SUB.001.02085_0002
Your Submission
How are you going to share your experiences with us? I am using this form to make a written submission (with or without attachments) Who are you making this submission for? I am providing information on behalf of an organisation or institution How would you like us to use your information? Public What would you like to share with the Royal Commission about your experiences or knowledge of violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation of people with disability? Dog Guide Handlers Australia (DGHA) would like to share that our members who live with low vision and blindness and use dog guides for mobility are experiencing an increasing amount of stress and trauma related to accessing taxi/rideshare services, hospitality venues, accommodation, and access to public areas generally.
According to the International Guide Dog Federation there are approximately 1000 Dog Guide teams in Australia and our active Facebook membership is 762.
We’d like to highlight the issues of safety, stress and trauma experienced when someone with a dog guide is refused access to any of the abovementioned services. Our members report
-
Being unable to independently get to and from their place of work, study, community, and social activities due to refusals from rideshare and taxi services to allow them to travel with their dog guide in their vehicles. Being left without transport in a familiar or unfamiliar location causes people with low vision and blindness a great deal of stress and trauma and our members are reporting that they choose to not participate in activities more often due to the difficulty in repeatedly not being able to access taxi and rideshare services. Complaints to taxi and rideshare companies have resulted in less than adequate solutions or no solution at all.
-
Being refused access to hospitality venues and public places causes our members distress in social situations where they are the only person in a group who is refused access due to their dog guide. The outcome of refusal to hospitality venues and other public places is embarrassment, humiliation and the fear of not being included in future social events with friends and family because the dog guide handler ‘and their refusal issues are too difficult and problematic to deal with’.
-
Being refused access to accommodation causes our members distress as they are often in an unfamiliar location and find it difficult to locate another place to stay. In April 2022 we launched a web form for Dog Guide Users to report refusal incidents. To date, we have collected more than 50 reports of refusal incidents. Have you shared these experiences with anyone before? Who did you tell and what happened? Many of our members have made formal complaints individually to taxi/rideshare services, hospitality and accommodation industry businesses, businesses in general, public and private transport operators, and businesses in general but in many cases, there is no way to enforce the legislation around access for Dog Guide users. Many members have also taken businesses to the AHRC and even though they may receive some compensation for the situation they addressed, there is no lasting change in this discrimination situation. Law enforcement/ police officers are not always aware of the legislation and are often not willing to help. In the case of taxi/rideshare refusals, often the job is cancelled once the driver realises there is a dog guide with the person who made the booking. With some services the taxi or rideshare driver recognises the phone number or pickup address and resubmits the booking because they know there is a dog guide to be transported with the customer. This situation is very difficult to prove without evidence and once the booking has been cancelled it often disappears from the app altogether. Taxi/rideshare companies often ask that dog guide users let their drivers know in advance if they have a dog so the driver can have the choice to pick them up or not, which is in breach of the law.
Are there any suggestions or recommendations you would like to share, including any examples of what worked well, or ideas for how things could be done better? You might also like to tell us about any people that have supported you. We would like to suggest:
l. Changes in the legislation to state that every business owner and all of their employees, as part of their business registration and employment contract should be asked to sign an agreement stating that they will not ever deny a person who is accompanied by a working dog guide.
-
Changes in the law that would make it mandatory for Taxi/Rideshare companies to reveal their booking logs to show when and why bookings were cancelled or resubmitted and for which customers
-
All companies should issue, on a regular basis, reminder messages in diverse languages which contain information about the illegality of not accepting dog guide handlers and their dogs into their cars.
-
Collaboration between law enforcement and blindness organisations including DGHA and BCA across Australia to come up with strategies on how they could help to reduce refusal incidents from happening in all areas Dog Guides are allowed access.
-
A call for consistent state legislation and penalties of at least $5,000 in all states around dog guide refusals. In a few sentences, what would you like to tell our nation about your hopes for the future? Our hopes for the future are that all Australians who use Dog Guides as mobility aids will be able to choose to actively participate in work, study, social and community activities confidently and safely without the fear and limitations caused by refusal of them by services and venues to which they are legally allowed access because of their Dog Guides.
Our hopes for the future are that laws around refusing a Dog guide entry to a venue or to a service are fully enforceable and result in significant consequences to those who break the laws.
Page 2 of2