete change of policy from the supermarkets.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah apparently it happens to 75% of guide dog owners in the UK (and no doubt a similar percentage of people with other kinds of assistance dogs, I just know the stats for guide dogs particularly).

I think the extra irony of "his work is about blindness!" when only a quarter of visually impaired people are employed, a lot of us are employed by blind-specific things because it's like no one else wants to have us.

He could really nail the supermarket, thus is so blatantly illegal, but who has the resources for that? (And again: how awkward would that make it for him to shop there?!)

[silveradept]

Oof. I'm sorry that the man had to deal with that kind of situation, it can't be any good to have to handle. (It's also the sort of thing where everyone, employee and manager alike, should be brought in for mandatory refresher training on how to handle guide animals. We get that every so often at my workplace specifically because there's a specific way to address such things, and it's common enough that we need to remember what that method is.)

If this is the kind of thing where you can prove that someone did this kind of hostile action deliberately, that's a sacking offense for a manager (who should know better.) If only we could then be sure that the manager's replacement wouldn't do exactly the same thing.

[forests_of_fire]

I didn't know that guide dogs need to be trained for every store! It makes logical sense, but I never put it together. This is horrifying, even before you have that knowledge.