Correspondence: Letter to Senator Dole from James Canaday on Amtrak's accessibility

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Extent (Dublin Core)

3 Pages

File Name (Dublin Core)

s-leg_578_010_042

Title (Dublin Core)

Correspondence: Letter to Senator Dole from James Canaday on Amtrak's accessibility

Description (Dublin Core)

Letter to Senator Dole from James Canaday containing a letter Canaday had sent to Amtrak's customer service. The letter to Amtrak concerns an incident a blind patron had on an Amtrak train.

Date (Dublin Core)

1990-06-19

Date Created (Dublin Core)

1990-06-19

Congress (Dublin Core)

101st (1989-1991)

Topics (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueBlind

See all items with this valueDiscrimination against people with disabilities

See all items with this valuePeople with disabilities

See all items with this valuePeople with disabilities--Transportation

Policy Area (Curation)

Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Creator (Dublin Core)

Canaday, James

Record Type (Dublin Core)

correspondence

Names (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueAmtrak

See all items with this valueNational Federation of the Blind

Rights (Dublin Core)

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Language (Dublin Core)

eng

Collection Finding Aid (Dublin Core)

https://dolearchivecollections.ku.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=23&q=

Physical Location (Dublin Core)

Collection 003, Box 578, Folder 10

Institution (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Archival Collection (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Senate Papers-Legislative Relations, 1969-1996

Full Text (Extract Text)

James Canaday
1330 New Jersy st.
Lawrence KS 66044
[006488 stamp]

June 19,1990
U.S. Senator- Kansas Robert Dole
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:
I am enclosing this letter addressed to AMTERACK’s customer Services’ Manager. This is for your information. I hope that you will sincerely consider the very serious problem highlighted in this letter.

James Canaday

[page 1]

James Canaday
1330 New Jersy st.
Lawrence KS 66044

June 13, 1990

Mr. Alex T. Langston Jr.
Manager, Customer Relations
AMTRACK

Mr. Langston:

I have just finished reading some of your correspondence exchanged earlier this year with Mrs. Becky Skinner of Garden City, Kansas. This correspondence was wholly reproduced in the May 190 Braille Monitor, the publication of the National Federation of the Blind. I write to you now because I frequently travel viz AMTRACK (even on the same Southwest Chief route) and because I too am blind; I am incensed that your letter of January 26, 1990 implicates blindness as a casual factor in Mrs. Skinner’s boarding problem! In fact, I have traveled on AMTRACK for over thirteen years (since I was sixteen), being blind for all of those years.
In your second paragraph for example, you begin (quite commendably) with a direct apology. However, at the end of the very same paragraph you state: “Should you travel with us again, provision of such advantage notice should eliminate the possibility of any repetition of the incident you described.” This highly offensive passage precedes an admission that the conductor should have inspected the side of the train before clearing it to move. The comments preceding and including this quoted sentence are absolutely superior and imply that blindness somehow impairs train-boarding ability. No assistance of any kind could have resolved the problem Mrs. Skinner described, short of keeping the train from moving. This disregards the fact that anyone has trouble boarding a moving train, bus or auto! You should have simply left the possible blame or fault to the Conductor or other culpable crew members. Furthermore, my lengthy and varied AMTRACK experience completely disproves the suggestion that blindness by itself impairs train boarding
An abbreviated description of my railroad passenger experience will clearly demonstrate this, beyond the dictate of common sense. I have accumulated over thirty thousand miles of AMTRACK travel, to destinations such as Lawrence, Ft. Madison (Iowa), Chicago, Sacramento, San Francisco and Salinas (California). I have ridden your Coast Starlight, Southwest Chief, Zephyr and San Joaquin routes. All of this travel has certainly included at least seventy train boardings and detrainings (your own AMTRACK word). On several occasions, I also carried heavy carry-on baggage. Some

[Page 2]

