Blind skaters get access to rink
August 7th, 2008From the Baltimore Sun:
Dozens of blind students and adults were permitted to skate without restrictions yesterday at a North Baltimore skating rink after meeting with the rink manager who had earlier sought to restrict their access. A group of the students had come the previous evening and said they were turned away because of their disabilities.
Rink manager Jackie Eliasberg denied turning them away, but said she preferred that the group stay in a separate section because of concerns about the safety of other skaters. She said she relented because she had no choice under Maryland’s White Cane law, which provides for equal access to public places.
Parents of some nondisabled skaters were unhappy at the resolution of the dispute and said it put their children at risk.
“It’s very hazardous,” said Kimberly Sachs of Baltimore. “I don’t think you should put civil rights above safety. You want to make a point, and that’s great. But sometimes you can go too far. And what about the civil rights of the other skaters?”
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on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 4:38 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, accessibility, blindness/visual impairments, civil rights.
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August 7th, 2008 at 7:41 am
My wife is Louise Walch, who is one of the people in charge of organizing the Teen Empowerment Academy. We had the same problem when we were in Brooklyn trying to get on the subway. The police tried momentarily to bar us from entrance based on “safety” concerns.
Look there are risks in everything we do. If somebody has concerns that their kids aren’t going to be safe skating, swimming, walking, riding on the same airplane, etc. with blind people then they have the ‘civil right’ to not skate. If somebody has a fear that they are going to get some deadly disease after using the restroom or drinking out of the same drinking fountain as somebody of a particular ethnicity, then they have the ‘civil right’ to refuse to use public restrooms, etc.
They do not, however, have the ‘civil right’ to tell a person who is blind or otherwise different that they are only welcome to walk in certain areas, skate at certain times or in certain areas, only ride ‘approved’ public transport, sit in ‘approved’ seating in airplanes, etc.
The Blind want and are guaranteed full access to the full skating rink of public life and don’t want to be cordoned off in one section; even if it offends the sensibilities of the able bodied sighted. Thankfully we live in a society that generally understands these basic principles of justice and right.