Legally Blind Woman Sues Fast Food Restaurants For Rudeness
A legally blind New York woman sued several fast food restaurants for ridiculing her when she asked for help reading their menus, but a federal judge threw out the suit on the grounds that "ADA laws don't regulate 'rudeness or insensitivity' of workers." Last week, however, an appeals court overturned that ruling and now the suit—" believed to be the first of its kind—could go before a jury this year."
Camarillo said annoyed workers served other customers before reading her just a partial list of their offerings. Camarillo can read large print when she holds it close, but can't make out most menus.Here's what the appeals court had to say about the matter:During a visit to Burger King, employees "laughed and stared" and pointed her in the direction of the men's room when she asked for a bathroom, she claims.
At Taco Bell, a cashier told her to wait until the rest of the customers had ordered.
"Put simply, Camarillo cannot experience full and equal enjoyment of defendants' services if she is unable to access the list of the services available to her," the appeals court said."While restaurants are not necessarily required to have on hand large print menus that Camarillo would be able to read, they are required to ensure that their menu options are effectively communicated to individuals who, like Camarillo, are legally blind," the judges wrote.
(Thanks to Jim!)
"Fast food employees mocked a blind woman who needed help reading menu" [Daily News]
(Photo: _e.t)
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Well, I dont condone the rudeness, but this lady seems like on of those really annoying ladies that we encounter every now and then. sounds to me like a stupid reason for lawsuit. Lets all head down to the Postal office or the DMV, those people are sure to be rude, then we can collect our money!
It's only discrimination if the employees treated her differently, so the fast food company just has to prove they're rude to all customers, regardless of ability. Not that hard a case for them, really.
Hmm. The compassionate part of me wants her to get service.
The impatient part of me, however, is sympathetic to the idea of serving the other people in line before reading her the entire menu. I would hate to be in line behind her while they are reading her the entire menu. I eat fast food because it's, well, fast.
The first quote makes it sound like she was wandering from restaurant to restaurant to see what people would do to her. If that even remotely resembles how she explained it to the judge, I can see why it got thrown out initially.
Unfortunately, people are jerks. It's something we all have to deal with. The difference is that the average consumer has no recourse but to talk to the manager and inform him or her that they will not be patronizing their establishment any longer. Using the ADA to sue a /fast food joint for being jerks/ is just stupid.
Most people know what most fast food restaurants offer. You don't go into McDonalds and ask for some lobster. Wouldn't it just be easier for the woman to know what she wants and asks for it. Who actually reads menus in Fast Food places, anyway?
This all seems like it would have been highly avoidable if they just had a large print menu they could hand her. Not only would it be easy and cheap to produce, it wouldn't hold up other customers in the line. Seriously, $10 at Kinko's could have held off this lawsuit.
I have no doubt that she suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of pain and suffering because of this experience.
When you pay teenagers minimum wage to flip burgers you are not going to get the most refine, educated and empathetic people to work for you. On the other hand, the woman should bring someone with her when she goes out. If she thinks it is rude to have kids laugh at her, she should think about her rudeness to the poor souls behind her in line having to wait while she is read the menu.
The last time I was in McDonalds, they had a sign explaining that braille menus were available... I wonder why she didn't use that menu.
My wife is legally blind. It's impossible for her to read the signs, and she's very grateful if there happens to be a large print menu handy. If she was out by herself and asked someone for help with the menu, I don't think that would be an unreasonable accomodation.
When there isn't a large print menu available, we usually stand out of the line and I read it aloud to her. It's terribly embarrassing for her, but if it's someplace she hasn't been or isn't familiar with the menu, it's what we have to do. And yes, ignorant employees can be jerks about it.
@friendlynerd: I thought that most fast food places had these already. Seems like they also have menus with only pictures for those who are illiterate. I could be wrong, though.
