Hello Guys! Welcome back to my channel. So today I thought I would do a little bit
of a story time. Now I've not done many story times on this channel. In fact I
only think I did one. But I thought, you know what the time has come for me to
share this story with you. You will also notice that I have fluffy with me today.
I thought I would bring Unity up and get her involved in this video. Because this
video does partly involve her, so I thought she deserved to be starring in
this video. Also if you are new to this channel and you would like to support me.
You can do so by simply clicking the subscribe button and also by clicking
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So today I am going to be sharing the story of the time that I was
discriminated against as a disabled person by a bloggers event...and no this
is not clickbait. Sadly, everything that I'm going to be telling you did happen
to me and it is a true story. Now I just want to make a few things clear before I
get any further with this story. The first thing is that this happened to me
quite a number of years ago. It isn't a recent occurrence. So if any of you are
wondering if this is a recent event. No it isn,'t it happened quite a few years
ago now. The other thing is that the company who did this to me is not a
company that I work with now or would ever work with again and the other thing
is that for this video I am going to be using fake names. Now this happened to me
quite a few years ago in the early days of me writing my blog. Now the thing is I
had never been to a bloggers event before and for those of you who aren't
familiar with this concept of blogging events. They are basically events that
companies put on. They might be to do with product launches or new campaigns
or new brand launches things like that and they are to basically showcase
brands to bloggers and it's a way for brands and PR companies to network with
different bloggers. Now I had never before been on one of these kinds of
events. So I had never experienced anything like this before and I found
out about company let's give this company a fake
name. So we're going to call this company "Club Blog." But if there is an actual
company called Club Blog out there then this video is not about them. So Club
Blog basically put on different events throughout the year for bloggers and it
was from networking events, evening events. There was quite a range of
different events that they put on and I signed up to attend some of these events
and I managed to get onto two of these events. Now at the time I was a lot
younger, I was very new to the blogging scene and it was my first ever bloggers
even. So I was really excited and I was really excited to be able to be going to
an event as a blogger who's got a disability. It was going to be a really
great opportunity for me to be able to network with people and to be able to
show people what I was about. For those of you who are new to this channel
and who have stumbled across this video by chance and you might be wondering
what my disability is. I have an illness called Septo Optic Dysplasia, which
essentially causes me to have a visual impairment. In the form of Optic Nerve
Hypoplasia and a Nystagmus. So I have severely limited vision and hence I use
a lovely guide dog right here and I also have a medical condition. Now at the time
that I shared that I was going to be bringing my guide dog Unity along to
this event. I received a message from the woman who worked for club blog. Again I'm
going to give her a fake name and I'm going to call her Gretchen for the
purposes of this video. Now the thing is I still actually have the receipts from
this. I still have the messages that Gretchen sent me. I've kept them all this
time just for my own reference. Basically what she says is that it's been brought
to her attention that I want to bring my guide dog to the blogger event and
they've spoken to the venue and the venue have said unfortunately it's not
possible for me to bring my guide dog. Because they're disabled facilities are
out of order and that I can instead come and just bring someone with me but I
can't bring my guide dog. Another thing is when she said this to me I should
have smelled a rat. In my experience as a guide dog owner of
almost eight years now. No company or venue or establishment
have ever said to me that I can't bring my guide dog, because the disabled
facilities are out of order. It just tends to be the response of "you can't
bring your dog because we don't allow dogs" and they just fail to understand
the rules that's around guide dogs and assistance dogs. Because in the UK there
is something called the Equality Act. Which basically protects people who use
guide dogs and assistance dogs because of their disability and it basically
means that guide dogs and assistance dogs are exempt from being refused
access from public places like normal dogs. Because they are assistance dogs
for people who've got disabilities. Now in hindsight I should have been quicker
off the mark here and I should have just responded to her with something along
lines of "well that doesn't really apply to me because guide dogs don't tend to
need the particular facilities to accommodate them." it's not like someone.
who is a wheelchair user or has a mobility aid or who needs to use hearing
loops for example. You know, a guide dog can use stairs for example and you know...
doesn't need anything like ramps or anything special. So in hindsight I
should have been a little bit more smarter about my response. But I
basically said..."well can you please give me the information of what the venue
have said and who you spoke to and what time of day it was. Because this is a
case of disability discrimination and it's an access denial. Because they are
refusing me access because I have a guide dog and under the Equality Act
they are not allowed to do that. It's illegal, so can you please give me the
information. Because I'm going to need to report this to guide dogs and take this
further." Her response was really vague all she said was "they just said
you can't bring the dog because the facilities are out of order" and that is all
she said that is all she provided me with. But at this point I got in touch
with Guide Dogs, I got in contact with my local mobility team, I wrote an email to
the venue. The whole time this was happening, I really felt that this was a
bit dodgy. it didn't make any sense to me as to why a venue would say what they
had said. It just didn't seem to fit and it turns out my premonition was
right. My mother found out about what had happened to me because I had told her.
The next day my mum got onto the phone and rung up the venue and spoke to the
staff regarding what had happened and she said "well can you please explain why
my daughter has been told by the event company that she cannot bring her guide
dog. Because you are claiming that you will not allow her to bring her guide dog.
Because the facilities are out of order" and it turns out that nobody from this
venue had said it in the first place...
[Crickets sound effect]
They basically said to my mother that no absolutely not. "We would never ever say
that. Guide dogs and assistance dogs are legally allowed into places and
establishments." They knew quite clearly what the rules in the Equality Act
stated. They knew the rules surrounding guide dogs and assistance dogs and also
they clarified that their disabled facilities were in perfect working order.
