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Guide dogs: still too many access refusals
Although essential for the travel of people with disabilities, guide dogs have been turned away from certain stores and certain VTCs. – (France 2)
Although essential for the travel of people with disabilities, guide dogs have been turned away from certain stores and certain VTCs.
In Paris, on March 6, a guide dog was violently torn from a car. A verbal and physical attack against Anthony, who is blind. The man who screams is a VTC driver, who chases him from his vehicle. “I am stunned. I am shocked by this situation, by what I felt and by what I suffered”, confides Anthony Martins-Misse, blind entrepreneur and judoka. However, the law is clear: all transport and places which welcome the public must accept guide dogs.
2,700 guide dogs in France
Last year, 167 access refusals were recorded. A number below reality: it only lists reports. Shops, restaurants and transport are the main places where cases have occurred. Two thirds concerned women. The associations remind us that these dogs are not animals like any other. There are 2,700 of them in France to be specially trained and necessary for their master.