Once again why the ADA is a deeply flawed piece of law. You can't make people be nice and love everyone, sorry but there are people who are asses and you just have to deal with it. If you don't like the service dont go there, dont like what is on the radio there is a button to stop it, tv's yea there's a button for that too. And as to not offend anything less than everyone, I hate you all, I hope all the bad things in life happen to "_____" your name here, and no one else, but to everyone too. :)
Should the restaurant be obligated to read the entire menu to her, at the expense of other customers waiting in line, if that is what she wanted?
My wife is legally blind. It's impossible for her to read the signs in fast food restaurants. If there's a large print menu available, she's very grateful. If there is not, I generally read the menu to her. We stand out of the line (if there is one). It's terribly embarrassing, but we don't have a choice. If she was out by herself, I don't think it would be unreasonable to ask an employee for help, particularly if she waited for her turn in line.
@MissPeacock: try finding them. Most places we go don't have them readily available. One of the reasons my wife likes to eat at Panera is that there's a printed menu available when she walks in the door, and she can look at it before we even set foot near the counter.
this is a s stupid lawsuit. suing someone for being rude? its f-ing new york! get real. if you want friendliness, move down south and get some of that southern hospitality. if i sued everytime someone was rude to me, i wouldn't be able to stay out of court.
did she get the menu read to her? ......yes
did she order and pay money to them?......yes
sounds like to me if she felt it was so rude that she would have to sue, she shouldn't patron those places. get real, fast food? if you want more service, get prepared to pay more money.
@darkened: You think it's unreasonable to make a business accessible to the handicapped? You're cold-blooded man, cold-blooded.
Sounds like this lady was just "looking" (get it?! looking... blind person..) for something to sue about. For crying out loud: what do you need to read at Burger King?!?!?!??!?!???!! You want ONE or TWO patties? End of discussion... Next!
@Phipps6505: Good point... Perhaps if the blind person told the cashier that s/he had poor vision, the cashier would be more sympathetic than if someone just walks up and asks to have the menue read off to them... That would tick me off tooo.
SERIOUS BUT PROBABLY STUPID QUESTION: if you can read large print up close, shouldn't you be able to read period if you got some glasses? i'm legally blind as well and it doesn't take much to classify you as legally blind. despite being legally blind without my glasses, with them i have better than 20/20 vision. the wording of the article may be trying to have you believe she is blind, when in fact, she just needs glasses.
If she were suing one restaurant for an incident of rudeness, I could understand. But several? Possible that she was poorly treated in all cases, but maybe there is something she is doing to contribute to the mistreatment.
It looks like she's missing her left eye in the linked article. I don't like how they didn't cover how exactly she's legally blind.
There will come a day that everyone here reading this *will* need extra accommodations- maybe you will walk too slow. Maybe you won't be able to read smaller print. Maybe you won't be able to hear so well. It's pretty much guaranteed. So shut up about how people inconvenience you, because one day you will be that person who is slowing everyone down.
However, suing maybe a little extreme- maybe. What the manager should have done is get another pimple faced moron from the back to read the menu to the lady, or even done it himself. I bet you he was either in his office, or talking to his team of idiots.
Then again- bad service is a given when going to a fast food place.
@snoop-blog: From what I can tell she is the true definition of legally blind, and not what it became to dumb it down for stupid people who wanted handicap placards.
By the current definition, Im legally blind too, and glasses are strong enough to correct my vision, but my ex-girlfriends mother truly was legally blind, she can see, but even with corrective glasses large print items had to be held up 2 inches from her face because they didnt make corrective lesses strong enough to help her beyond seeing shapes of color, which is what I see without glasses on.
That being said, thats no excuse for being a rude piece of shit, which is all these employees where. Unfortunately as exhibited by the comments here, we live in a society that makes excuses for teenage punks who work at these stores and are allowed to act like asses with no repercussions, while we criminalize a blind woman.
Almost makes you wish chain gangs still existed.
These people love using their disadvantages to take advantage of us.
is that what happened? She just walked up, and without giving any reason just said "read the menu for me". please.
