The following report from the Washington Post comes via the Justice for All network:
"No dog, no dog," shouted the driver and another worker when District resident Joe Orozco and his guide dog tried to board a Todays Bus from Washington to New York. Orozco protested that the company is required by law to accommodate service animals, but the workers continued to block his entry and laughed, he says, when he threatened to call police. Once he called police, the workers said he could ride if the dog was put in the bottom of the bus with the luggage. They relented after police came.
When Orozco tried to board the return bus the next day, a Todays
Bus employee in New York yanked his ticket away and tried to
return his money, he says.
The bus pulled away. After Orozco called police, workers said he
could take the next bus but ordered him to sit in the back. He
complied, but he is filing a complaint with the Justice
Department, which enforces the Americans With Disabilities Act
(ADA). Todays Bus did not respond to four telephone messages left
for the manager and owner.
The ADA guarantees interstate service to disabled passengers; that
includes providing access, with advance notice, to people in
wheelchairs. But many of the companies that pick up passengers
curbside -- the so-called "Chinatown buses" -- simply ignore the
law. In 2004, regulators checked 14 companies that operate between
Washington and New York, and cited 11 of them for violating the
ADA. The Justice Department launched an investigation in October
2004. "We continue to work on it," spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson
said last week.
Gathering evidence seems quick and easy to CoGo, who recently
called Todays to ask about wheelchair access. The man who answered
refused to give his name, but his answer was clear: "No
wheelchair."
To register a complaint, call the Justice Department, 800-514-
0301.
Source: The Washington Post
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