As a guide dog handler living in Sweden you can never take it for granted that shops, cafés, gyms and hospitals will let you in. When you apply for a job or attend a course, you never know if you will be told to leave the dog at home.
The anxiety about possible refusals means some guide dog handlers may stay at home. This restricts the Independence that a guide dog provides to a blind or visually impaired person. For more than a decade complaints from guide dog handlers have been sent to the ombudsman for discrimination, but have so far not lead to any consequences. We want to make it obvious to our politicians that we are far behind many comparable countries.
If you live in a country where blind people accompanied by guide dogs may go wherever they want, please send a message to the Swedish Minister for Democracy, and tell her what it is like. Tell her that you want the guide dog handlers in Sweden to enjoy the same freedom as you do.
