[Cagdu] FW: [seeing-eye] Seeing Eye graduate - Blind Woman & guide dog unwelcome at Guilderland restaurant despite federal law

[Tina Thomas]

Subject: [seeing-eye] Seeing Eye graduate - Blind Woman & guide dog unwelcome at Guilderland restaurant despite federal law

 

Blind woman and guide dog unwelcome at Guilderland restaurant despite federal law

Blind woman says she was refused table at Hana steak house due to service animal

By Steve Barnes

Saturday, March 19, 2016 

Albany Times Union 

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Blind-woman-and-guide-dog-unwelcome-at-6924044.php

 

Guilderland, NY --  A Latham woman who is blind said she was refused a table at Hana Japanese Steak House and Sushi Bar in Guilderland because she had her guide dog, Foster, with her.

 

"The manager kept saying, 'No dogs,' " said Mary Beth Metzger, who tried to dine at Hana with her friend Phyllis Mullaney on Jan. 28. It was the first visit for either. They chose Hana, they said, because they were driving past at lunchtime and decided they were in the mood for sushi.

 

"The manager said, 'No dogs,' so many times, and he seated other people while basically ignoring us. It was so disrespectful," said Mullaney, who estimated she has dined without problem with Metzger and her guide dog dozens of times.

 

Lui Cheng, who was the person who refused to seat the women, said Friday he believes patrons with service dogs should be served only in separate rooms, away from other customers.

 

According to Metzger and Mullaney, they explained to Cheng that federal law requires restaurants and other businesses to allow legitimate service animals such as guide dogs into their facilities and to serve the owners the same as other customers.

 

Three lawyers who happened to be behind them at the hostess stand echoed their explanation of the law.

 

"It was so wrong for them to deny her a seat," said Cynthia LaFave, a Guilderland attorney who was at Hana with her law partners, Paul Wein and Jason Frament. She said the three "argued for a good deal of time" with Cheng, to no avail.

 

"The manager was singularly unmoved," said Metzger, adding that in decades of living in the Capital Region she has never been refused restaurant service because of the presence of her guide dog. Foster, almost 3 years old, is her fifth guide dog.

 

"He kept saying Foster would scare the other customers," Metzger said. "Foster wasn't doing anything — he was just standing there like a stuffed animal."

 

Metzger said that when the manager continued to refuse to seat them, she called Guilderland police. She said she has threatened to phone police for dog-related refusal of service "maybe two or three times" since getting her first guide dog, in 1981, but had never previously made the call.

 

A report filed by the responding officers says Cheng denied refusing Metzger a table and said he was willing to seat her in a private room, away from other customers.

 

Metzger and Mullaney said the offer of a table in a separate room came only after police intervened.

 

Cheng, interviewed at Hana on Friday afternoon, confirmed that he refused to seat Metzger in the main dining area. He said it is the restaurant's policy to segregate patrons with service animals in a separate room — "to be away from other customers," he said.

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act "requires ... businesses to allow people with disabilities to bring their service animals onto business premises in whatever areas customers are generally allowed," according to a federal publication about the ADA.

 

"I wanted to sit where everyone else was sitting, and we have the right to. The law is very clear," said Metzger, who is a retired personnel director for a state agency.

 

In the weeks that followed, Metzger said, she contacted a disability-rights attorney, who has been in touch with Hana management. The restaurant subsequently offered her a $200 gift card. She said she asked for a sign to be placed at the entrance saying that service animals are welcome, and she requested that the restaurant conduct training for its staffers on the law regarding service animals.

 

"I don't care about a gift card," said Metzger. "It's the principle. They've really dragged their feet on the two things I asked for." The attorney acting on Metzger's behalf confirmed her account to the Times Union but requested not to be identified because the matter is ongoing.

 

Metzger said her attorney provided a sign about service animals to Hana. As of Friday, there was no such sign visible at the restaurant. Metzger said she offered to conduct staff training herself, for free, or to provided another suitable trainer but was rebuffed.

 

She said she was at first reluctant to contact the Times Union about the matter, but, "It's been almost two months. This seems so simple, and it's absolutely clear: They were wrong. A quick apology, a sign, a training session for the staff, and it would have all been taken care of quietly. Instead all this time goes by and other blind people with their dogs could still be being turned away at the door. That's just not right."

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

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