Her deformed left eye wasn't any indicator either eh?
I agree 100% with Savdavid above. You want kids running your shop you get what you pay for. No caring about job, no foresight and adolescent behavior. plain and simple.
They were rude? so sending blind women to the mens room is rude? Not callous and miserable?
Your waiting in line longer not because of her (and so what) but because the STAFF is STUPID.
to the braille comment - she's legally blind. she can read. why would she know braille?
jeez, hell hath no fury like the consumerist commenter waiting in line for a Wopper.
@ThinkerTDM: and when that time comes, I'm more than happy to yield to the younger people instead of making them wait. I also wouldn't demand that the menu be read out to me.
@arch05: What percentage of the population is handicapped? What percentage of the population has to accommodate that minuscule population of the handicapped. If you think it's an unfair burden to require a handicapped person to ask for help, consider the unfair burden of the millions and millions and millions of dollars that are paid just to make an invalid feel like a whole human being.
That's not cold-hearted; it's just logical and pragmatic. I'm not beyond asking for help when I need it. Why shouldn't a disabled person be required just to ask for some friggin' help?
@Falconfire: well seriously the fast food industry can't fire someone everytime someone thinks they are being rude. maybe and ignorant person (working fast food mind you) thought it would be more rude to not take the other orders first. then it's not that they were being rude, just that they were idiots, who worked at A FAST FOOD RESTAURANT! if the restaurants paid more, maybe, JUST MAYBE, this wouldn't be an issue (but i doubt it cuz i had rude servers at nice places).
the point is suing here is extreme. she wasn't refused service at all. she WAS served, just maybe without the free smile.
Well, have we blamed the victim enough yet, folks?
if someone was rude to me, i'd complain to the manager at the most. not litigate. i know people who do just come off as being rude, should they not be allowed to earn a living? she's not suing because they denied service to a handicapp person, that's a legitamate lawsuit. suing over getting an atitude? isn't it possible to mis-interpret rudeness, therefore making it more hearsay really?
Surely she can sue people into being kind and considerate. And if she picks up a cool 100G's in the process...well that's just gravy for her.
@snoop-blog: Why not? Every other industry out there, if they are a good company gives reprimands or fires employees of said nature.
The problem is ultimately they KNOW they can get away with murder because its a fast food restaurant. You fire just 2 people for being rude and you will watch your staff straighten out REAL FAST. It worked at the Dairy Queen I worked for way back when I was in college... im sure it would work today.
I made a mistake and went to a Jack in the Box a few months ago in San Diego, my disability was that I speak English. After several attempts to place a correct order, i just drove away.
I might be a bit presumptuous, but if she is blind, she may have had some help driving to the BK or TB??? Couldn't the person who carried her there read the menu for her?
Seems like she was looking for a fight and some cha-ching to boot!
Fast Food places usually have a menu that can be given out to people if they request it. Tsk
@Falconfire: yeah and maybe they could drug test new hire also....... you have no clue. you do realize fast food jobs have revolving doors at the front right?
so how does this work? You step aside and they serve you when? after everyone else has been served? when is that? closing time?
Who said she DEMANDED to have it read? where is that in the article? Maybe she did ask for a large print menu. My guess would be she was answered with a blank stare and a slack jaw.
also she did not ask for the WHOLE menu to read. from the article:
"...reading her just a partial list of their offerings."
She did ask for help. They sent her to the mens room.
@darkened:
It costs very little to accommodate disabled patrons when it's thought of at the building planning stage, things like ramps, high contrast and braille signage, handrails, and floor markings are virtually zero extra cost when it's built into the layout of the premises. But no, here in the US we don't give a shit about anyone other that ourselves do we, I think most of the comments here prove that. You can't wait two extra friggin' minutes while someone helps out the blind lady?, shame on you. And before anyone starts bashing me, it's not about political correctness, it's about basic human decency. Good luck to her and her case, I hope it makes a difference.
