A visually impaired woman says she was refused a drink by an Adelaide bartender because she was “unattended” and “unattended”.
Key Point:
- Vanessa Lansley went drinking at a bar after arriving in Adelaide from Hobart
- She said she was denied service because she was alone and had no caregiver
- Ms Lansley said she was “stunned” but wanted to “get the message out that this is unacceptable.”
Vanessa Lansley said the incident was “soul-crushing”, but she chose to talk about it to remind others of their rights.
Lansley recently arrived in Adelaide “unaccompanied” from Hobart and checked into a hotel room at Stamford Grand in Glenelg on Sunday before heading to the bar for cocktails at the Horizon Cocktail Lounge. Told.
“And the man wouldn’t serve me because I didn’t have a ‘caregiver,'” she told ABC Radio Adelaide.
Lansley said she didn’t need a caregiver, but tried to explain it to no avail.
“I had a ‘safety risk’ and he wasn’t ready to serve me a drink. I thought it was interesting considering I went to the bar myself and went to the hotel myself. “But I can’t drink myself. Yeah, it’s pretty devastating,” she said.
“It sucks to know they are wrong and that my human right is to drink. It destroyed the soul.”
Lansley said he was “legally blind” and had been a guide dog “all his life.”
ABC reached out to Stanford Grand for comment.
Lansley said he has traveled extensively alone in Australia and abroad, but had “never” experienced anything like the bar incident.
“I was just dumbfounded, to be honest. I said, ‘I need to see my manager.’ He was my manager. I was like, ‘Oh, this is working,'” she said. Told.
“He wasn’t going to listen to my opinion at all, or even admit that I had an opinion…he was just like, how this is going to go, whether you like it or not.
“We’re making a fuss because this could happen to someone who doesn’t understand their rights and people need to know that this is not good and will not be accepted.”
She then reached out to another senior member of staff to resolve the situation, but “the bar manager had nothing.”
“I had to walk away. I can bang my head against a brick wall over and over again,” Lansley said.
She said after the hotel’s operations manager spoke to her, “I am completely regretful and very sorry about what happened yesterday.”
Lansley said staff were told they would face disciplinary action and retraining.
“There’s a widespread message that this is unacceptable, unacceptable, and not OK,” she said.
“I hate it when it happens to someone who doesn’t have my resilience.
“I’m going to have a drink at home tonight.”