Who would turn away a blind woman and her guide dog?
One of Australia's top 100 companies, a top Sydney hotel, and a popular Sydney restaurant, it seems.
Annette Holden, 55, takes Molly, a black Labrador, with her everywhere. Last week, in the course of 24 hours, they were turned away by Qantas, refused entrance to a Sydney restaurant and then forced to wait for assistance by staff at Sheraton Four Points.
Molly is Holden's sight, an assistance dog; and those registered dogs are allowed everywhere, even on planes.
Holden's always had poor sight but two years ago the senior project officer with SA Health was declared legally blind and she moved from using a cane to having Molly.
On Sunday at 4.45am, Holden set out for the airport to fly to her hometown of Adelaide to Sydney with Molly at her side. The ground staff refused to let her board. They said the computer didn't recognise Molly's booking and didn't have a spot for her.
The ground staff blamed it on the travel agent and on the computers, but Holden stood her ground. She needed to be on the plane for a board meeting of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, to be held in Sydney at 9am.
Eventually, after a delay, she and Molly were allowed to board. Molly curled up at Holden's feet in row four. Two days later, the return to Adelaide was even worse. Qantas ground staff in Sydney claimed there was no ticket for the dog and then, because Molly had not 'checked in', they claimed to have onsold the ticket. When Holden finally got herself and Molly on to the plane, it was half empty.
A Qantas spokeswoman was apologetic.
"We're really sorry to hear of Ms Holden's experience with us. She's flown with us a number of times with Molly, without any issues, but unfortunately this time around there was a glitch in the system which didn't book Molly onto her ticket.
"We're looking into the issue to make sure this doesn't happen again. We fly hundreds of Guide and Assistance dogs each year with no issues, so this is just an unfortunate one-off."
Holden's Sydney trip didn't get better. On Sunday, a security guard outside the Café del Mar in Sydney's Cockle Bay refused to let Holden and her dog in. She had to call for senior management to persuade him that assistance animals were permitted. She was made to wait, while people stopped and stared.
A spokesperson for the restaurant, Anthony Leenders, has now been in touch with the security company, contracted to the restaurant; and sent further procedures to ensure this never happens again.
"We are deeply apologetic for the situation and we can ensure it won't happen again."
When Holden arrived at the Sheraton Four Points, she explained Molly needed to empty her bowels urgently. (Guide dogs are trained to relieve themselves on command.) She was told the dog could wait, then directed to a small plot of grass across a busy road, unaccompanied.
"At morning tea on Sunday we were escorted to the goods lift, through the loading dock - where there were vehicles moving around, and pointed to the dirt in the middle of four lanes of traffic – complete with tree roots and broken glass. It was noisy with no privacy. Dogs, like most humans, need to feel safe to expose themselves. The only bins were across the lanes of traffic and industrial sized waste dumpsters," Holden says.
"This was so patently unsafe and inappropriate at so many levels. By any account, sending a vision impaired person and dog into the middle of a road, onto a dirt median strip amongst tree roots and broken glass is a gross neglect of duty of care."
Sheraton Four Points management was also apologetic.
"We want to apologise for any challenges that Ms Holden did encounter at the hotel and we are speaking with the guest directly to address these."
Sunday was a particularly bad day for Holden but this kind of discrimination is not unusual, she says.
"I expect – and want - to be treated like anyone else. That means being offered dignity, respect and independence," she says.
"That was taken away in every one of these circumstances, we weren't afforded the opportunity to take part as everyone else was.
"It's usually just a bus or a taxi, not major events like this."
Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner Alastair McEwin says he is not at all surprised.
"Assistance animals are a growing issue yet service providers such as Qantas still overreact," he says.
McEwin has been the Disability Discrimination Commissioner for just three months but in that time, he has seen a number of complaints from those who've experienced discrimination because of their assistance animals.
"What they face has been significant . . . the law is quite clear. If someone needs an assistance animal to access a service or venue and they are being denied, that is discrimination against a person with a disability."
McEwin understands that there is a lot of anxiety about how assistance animals will behave. "But these animals have been trained to behave appropriately, in planes, cafes or hotels."
Holden is an experienced public relations practitioner and a senior public servant who can stand up for herself. But she said her freedom was dependent on people being educated about guide dogs.
"Look, it's about education and organisations and their staff need education," she says.
"Molly affords me a lot of safety but at the end of the day she is a dog and if people impede her ability to look after me, we miss out."
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