@SNOOP-BLOG: I don't think you can get a declaration of being "legally blind" if all you need are corrective lenses. There are many more conditions if advanced enough (macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, to name a few) that no matter what prescription one gives, their vision is severely impaired.
It's hard to tell the motive behind the lawsuit without having witnessed the platintiff getting service. Assuming she's reasonably polite, she has every right to expect courteous service from anyone.
The fact is, people *are* cruel to those with handicaps, and it takes lawsuits like these to force people into behaving as they ought to in the first place. Nobody should have to be suffer the indignity of "justifying their existence" and apologise to the whole world every time they want a meal.
On the otherhand, if the blind woman was deliberately withholding information in hopes to antagonise employees to strengthen/establish a lawsuit, then she's just being greedy.
let me get one thing straight, the rudeness was wrong, but suing is just as rediculous as my comments have been, which is my point.
@friendlynerd: $10 at Kinko's would only have held it off if they had advance notice, or if they had thought ahead.
On the other hand, teaching their employees to not be jerks in front of customers would have held it off. Oh, and it might even increase their profitability.
@COELACANTH: said:@SNOOP-BLOG: I don't think you can get a declaration of being "legally blind" if all you need are corrective lenses.
so why are you chiming in if you just think but do not know for sure? i have glasses, i'm am legally blind.
@pastabatman: I don't know exactly what happened here. I'm just giving a plausible situation where letting other people go first is a reasonable thing to do.
Now, if there is a really long line, then you might as well go first because you'll be waiting all day. But, if there are a few people behind you who obviously know what they want - its courteous to let them go first.
@arch05: There are reasonable and unreasonable accommodations. Here's an example: Many people in my family have an essential tremor, which means that their hands shake constantly. Now, if they go to Starbucks or something and order a drink, they will often ask for the same drink to be put in a larger cup (a medium in a large cup). This allows them to consume the beverage without spilling it. Now, sometimes employees will say no initially, but every time they have ever explained why they asked they are given what they requested. It is a very simply accommodation that does not greatly inconvenience EITHER party.
Let's take another example: I broke a few bones and was on crutches for about five months in total. When I called to order pizza I mentioned this fact while on the phone and requested that the delivery person put it on my kitchen counter (all of 12 feet from the door). By working with the company (asking in advance) everyone got what they wanted.
So now lets look at this case. If I were legally blind in that situation I would have waited in line and when I reached the counter explained the circumstances and asked first if there was a large print menu available or failing that, if SOMEONE could read it to me. Likely that employee would have grabbed someone from the back to read it to me (probably someone whose three minute absence would not stop all food production). If nobody else was available then I would not mind waiting a few minutes. When you have a disability it is up to YOU to make the best of it. You have to know what your limits are and when to ask for help.
I suspect what happened is that Alice Camarillo acted in such a way that the employees did not learn about her disability until AFTER she started being a complete ass. I suspect she also deliberately provoked the employees given the way she was treated at three different restaurants.
Hmmm. What she's got going against her is that she's suing more than one restaurant. Makes her look like she may have intentionally looked for a discrimination lawsuit once she became blind, but since they didn't deny her service, she's just trying to find a reason to sue so she's saying they were rude. I find it hard to believe a fast food worker in New York would be rude.
@snoop-blog: No. You cannot. To put it into lay terms, my wife's optic nerve is very thin. It can't transmit the same amount of information that a regularly formed optic nerve can. Part of her disability manifests itself in that she can't see very well in brightly lit situations. Another part is that she perceives a glare across glass or plastic surfaces that the rest of us can't see. If she holds print very close to her face, she can read it just fine (with effort). There's no way she can read something further away than a few feet from her.
While I personally think some accommodations for minorities are too extreme in the vein of political correctness accommodating a legally blind person by reading them the menu is very clearly not. Requiring a small business to spend $10,000s to construct a handicap accessible ramp / lift etc, is imo.