Originally published in Reportage Online July 29, 2015.
Bart Bunting has been blind since birth, but he hasn’t let that stop him. Among his list of achievements, he can boast a degree in computer science, a job as a satellite network engineer, and two gold medals in Paralympic alpine skiing.
But not everything comes so easily to Bart. Getting a seat at a cafe or restaurant, for example, often proves more difficult than it has any right to be. Many businesses will refuse to serve him because of his guide dog, Chevy.
“When I go to a cafe or restaurant with my guide dog, there’s a whole range of responses,” Mr Bunting says. “Everything from outright refusal, to them trying to sit you in some obscure corner so the other patrons can’t see the dog.”
“I’ll never back down. I won’t walk away from it,” he says. “But it wrecks your evening. Nobody wants conflict. And because of that, many blind people avoid going to cafes in the first place. There’s always this feeling that you’re not wanted. It’s uncomfortable, unnecessary, and illegal.”
This is an illegal form of discrimination, and yet it is “more common than you would believe in this day and age,” according to Mr Bunting. “If I went down the street now, and went in and out of a few places, I could get rejected in half an hour.”
And it’s not just cafes and restaurants that discriminate against guide dog users.
“Some taxis take off as soon as they see you with a dog,” says Anthony Mahr, a vision impaired massage student. “They’ll leave the cab rank as soon as they see you. Or if it’s mentioned on their job, sometimes they won’t accept the job.”
These kinds of discrimination happen all the time, according to a study by Guide Dogs NSW. The study was launched alongside a new campaign called “It’s time to end guide dog discrimination,” a campaign that aims to educate people about the legal rights of guide dog users.
It is illegal to ban guide dog users from any public space, the only exceptions being zoos and certain hospital areas. But Dr Graeme White, CEO of Guide Dogs NSW, says that many service providers aren’t aware that they’re breaking the law when they refuse to serve guide dog users.
“Because of the transient workforce we’ve quite a few people that are new to being waiters, shop assistants, taxi drivers, and so on, who are just not aware of the laws,” he says.
“But we also know instances of people who wilfully disobey the law and actually turn away guide dogs even though they know it’s breaking the law to do so. They’re the ones that are going to be the hardest to change.”
The study conducted by Guide Dogs NSW found that cafes and restaurants were the worst discriminators. These businesses, according to Dr White, are mistakenly worried about the cleanliness and behaviour of guide dogs.
“We breed guide dogs to not be food distracted. So they’re quite happy to lie on the floor of a restaurant and not be interested in the food,” Dr White says. “We train them to be obedient and calm. We also train the guide dog users to groom and to do health checks every day so I’m betting that these guide dogs are cleaner and certainly better behaved than a lot of restaurant patrons. They’re certainly better behaved than a lot of children you’ve got running around the restaurants and some of our mates who’ve had a few too many drinks.”
Dr White hopes that the campaign will prevent guide dog user discrimination, but he’s not very optimistic. “We’re trying to do everything we can, but it’s like banging your head against a brick wall. We’re not really making a lot of progress.”