It’s much easier to sit in the bulk head for a few reasons. One, you don’t have to try to get the dog to sit under the seat in front of you (something most SDs don’t or won’t do anyway). Second, the bulkhead is usually near the front of the plane so you’re not having to go way down the isle with your dog and bags. Third, you don’t have anyone reclining into you decreasing the amout of room you and your dog have.

I travel frequently with my service dog and I always request the bulkhead row because it’s so much easier. I also choose to pre board so that my dog and I can get settled without feeling rushed by other passengers. Even airlines that don’t have assigned boarding such as Southwest, have to allow people with service dogs the seat that best accomodates them.

There’s an element here where a bank employee should have known that he was doing something wrong by asking an armless man for a thumb print. At best, this made him look like the idiot that he is, and EVERYBODY in his whole company knows it now. I guarantee there’s no written or stated rule in the organization that says it’s okay to ask an armless person for a thumbprint, and that fact is going to be mentioned at the next performance review. And the person doing the review will have to keep a straight face.

Plus, he could say his wife’s name, and know her social security number. No need to discriminate against him.

Bank of America fails, and I hated having an account with them. I hope he sues and wins.

You also can’t force an employee to pay something like that out-of-pocket. If you’re not happy with their quality of work, write them up or demote them or fire them, but the corporation has no legal right to their employees’ personal finances.

Even pay docking can only be done in a way compliant with the contract you hired them on. You can’t just decide mid-week to pay them less for that week because they did something you didn’t like. You can renegotiate their pay for future work, or fire them.

OF COURSE it could have been handled better. ANYTHING is better than outright BREAKING THE LAW.

Compliance with the ADA is not a choice where you get to decide how to handle it. They broke the law and should suffer some real consequences for it, if they are even allowed to continue to operate. I start THERE. The bank should not be merely “apologizing” in the press. They should be explaining to a judge why the right to operate the bank should be restored, with the whole “pretty please” thing, and a bit of “if it happens again you won’t get another chance” to go with it.

So yeah, it could have been handled better. They could have avoided breaking the law, and humiliating this guy while doing it.

Not only did the bank fail to accommodate someone who was *clearly* disabled in such a way that he *could not possibly* comply with their rules, they pressed the issue to the point of public humiliation, and stood their ground in a horrifying way. The employee who actually did this should be fired and forced to compensate the victim in some way, and anyone in the management of that bank who was in a position to prevent the incident, or who *should* have been in such a position, should be forced to do the same. And the fine should *hurt*, a *lot*. If the bank manager makes 250k a year, the fine should be half a million in cash as a starting point.

Wow.

Sensitivity fail.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/02/021651/tampa-banks-thumbprint-rule-irks-armless-man/

Which would sorta make sense. Guessing a certain bank branch will be getting an ADA compliance seminar soon…

it just kills me how most businesses only enforce ADA standards when they’re doing something mind-numbingly stupid (such as forcing blind people with guide dogs to sit in the front row seats of an airplane, the only place on teh plane that does NOT have space for the dog!!)

But when a man with no hands comes in they can’t bring themselves to find a work around. Most places only do “special” treatment for the disabled when they’re being the opposite of helpful.