Some years ago I was asked to make a few comments at the mayor’s mansion in New York City. The occasion was a fund raiser for Guiding Eyes for the Blind and the mayor was Rudolph Giuliani. This was a long time ago, now, 14 years give or take a few minutes.
On the way to the mayor’s residence I was denied a taxi ride because of my guide dog. This is nothing new to people with disabilities–cab drivers will avoid you because they don’t want the hassle of your wheelchair or they don’t want your dog in their cab. Maybe they think we all have cooties. No matter, despite laws that should guarantee us equal access we’re screwed all the time in the taxicab roulette.
At the ceremony with Mayor Giuliani I quoted some lines by the Spanish poet Unamuno: “We die of cold and not of darkness.” That is, in effect, in my interpretation, it’s cultural ostracism that kills people and not the lack of light.
The current mayor of New York has shown tremendous disdain for the disability community in the city–saying that people in wheelchairs who want accessible cabs maybe ought to stay home. (His precise quote escapes me now, but that’s pretty much the ticket.)
Simi Linton and a group of wheelchair users in NYC have been fighting to make sure that all cabs in the city are wheelchair accessible, which means among other things that they’d be accessible for baby strollers and scooters and steamer trunks. The fact that the mayor doesn’t like this idea doesn’t change the fact that accessible cabs should be on the streets. I’ve walked with Simi in New York and I know how hard it is for wheelchair users to get around. Yesterday Simi and friends were arrested for blocking traffic outside Gracie Mansion.
Back to Unamuno.
I was denied entry to a restaurant in New York City not long ago. The doorman didn’t want my guide dog in his establishment. We’ve since resolved the matter and the staff will be having training on the ADA next week.
But I don’t think its an exaggeration to say that public attitudes can be shaped by people at the top. Fish stinks from the head. Isn’t it easier to send people with disabilities packing or haul them off to jail for protesting than to honor the spirit of community? Mayor Bloomberg is a cynic and a boor. And he’s on the wrong side of history.
Planet of the Blind 
Simi here. Thanks for this. I like it (in the old fashioned sense of the word). Just one point – I did not get arrested. I don’t have the full list yet, but will post it and the outcome of the arrests, and the trial dates so we can be there to support them. Take care, Simi
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