And later a Guide Dog for independent travel. In all of my train travels, I have had absolutely no problem with boarding or detraining, but the trains always remained stationary until car doors firmly closed behind me.
Though I have experienced generally excellent service and conditions on AMTRACK, please do not mistake this letter for a testimonial. A personal concern prods me to write this letter for a testimonial. A similar AMTRACK service calamity and find my blindness blamed for it, as Mrs. Skinner found in your correspondence. In this, you truly “ass insult to injury.”
I hope that this problem does not recur. Much more, I expect greater professionalism from the AMTRACK staff regarding the proper view of blind persons. My extensive experience riding AMTRACK should certainly debunk your belief in diminished train-boarding ability among the independent blind. If you desire further information o the strengths and capacities of the blind, please feel free to write to me or the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) at this address:

The National Federation of the Blind
1800 Johnson st.
Baltimore, MD 21230

This address also serves the Braille Monitor, should you wish to request a subscription. This publication is available in print, cassette or Braille. I look forward to tangeable signs of AMTRACK’s improving attitude toward the blind.

Yours very truly,

[James Canaday signature]
James Canaday

Cc: the Braille Monitor
Cc: Robert Dole, U.S. Senator from Kansas

[Page 3]

James Canaday
1330 New Jersy st.
Lawrence KS 66044
[006488 stamp]

June 19,1990
U.S. Senator- Kansas Robert Dole
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:
I am enclosing this letter addressed to AMTERACK’s customer Services’ Manager. This is for your information. I hope that you will sincerely consider the very serious problem highlighted in this letter.

James Canaday

[page 1]

James Canaday
1330 New Jersy st.
Lawrence KS 66044

June 13, 1990

Mr. Alex T. Langston Jr.
Manager, Customer Relations
AMTRACK

Mr. Langston:

I have just finished reading some of your correspondence exchanged earlier this year with Mrs. Becky Skinner of Garden City, Kansas. This correspondence was wholly reproduced in the May 190 Braille Monitor, the publication of the National Federation of the Blind. I write to you now because I frequently travel viz AMTRACK (even on the same Southwest Chief route) and because I too am blind; I am incensed that your letter of January 26, 1990 implicates blindness as a casual factor in Mrs. Skinner’s boarding problem! In fact, I have traveled on AMTRACK for over thirteen years (since I was sixteen), being blind for all of those years.
In your second paragraph for example, you begin (quite commendably) with a direct apology. However, at the end of the very same paragraph you state: “Should you travel with us again, provision of such advantage notice should eliminate the possibility of any repetition of the incident you described.” This highly offensive passage precedes an admission that the conductor should have inspected the side of the train before clearing it to move. The comments preceding and including this quoted sentence are absolutely superior and imply that blindness somehow impairs train-boarding ability. No assistance of any kind could have resolved the problem Mrs. Skinner described, short of keeping the train from moving. This disregards the fact that anyone has trouble boarding a moving train, bus or auto! You should have simply left the possible blame or fault to the Conductor or other culpable crew members. Furthermore, my lengthy and varied AMTRACK experience completely disproves the suggestion that blindness by itself impairs train boarding
An abbreviated description of my railroad passenger experience will clearly demonstrate this, beyond the dictate of common sense. I have accumulated over thirty thousand miles of AMTRACK travel, to destinations such as Lawrence, Ft. Madison (Iowa), Chicago, Sacramento, San Francisco and Salinas (California). I have ridden your Coast Starlight, Southwest Chief, Zephyr and San Joaquin routes. All of this travel has certainly included at least seventy train boardings and detrainings (your own AMTRACK word). On several occasions, I also carried heavy carry-on baggage. Some

[Page 2]

And later a Guide Dog for independent travel. In all of my train travels, I have had absolutely no problem with boarding or detraining, but the trains always remained stationary until car doors firmly closed behind me.
Though I have experienced generally excellent service and conditions on AMTRACK, please do not mistake this letter for a testimonial. A personal concern prods me to write this letter for a testimonial. A similar AMTRACK service calamity and find my blindness blamed for it, as Mrs. Skinner found in your correspondence. In this, you truly “ass insult to injury.”
I hope that this problem does not recur. Much more, I expect greater professionalism from the AMTRACK staff regarding the proper view of blind persons. My extensive experience riding AMTRACK should certainly debunk your belief in diminished train-boarding ability among the independent blind. If you desire further information o the strengths and capacities of the blind, please feel free to write to me or the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) at this address:

The National Federation of the Blind
1800 Johnson st.
Baltimore, MD 21230

This address also serves the Braille Monitor, should you wish to request a subscription. This publication is available in print, cassette or Braille. I look forward to tangeable signs of AMTRACK’s improving attitude toward the blind.