Nothing was out of order and no one from that venue had told the event company
otherwise... I really don't understand how she thought she would be able to say
this and then just think it would be left and nothing would be done about it.
Because it's discrimination. You know, if you're being told that a venue isn't
accommodating you and that they are trying to refuse your guide dog...you're
gonna do something about it you're not just gonna leave it at that. Questions
are going to be asked. You're going to be trying to find out information and
you're going to be trying to have a discussion with the venue. So I don't
really know what she thought she was going to get out of this and what really
frustrates me is the effect that Gretchen's words had on the venue and on
other people. Because I had written emails to the venue asking them to explain
themselves. The staff at Guide Dogs, their time had
been wasted. Because they wrote emails and got into contact with the venue to
ask them to explain situation and to basically try and rectify the situation.
So their time was wasted as well and Guide Dogs is a charity and they only
have a certain amount of staff who are designated to dealing with access denials
and their time is limited and that time that they are spending chasing up a
false claim could have been spent on dealing with an actual
real case of someone being turned away because they have a guide dog. I got back
in touch with Gretchen. What I said was that I had spoken to the venue and that they
assured me that I was able to bring my guide dog and that guide dogs and assistant
dogs are welcome under the Equality Act. Which is what I've already said to
her and that their facilities were in working order and they did have a lift
that people could use as well and that I could use if I wanted to use that as
opposed to stairs. Her response! She said "yeah that's what I told you in the first
message. I told you that there was a lift which you could access around the back."
No you didn't Gretchen...You never said that. I had the messages right there in
front of me she could still see the messages and she knew quite clearly that
is what she had said. But she was now trying to say that I had misread the
messages and that she never said that and I was just like "I'm sorry is there
some secret code that I need to decipher. Are we reading the same messages
Gretchen? Are we actually reading the same messages?" At this point I was just
like whoa! Mind blown! Mind...blown! I was shocked. But then guys you would think
that would be the end of it wouldn't you? That's where you would be wrong because
the plot... thickens. Whilst all this was going on I was in
contact with a friend of mine who had a blog and she was a wheelchair user and
she was also supposed to be coming to this event herself and I told her about
what Gretchen had said to me about the venue not being accessible and about it
not having any working disabled facilities and she was understandably a bit
concerned because she's a wheelchair user so her access needs are quite
different to mine. So she said "right I'm going to find out what she has to say
for myself. Because obviously my access needs are different." So she got in touch
with Gretchen and said "I'm just checking that your event is accessible for people
who have wheelchairs." Gretchen turns around and says "no. The
event is not accessible the venue does not have working disabled facilities and
there is no working lifts. So unfortunately on this occasion you will
not be able to attend. Funny how she refuses the two bloggers who
both have disabilities. So of course when my friend hears this. She then that gets
in touch with the venue and says "I am just making sure that your establishment
is accessible for someone who has a wheelchair and someone who has a
disability of my nature. Because I am due to attend an event and I have been told
conflicting information with regards to your access facilities" and they respond
to her with "no. We can assure you that we have a fully working lift that is
accessible for people who have wheelchairs and that we also have ramps
to enter the building and ramps to different parts of the building that you
will be using for this event. Gretchen had once again made a false claim that this
venue was not accessible when clearly it was and understandably by this point the
venue were getting a little bit annoyed. Because they had had two claims within
the last couple of days of their event not being accessible for disabled people
and basically about them not accommodating to disabled people. What I
can gather from what my friend told me and also from what my mum told me from
her conversation with the venue. Is that there were going to be some very very
very very in-depth conversations between the venue and Gretchen about her choice
of conduct. Now some of you might be wondering "well what happened after this?"
Well I was in two minds about whether or not to go to this event. Because I
thought to myself do I want to go somewhere where I'm clearly not welcome
and where I'm probably going to face some hostility. My friend didn't end up
going to these events because she wasn't very well. But I still went because I
still wanted to prove a point and I wasn't made to feel welcome. Gretchen was
there greeting and introducing herself to all of the bloggers who arrived and
making pleasantries and small talk with them all...except for me. I was the only
blogger that she didn't come and say hello to that night. I mean what would
she have to say to me? "Oh hello! Glad to see you made it after I tried to
discriminate against you!" It wasn't very pleasant and I didn't really enjoy the
way I was made to feel that night. This was the first ever blogger event I went
to. So this could have really put me off going to anymore
luckily I persevered and I went to more and I've been to
many since and I can honestly say that every single event I've been to since
I've had a really warm response everyone has welcomed my guide dog all of the PR
staff have been lovely. They've all wanted to meet her and ask questions and
pet her and have pictures of her and it's been lovely and I've been able to
work with some really lovely brands and I've been able to form some really
lovely connections with PR companies who absolutely love my guide dog and they
know her by first name now. But you know, I still think back to the first one I
ever went to and I still think about this absolutely horrendous ordeal that I
went through trying to get to it. But you let me know in the comments. What is your
personal take on this story and what I've told you. Because I would really
love to know and some of you might say "well Emily, why don't you take this any
further?" and yes in hindsight looking back perhaps I should have done. But I
was genuinely confused about what to do next. Because it wouldn't be on the
grounds that the venue had refused me access. Because the venue were more than
happy to welcome me. So I didn't really know how I would have been able
to take it further. So I just left it. But if you do want the some degree on
closure to this tale, I will say this. From my understanding, Club Blog is no
longer a working company and they no longer put on events. I really hope you
found this video interesting and enlightening and that you gained something
from hearing about my experiences. I hope that my experiences and my story has
helped you in some way and it helped you realise that you don't have to take this
kind of thing and that you can do something about it. As ever stay
safe, stay home and stay positive and I will see you all in my next one. Bye guys!