I don't know Maine law, but there is probably something on the books requiring dog guides and their users be admitted to all public places. This would include the brewery. Those who were denied access should file the complaint, not Seeing eye, or Sendero Group. Neither Seeing Eye, nor Sendero were discriminated against, so probably do not have standing to file on your behalf. Talk with the attorney general there, a f file either individually or as a group. -----Original Message----- From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sarai Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 1:33 PM To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: FW: [TSE-Chat] Fw: [doggie-den] Fw: Please Show That Discrimination Is Not Acceptable! Or lawyers. Or maybe someone can pod cast the entire thing. -----Original Message----- From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of gerry leary Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 1:26 PM To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: FW: [TSE-Chat] Fw: [doggie-den] Fw: Please Show That Discrimination Is Not Acceptable! Maybe we should bring another large group with imbedded reporters who don't look the type. Gerry ----- Original Message ----- From: Sarai <mailto:bucc7465@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: Seeing Eye <mailto:seeingeye-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> ; GPS <mailto:gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: GDUI <mailto:GDU-United@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ; ACB List <mailto:acb-l@xxxxxxx> ; alabama <mailto:alabama@xxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 12:11 PM Subject: [gps-talkusers] FW: [TSE-Chat] Fw: [doggie-den] Fw: Please Show That Discrimination Is Not Acceptable! -----Original Message----- From: TSE-Chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:TSE-Chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Barbara Gatto Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 11:19 AM To: Seeingeye List Cc: Seeing eye Chat Subject: [TSE-Chat] Fw: [doggie-den] Fw: Please Show That Discrimination Is Not Acceptable! Subject: Please Show That Discrimination Is Not Acceptable! | Hey, all, | I haven't posted much recently, since I'm only on the Digest version, | but I wanted to enlist your help. I just returned from a wonderful week with | the Sendero Group (the maker's of the BrailleNote GPS) in Maine. Every year, | the Sendero Group goes on a tour to an interesting destination anywhere in the | world. They've toured California's Gold Country and last year they visited | Ireland and Scotland. As I said, this year's trip was to Maine and, luckily, | they have scholarships for college students and young professionals which pay | for the hotel and traveling expenses. The trip is basically just a group of | thirty blind folks going to a cool location and traveling around independently | using their canes, guide dogs, and the Braille Note GPS. I highly, highly | recommend that those of you who are interested in going next year apply for a | scholarship. It's a really great time. | Okay, so anyway, that's the background. Here's why I need everybody's | help. | As wonderful as the trip was, we did encounter one really disturbing | incident. As a cane user, I don't encounter guide dog discrimination myself, so | traveling in a group where many people used dogs was an eye opening | experience. On Thursday, we were in Portland, Maine and after lunch, several of us | decided to go to the Shipyard Brewing Company. Some of our other traveling | companions had had Shipyard beer at the restaurant where they'd eaten lunch and | they highly recommended that a group of us go check it out. So, about fifteen | of us braved the light rain that had begun to fall and walked the mile or so | to the Shipyard Brewery. With visions of hops and barley dancing in our heads, | we all trooped into the brewery. Unbeknownst to me at the time, several of | the brewery employees pulled two members of our group aside and told them that | they didn't want "all these blind people" going upstairs and taking the | tour. After all, they said, there are hoses all over the floor and puddles of | water everywhere. Luckily, these two people explained that we would all be using | canes or dog guides and that these mobility aids would prevent us from | getting into any sort of trouble. | Things seemed settled and we all trooped in to the waiting room. There | were about fifty or sixty people waiting to take the tour. A brewery tour | guide came up to the front of the room and announced, "Just so everybody knows, | we're going to watch an eight minute film on the brewery and the brewing | process. After that, we're going to go upstairs and take a tour. This will involve | going up three flights of stairs and there are hoses and puddles of water | all over the place. So, you might all want to think about that as you watch the | film." | Naturally, all of us knew that this was code for, "Are you blind folks sure | you can handle this?" So, we all nodded and smiled amiably and sat through | the eight minute introductory film. After it had ended, the tour guide came | back and informed the audience that guide dogs were not allowed upstairs. We | tried explaining to the employees that not allowing the guide dogs to come with | their owners was against the law, but they didn't care. They seemed | particularly concerned that the dogs would somehow contaminate their yeast. We | reminded them that guide dogs are very well groomed and cared for and that, after | all, how could they guarantee that any people who went on the tour had good | hygiene and were clean? After arguing with them for quite some time, it became | apparent to us that they would use any excuse to keep us from going. First, | they didn't want us to go because of safety concerns. When we refuted those | concerns, they brought up the guide dog issue. After we told them that that was | discrimination, they told us that they just didn't like large groups coming | in. (This is complete crap. We were just going to tag along with a public tour | of about fifty or sixty people and their were only about fifteen or twenty | of us. There was plenty of room.) Finally, they offered us a tour if we left | the guide dogs downstairs. Most of the group decided not to go on the tour on | principle and also because of the practical matter of where they would leave | their guide dogs. However, two guide dog users agreed to leave their dogs | downstairs with a friend and go on the tour anyway. Being a cane user, I decided | to join them. So, Jamie took the tour guide's arm and Denna took my arm and | we were off. I was still seething, but I wanted to see what about the brewery | floor was so treacherous and frightening. I can honestly say that there was | no reason the dogs couldn't have gone. We were never in contact with any of | the actual product and, as I said, they don't screen people for cleanliness | and all of the guide dogs were probably better groomed then some of the people | who take the tour. | Because we had been treated with such disrespect, none of us bought anything | from the gift shop and Mike May called the Seeing Eye to look into the | matter. We quickly found out that another guide dog user had once been denied | access into another brewery and the court had found the brewery to be guilty of | discrimination. We wished we had known this when we went in, but we warned | them that they have not seen the last of us. Sendero Group and the Seeing Eye | are going to have their lawyers contact the brewery. | In the meantime, we need to show the brewery that denying access to | blind people who use guide dogs is unacceptable. Many guide dog users in our | group have toured other breweries without incident and, as I said, there is legal | precedent that breweries are not allowed to do this. Please email the | brewery and let them know that they have lost your business and that of your family | and friends. They need to know that what they did angered not only a group | of fifteen blind people, but also those people's family and friends. I | especially encourage you to pass this on to other listservs, particularly guide dog | users listservs. Here is the Shipyard Brewing Company's contact info: | Email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxx | Office Phone: 207-761-0807 | Office Toll Free: 1-800-789-0684 | Thanks for your help! | Stacy | PS Throughout the trip, all the scholarship winners were responsible for | writing a web log of the trip. 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