Yours very truly,

[James Canaday signature]
James Canaday

Cc: the Braille Monitor
Cc: Robert Dole, U.S. Senator from Kansas

[Page 3]

James Canaday
1330 New Jersy st.
Lawrence KS 66044
[006488 stamp]

June 19,1990
U.S. Senator- Kansas Robert Dole
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:
I am enclosing this letter addressed to AMTERACK’s customer Services’ Manager. This is for your information. I hope that you will sincerely consider the very serious problem highlighted in this letter.

James Canaday

[page 1]

James Canaday
1330 New Jersy st.
Lawrence KS 66044

June 13, 1990

Mr. Alex T. Langston Jr.
Manager, Customer Relations
AMTRACK

Mr. Langston:

I have just finished reading some of your correspondence exchanged earlier this year with Mrs. Becky Skinner of Garden City, Kansas. This correspondence was wholly reproduced in the May 190 Braille Monitor, the publication of the National Federation of the Blind. I write to you now because I frequently travel viz AMTRACK (even on the same Southwest Chief route) and because I too am blind; I am incensed that your letter of January 26, 1990 implicates blindness as a casual factor in Mrs. Skinner’s boarding problem! In fact, I have traveled on AMTRACK for over thirteen years (since I was sixteen), being blind for all of those years.
In your second paragraph for example, you begin (quite commendably) with a direct apology. However, at the end of the very same paragraph you state: “Should you travel with us again, provision of such advantage notice should eliminate the possibility of any repetition of the incident you described.” This highly offensive passage precedes an admission that the conductor should have inspected the side of the train before clearing it to move. The comments preceding and including this quoted sentence are absolutely superior and imply that blindness somehow impairs train-boarding ability. No assistance of any kind could have resolved the problem Mrs. Skinner described, short of keeping the train from moving. This disregards the fact that anyone has trouble boarding a moving train, bus or auto! You should have simply left the possible blame or fault to the Conductor or other culpable crew members. Furthermore, my lengthy and varied AMTRACK experience completely disproves the suggestion that blindness by itself impairs train boarding
An abbreviated description of my railroad passenger experience will clearly demonstrate this, beyond the dictate of common sense. I have accumulated over thirty thousand miles of AMTRACK travel, to destinations such as Lawrence, Ft. Madison (Iowa), Chicago, Sacramento, San Francisco and Salinas (California). I have ridden your Coast Starlight, Southwest Chief, Zephyr and San Joaquin routes. All of this travel has certainly included at least seventy train boardings and detrainings (your own AMTRACK word). On several occasions, I also carried heavy carry-on baggage. Some

[Page 2]

And later a Guide Dog for independent travel. In all of my train travels, I have had absolutely no problem with boarding or detraining, but the trains always remained stationary until car doors firmly closed behind me.
Though I have experienced generally excellent service and conditions on AMTRACK, please do not mistake this letter for a testimonial. A personal concern prods me to write this letter for a testimonial. A similar AMTRACK service calamity and find my blindness blamed for it, as Mrs. Skinner found in your correspondence. In this, you truly “ass insult to injury.”
I hope that this problem does not recur. Much more, I expect greater professionalism from the AMTRACK staff regarding the proper view of blind persons. My extensive experience riding AMTRACK should certainly debunk your belief in diminished train-boarding ability among the independent blind. If you desire further information o the strengths and capacities of the blind, please feel free to write to me or the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) at this address:

The National Federation of the Blind
1800 Johnson st.
Baltimore, MD 21230

This address also serves the Braille Monitor, should you wish to request a subscription. This publication is available in print, cassette or Braille. I look forward to tangeable signs of AMTRACK’s improving attitude toward the blind.

Yours very truly,

[James Canaday signature]
James Canaday

Cc: the Braille Monitor
Cc: Robert Dole, U.S. Senator from Kansas

[Page 3]