Abuse of The Disabled By Businesses and Public Buildings

 

I went out to IHOP restaurant with a friend. We both have MS and trouble with ambulation, I am in a power chair, she uses a quad cane. I also have a service dog. We have been to this place many times in the past 5-6 years. We were seated by the hostess and several minutes later she returned and asked us to move to the back corner of the dining room. We asked why and she said it was because of the dog and his hair and he might bother other guests. I informed her we would not move, the dog has been in this place many times and I had never been asked this before. She repeated her request and the reason. I told her that my dog is trained to be in restaurants, he doesn’t shake his fur and I again refused to be reseated. I ordered my meal and it came out within 2 minutes, the soup was stone cold, the sandwich had a VERY moldy tomato – black in color! There was NO way whomever made that sandwich would have missed the nastiness of that tomato! I informed the waitress and she totally ignored the issue, i had the hostess come to our table and told her the problem, she went into the kitchen, came out and went to her hostess stand. The next 5-10 minutes went by with both women ignoring us and our requests to come to our table. We got up to leave the place and the hostess (the one who originally requested us to move) grinned at us as we passed her and told us to ‘have a nice day’! I looked at her and responded with ‘ well, you got us to move, didn’t you!’ she made NO response! I felt like we were back in the 50′s and 60′s and we were black and they didn’t want us to be seen in their store! I also wondered, wouldn’t the other people have a problem with my dog in the other area she wanted us to move too? I also believe that my food was given to me in that condition on purpose! I have never been one that thought cooks and/or waitresses would make your food bad in order to get ‘at’ you. I believe it now!!

Author: disabledaccessdenied

I am a disabled woman who through no fault of my own has wheels under my ass. I rely on the decency and common sense of local, state and federal goverments, as well as the retail community to abide by the disabled access laws and provide adequate ramps, disabled toilets, and not use them as store rooms or broom closets. This blog exists to find the offenders and out them, inform them, and report them if necessary and shame them into doing the right thing when all else fails.

4 thoughts on “Abuse of The Disabled By Businesses and Public Buildings”

  1. Thanks susan for your story yes i actually was a chef for over 30 years before becoming disabled , while i have never bastardised my culinary art to get even i know many who have once again thanks

    Reply

    1. This happened to me last August in a store outside Denali National Park. There was another customer in the store who left when the store owner threw me out. This very kind lady was also going to spread the word not to patronize the store.
      My incident did not involve food, but the store owner thought I would destroy his store with my powerchair.

      Reply

  2. welcome Ginny and thankyou ,It’s never acceptable when it happens and mistakenly people think it happens in unenlightened corners far away from civilisation, but it happens as much in l Nyc and LA o chicago as it does in small places like Denali national park.It’snever acceptable never we fought forlaws we have them and they must be employed where ever commerce is conducted where ever people are dealt with EVERYWHERE but unless a blog like this can collect and catologue we are dismissed as one of cases in far off places . once again thankyou

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