Blind woman allegedly told to get her guide dog off bus because it's 'black'
A blind bus passenger in England was allegedly told to get off a public bus because guide dogs can’t be “black.”
Megan Taylor, who has had episodic blindness after a head injury when she was 15, was on a bus in the northwestern English county of Merseyside on Monday when a woman allegedly approached her about her guide dog.
According to Metro, the stranger allegedly asked, “Why is there a f***ing dog on the bus? Get it off.”
According to the outlet, Taylor attempted to explain to the woman that this was a guide dog, but the 22-year-old was called a liar by the woman, who said, “Guide dogs are yellow Labradors, and your dog is black.”
“I tried to explain to her that guide and assistance dogs can be any color and don’t have to be Labradors, although Rowley is. She told me I was wrong,” Taylor told Metro.
She added: “I decided at this point there was nothing I could say to educate this woman and that it wasn’t worth my time. … I instead chose to ignore her while she continued to talk nonsense.”
Rowley is trained to help Taylor with everyday tasks and can even phone for help if Taylor has a fainting episode or loses consciousness. Despite this, the young woman is often judged for her disabilities.
“On other occasions, I have been spat at, stepped over, pushed out of the way and accused of being ‘another drunk youth’ when losing consciousness due to my heart condition and neurological disorder,” she told the Liverpool Echo.
Thankfully, she hasn’t lost faith in humanity just yet. “I try to stay positive and not let incidents such as what happened get me down because I am not ashamed of my disability,” she says. “Despite having so many negative experiences, I know that these people are the minority. Most people are good and kind.”
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