Barred blind woman with dog to sue railway
Print Edition
A BLIND woman is considering suing railway authorities after officers at Shanghai Railway Station refused to let her board a train with her guide dog earlier this month.
“I have traveled with my guide dog for four years to cities around Shanghai and even in America. I was never rejected until this year,” Huang Ming, 59, told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
On March 6, Huang and three other people with vision disability planned to travel to Nanjing in neighboring Jiangsu Province. They had sent their dogs for training before the trip.
They cleared the security check at the station where they said no objections were raised. But when they were about to board the K1156 train, staff on the train told them their dogs could not travel with them.
They were told animals had to be sent separately through freight or kept in cages as per railway regulations which have been in effect since 1997.
Huang and her friends argued that their dogs were not pets, but leader dogs, which are allowed to enter public space and public transports under China’s law on the protection of disabled persons and Shanghai regulations on dog raising.
According to Shanghai regulations, which were introduced in 2011, people with vision disability can take their guide dogs into public places and take public transports.
Local traffic administration also mandated that guide dogs would be allowed on all public transports.
Huang and her friends were forced to seek a refund of their tickets after arguing with them for one hour. They refused to put their dogs in cages for the trip.
“They are our eyes and if they are kept in cages, how can they serve us?” Huang asked.
Huang was turned down earlier also this year, also at a railway station. On January 7, she traveled to Nanjing to have her Labrador assessed at the dog training center.
Ironically, the outward trip that time was pleasant as Shanghai railway staff helped her to buy train ticket and escorted her to the train. On arrival in Nanjing, local railway staff also helped her to the nearby subway station for her onward journey.
But next day as she arrived at the Nanjing train station, she was stopped from boarding the train to Shanghai.
Staff at the Nanjing Railway Station cided a new directive China Railway Corporation had issued on January 5 that all items, including animals, that might pollute environment and influence passengers on the train would be barred from entering stations and boarding trains. They had to be shipped separately. Eventually, she was allowed to take a train two hours later but was accommodated in a small section which was separated from other passengers.
After being refused in Shanghai on her second trip, she turned to the disabled people’s federation for help.
Shanghai Railway Station said although some of their staff had helped blind people traveling with dogs on humanitarian grounds, the regulations have been in force for 15 years. They defended the officers, saying they had done nothing wrong. “We have reported their complaints to the national railway administration but it is not in our right to make the decision,” Hu Yihua, a staff member at the railway station, said.
Zhu Yunqi, an official with the disabled federation, said they will meet with railway authorities. If nothing good comes out of it, they will seek legal measures.
Jiang Tao of Xingye Law Firm in Shanghai said it would be difficult for the federation to win a lawsuit as a court cannot change industry regulations. Instead, he suggested Huang to seek compensation, so that the regulations come up during the trial. Meanwhile, the federation is asking all sections of the society to cooperate and build a barrier free environment for blind people.
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