Do PWDs Accompanied by Service Dogs Need Permission From Other Passengers?

Recently the NYTs published an article about Service Dogs. I want to clarify some main points.

 1. The managing entity has no legal obligation to consider the rights of other residents who do not have a disability.

 2. Allergies and fear of dogs are not legally recognized disabilities and as such, these are not legitimate legal reasons to keep dogs out of a building and to limit access of dogs to keep them out of elevators.

 3. There was so much bias against dogs, I got harassed publicly and profanely by others repeatedly. One man pushed me because I wouldn't remove my dog from the elevator.

 4. This is a good article with the exception that it kept referring to service animals as pets. Legally, they are not pets. In fact in boarding a bus, a library, a pharmacy, a trick question to deny your service dog's access is "Is that your pet?" Answer yes, and it's no pets allowed. Service dogs are not pets. a truer indication of if your dog fits in and is a good service animal. The issue is training.No fighting, soiling, jumping, interacting with anyone while on task, and you pick up after them.

 5. People who are allergic to dogs are exposed in their daily lives to dander from people who have dogs.Then there are people like me who gag from the odor of some perfumes, yet I have to suck it up in enclosed spaces.There are people with chemical sensitivities for whom some scents and chemicals are life-threatening. As far as I'm concerned,when buildings ban the use of perfumes and other scented products,then an ethical case might be made for not permitting service dogs or emotional support dogs.Federal law (ADA) has regulations that state that allergies to dogs is not a reason to deny access to service dogs. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/realestate/getting-a-dog-into-a-no-pet-building.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Crime Against Disabled By The Numbers

Published on Sep 12, 2012 In this 7-minute video, Jim Stream discusses the 2012 National Survey on Abuse of People with Disabilities. His presentation talks about the origins of the survey, its methodology, who took it, and how the results will be used. This video will be played as an introduction to a more detailed presentation by Dr. Nora J. Baladerian and attorney Thomas F. Coleman. The presentation is at a conference sponsored by the National Center for Victims of Crime in New Orleans on September 20, 2012. Jim Stream is the Executive Director of The Arc of Riverside County. In MA 32 cases in 2010? were referred for investigation but none were prosecuted. One of the things you count on, when you are a victim of a crime, is the police will investigate and seek the arrest of the individual responsible. We trust that the perpetrator will be prosecuted and punished. But how would you feel if that didnt happen and you were told to stop lying? This is what happened to my at the hands of the MBTA Transit Police on July 25, 2013.

PWDs Gain Independence With Trained Service Dogs

I Didn't Know A Siberian Husky Could Be A Service Dog

Oh, Yea!

Abuse Of People With Disabilities Not Taken Seriously

The video above is terrifying. I don't have a video of what happened to me on the Park St elevator, but here are a couple of still shots. Of course, this is not to claim that what was done to me is as bad as what happened to those in the video above, but it is to demonstrate that sadistic behavior is alive and well on the MBTA, and that the mBTA does not take it seriously, and neither do the MA Courts. In some states battery of disabled folks is taken seriously, and here the manager was charged. However,here in MA the woman who struck me repetedly until I collapsed in the Park St elevator was NOT charged, even though she admitted doing it. The MBTA police claimed she had a right to self defence because I was accompianied by a trained service dog. She claimed that a group of people who gatehered to taunt and harrass me as I lay on the floor calling for medical assistance were "helping her." Yep! That's me on the floor being taunted and harrassed by other MBTA Riders. .

Do You Belong To A Club That Excludes Jews?

The message in this video is that unless good people step up, people With Disabilities will continue to be abused, disrespected and humiliated in public.

Assume that I am capable,

Service dog leads blind man from tower on 9/11 By SHARON ROZNIK, The Reporter Media Published 7:54 am, Thursday, September 19, 2013 http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Service-dog-leads-blind-man-from-tower-on-9-11-4827019.php FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — "Forward," Michael Hingson told his guide dog Roselle as she led him down 1,463 steps in Tower 2 at the World Trade Center. Blind since birth, Hingson said his ability to maneuver through the sightless world was an asset on Sept. 11, 2001. As he stood in his office that morning on the 78th floor, the building shook and tipped in one direction about 20 feet. As soon as it righted itself, he grabbed Roselle's leash and thought about what to do. "Roselle was yawning and wagging her tail so I knew we had some time to evacuate," Hingson said. "My friend (David Frank) said 'You don't understand. You can't see it,' but I didn't need to see it. I trusted my dog." Hingson is author of the New York Times best-selling book "Thunder dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog & the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero." He spoke recently at Moraine Park Technical College about opportunities that can be gained from life lessons. "No matter what happens with things we have no control over, at the same time we have control of our actions and the choices we make," he told the crowd. At his feet lay Africa, his guide dog of five years. She replaced Roselle, who passed away in 2011, but not before receiving numerous honors for canine heroism, including the 2011 American Humane Society Hero Dog award. Suddenly, the building dropped about 10 feet and there was a strong odor of jet fuel, he said, continuing his harrowing story. As Hingson and his friend made their way down the stairwell they passed burn victims and a woman who said she couldn't breathe or go on. They surrounded her with a giant hug. "Then David began walking one floor below me and shouting up what he saw. It was a heroic gesture as he acted like an advanced scout — a beacon to the rest of us," Hingson said. They passed firefighters at the 30th floor, ascending the tower. One of them bent down to pet Roselle, something one should never do, Hingson said. Never pet a guide dog in a working harness. "It was the last unconditional love that firefighter ever got," Hingson said. About 9:45 a.m. they finally reached the ground floor and headed out into the sunlight and away from the chaos. He describes what he heard next — the sound of the building collapsing — like a freight train and a waterfall. "We were running south on Broadway, being hit by flying debris and engulfed in a dust cloud so thick I could feel it in my throat and lungs," he said. Roselle stopped in front of a railing with steps that led down into the subway. Later, making their way along Fulton Street, they heard the second tower come down. It wasn't until 7 p.m. that evening that he was able to finally speak with his wife, Karen. The next day Hingson contacted Blind Dogs for the Blind and told Roselle's story and that led to his first guest appearance on the Larry King Show. The story went viral. More than 25,000 survivors escaped the towers that day. "We should always remember 9/11 and learn lessons from it. That is all a part of moving on," he said. Lion's Club member Ed Barnes told Hingson that people in Fond du Lac were the first to originate the idea of a heroes postal stamp commemorating 9/11. The stamp features New York firefighters and an American flag. Lois Plum, on the committee for the local Books Between Bites group, said once she opened the book, she couldn't put "Thunder Dog" down. "I tell everyone I know that they have to read this story," she said. Hingson grew up in Palmsdale, Calif. Born two months premature, his blindness was caused by receiving pure oxygen in the incubator at the hospital. Doctors told his parents that it would be better to send him away. Instead his parents raised Hingson to believe he could become anything he wanted. Ruth Smith of Fond du Lac said she had read the book and wanted to meet Hingson. Her son was also born premature, the same year as the author, but did not suffer effects from the oxygen because there was a leak in the incubator. "There are just so many 'what ifs' in life. I loved the way he tells his story," she said. The author earned a master's degree in physics and was working as a sales manager for a Fortune 500 company when the 9/11 attacks occurred. Afterward he became a spokesperson for Blind Dogs for the Blind. Hingson is ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. He runs Roselle's Dream Foundation, proceeds from which help fund technology for blind children. He points out that blindness is not a handicapped, referring to people who can see as "light-dependent." Attitudes about blindness prevail. A total of 70 percent of blind people are unemployed, Hingson said, and federal law still allows employers to pay someone with a disability below minimum wage. "Assume that I am capable," he said.