Ronald at one point weighed 680 lbs, a fact that never interfered with his ability to do his job. He received high marks in his performance reviews. Despite this, he was fired for his weight. [More]
disabilities
Blind Man Uses Memorization And Trust To Keep Track Of Paper Money
By 9.26.11
How does a blind guy tell the difference between a fifty and a dollar bill in his pocket? In this video, blind man Tommy Edison shows his method. [More]
If You Don't 'Look' Disabled, Expect Shoddy Treatment FromDelta
By 8.30.11 — Updated: 9.8.16
Alauna is disabled, unable to walk or stand for long periods of time. But she’s in her 20s and there is nothing obviously physically wrong with her at first glance. This meant that her requests for assistance during her recent Delta flight delay nightmare were met with resistance or eye-rolling. [More]
Sorry, Your Seeing-Eye Dog Has To Ride In The Trunk
By 6.8.11
Legally, service animals are allowed in any place that their humans are: stores, restaurants, buses, and, yes, taxis. Yet a Colorado taxi driver has been suspended from work and fined by the state after refusing to let a blind woman bring her dog inside his taxi, claiming allergies. He demanded that the dog ride in the trunk. The woman, late for an appointment, acquiesced… then complained, taking her story to the media to publicize service animals’ rights. [More]
Chase Rep Thinks Deaf People Can't Have Credit Cards
By 4.13.11
Dheeraj’s father is a silent partner in the business that they own together. They made him the personal guarantor when applying for a new business credit card from Chase recently, not realizing how many problems it would cause while trying to get the father’s card activated. See, Dheeraj’s father is deaf, and Chase was completely lost when it came to ways for him to prove his identity and activate the card. Now the account is frozen because all of Chase’s ways for business credit card customers to prove their identities depend on speaking directly with the cardholder on the phone. [More]
U.S. Airways Tells Man In Wheelchair He's Too Disabled To Be A Passenger
By 10.18.10
A man with cerebral palsy had recently boarded a U.S. Airways flight in West Palm Beach, FL, when he was approached by the plane’s flight crew and told he needed to vacate the aircraft. The reason? He is too disabled to fly. [More]
Continental Sorta-Apologizes For Not Allowing Service Dog On Flight
By 9.24.10
Last month, Continental wouldn’t let Jessica bring her service dog on a flight because a ticket agent thought she was pulling one over on the airline. Now Continental has finally responded to Jessica’s complaint. She said the company is admitting partial fault in the dust-up, writing the agent’s “failure to provide you with the correct information would be considered a violation of federal disability law.” [More]
You're Locked Out Of Chase Online Banking And Can't Get To A Branch? Tough.
By 9.17.10
Nathaniel writes that Chase Bank refuses to believe that he is who he says he is. He’s locked out of his online banking account, and none of the telephone reps’ “public records” questions prove his identity have anything to do with him. While a trip to a branch would most likely straighten the situation out, he’s physically disabled and such a trip would be difficult. [More]
AirTran Fined $500,000 For Lousy Wheelchair Service
By 8.31.10
The Transportation Department has served AirTran a $500,000 civil penalty for repeated failures to accommodate disabled travelers, reports Associated Press. The airline was also cited for not providing adequate responses to customers who complained, and for not properly filing complaints with the government. The biggest issue, however, was that it doesn’t always provide wheelchairs to disabled passengers in a timely manner. AirTran says it’s working on implementing a wheelchair tracking system at its hubs. [More]
Continental Refuses To Believe Woman's Service Dog Is Real
By 8.18.10
Continental sure has a lot of skeptical employees when it comes to customers with disabilities. Jessica tried to buy a ticket yesterday and was told no, because the ticket agent didn’t believe that Jessica’s self-trained service dog was legit. [More]
United Leaves Blind Passenger On Plane
By 5.18.10
Jessica Cabot was born blind, but she’d been on two flights by herself before boarding a United Airlines flight last month, so she figured she knew what to expect. On all three flights, she was told by the flight attendants to remain seated until everyone else was off the plane, and then someone would help her off. That worked the first two times at any rate. [More]
United Flight Attendant Refuses To Help Disabled Woman With Bags
By 4.12.10
Evilpuppy, who says she’s disabled, blogs that a United flight attendant refused to help her hoist her bags into the overhead compartment. [More]
Continental Gate Agent Tells Passenger She Thinks Her Mental Illness Is Fake
By 1.29.10
Laura has a pretty good description of what an anxiety attack feels like to her: “First, your chest starts to feel tight, like you are wearing a corset. You can’t breathe properly, your heart rate starts to skyrocket, causing a pounding feeling. It’s very out-of-body. You can’t figure out what’s going on. It’s like being trapped by your brain into a tight corner.” If the skeptical gate agent for Continental had ever experienced this–or had just been given adequate training for dealing with passengers with disabilities–maybe she wouldn’t have told Laura her doctor’s note looked fake, or asked her to stay put when Laura said she needed to get her meds. [More]
T-Mobile Changes Mind, Lets Family Off The Hook For Stolen Phone Charges
By 1.8.10
Yesterday I posted about Zeb, a special needs guy whose phone was stolen shortly before Christmas. Between then and when his family found out about the theft and reported it to T-Mobile, the thief had made $6,000 in international calls and texts–and T-Mobile wanted Zeb’s family to pay $1,500 of that.
Today I received word from Zeb’s dad that T-Mobile has changed its mind and won’t hold Zeb or his family responsible for the bogus charges. His email is below.
Man In Wheelchair Unimpressed With Greyhound
By 12.21.09
According to Richard, Greyhound has some real work to do when it comes to making people in wheelchairs not feel like second-class citizens. Even in snowy weather and with delays, you don’t really want a driver telling a passenger that he should have brought an attendant if he wanted to get on the bus. [More]
Connecticut Bathroom Access Law Now In Effect
By 10.2.09
Connecticut shoppers with bowel disorders, rejoice! Now, there’s a sentence we never expected to write. In order to prevent humiliating and undignified restroom access debacles for people with verified medical conditions, Connecticut has passed a law guaranteeing their access to otherwise off-limits restrooms in public places. The law went into effect on October 1st.
Honeybaked Ham Fires Employee Shot In Store Robbery
By 9.26.09
A North Carolina Honeybaked Ham store manager was shot in an attempted store robbery in April, and has been recovering on worker’s compensation since the shooting. Now that his benefits have run out, the store very thoughtfully has terminated his employment. (Update: Honeybaked Ham sent us a statement with their take on this situation, which is appended at the end of this post.)
Plaid Pantry Says Bathroom Off Limits, Lets Customer Poop Pants
By 9.8.09
One of the unfortunate things about Crohn’s disease is it can make you need to use the bathroom pretty much immediately, without warning or fanfare. Of course, there’s plenty of fanfare afterward if you can’t find a bathroom, as one longtime customer of Plaid Pantry found out yesterday when she shat her pants in the parking lot after being denied emergency access to their employee toilet.
