NY Daily News investigates ridiculing of blind customers

In the wake of a lawsuit filed by Alice Camarillo, a blind woman from upstate New York, who says she has been ridiculed while ordering at fast-food restaurants, The New York Daily News decided to go with a local blind customer, Carlos Melendez, to find out how he is treated.


The Daily News writes, "wearing dark glasses, his white cane waving in front of him, Melendez tripped on tables before a customer led him to the end of a long line — but servers left him standing while they called customers behind him to the counter. 'I heard somebody in line behind me,' Melendez said. 'Then I heard him ordering in front of me. I hadn’t moved.'”


It's great to see a newspaper take initiative to follow up on what could be a very important case about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Feb. 8 ruling that allows Camarillo to proceed with her ADA case against restaurants whose employees mocked her is believed to be the first of its kind, according to The Daily News. "The issue is whether the restaurants properly train their employees to serve the blind and disabled."


Blind customers who use guide dogs have long faced discrimination from some businesses. A few years ago the local and national news media (CBS Evening News) covered the case of Kevin Coughlin who filed a complaint against a NY City coffee bar that wouldn't let he and his guide dog in. He won a small settlement, which he donated to the New York Guide Dog Users Association for the purposes of education. (Full disclosure: Kevin is an acquaintance of mine.)


Kevin now does motivational speaking about access for blind people and the life lessons he's learned from his sudden blindness at age 36. Here's a story The New York Times did about Kevin in 2004. To book Kevin as a speaker, contact him at misterruger@earthlink.net.