I’ve been tossing up lately as to whether or not to sell my car and buy a scooter. There are pros and cons, but I went to a scooter shop on Thursday and was really, really impressed with the customer focus of these people. Nothing was too much trouble. More on that in another post.
While undecided about whether or not I’d actually get a scooter, it seemed very little trouble, while in Joondalup, to go to the licensing centre to get my motorbike learners’ permit.
One of the questions on the application form was related to physical disabilities, with an option for “Other”. I wrote that I am deaf but am a cochlear implant recipient.
When the girl at the counter saw this, she said she’d just check in her files to make sure that wasn’t a problem. There was nothing in her files about deafness or hearing impairment at all but was that enough for her? Of course not. She had to go and make a fuss. She went away to “ask”, and over ten minutes later returned and said I’d have to go to my doctor and get a letter saying he/she thought it was ok for me to drive.
(Bear in mind I’ve had my car licence for 23 years.)
So I wasn’t a happy chappy and I asked to see the documentation that decreed I should do so. I said, if this is engraved in stone then so be it, but if someone has made an arbitrary decision then I want to know about it.
She disappeared and didn’t return for quite some time. We probably waited there at the counter for half an hour or more in total. At one point, her supervisor appeared and asked for my drivers licence number. I started to seethe, because I’d simply asked to see the documentation that said a deaf or hearing-impaired person was unable to drive, not to have it all checked against my own details. What was a general enquiry had suddenly become personal. WTF?
Eventually someone came and said no I didn’t have to go and get a letter from the doctor (well, what a surprise — there was no rule about that and someone quite clearly had made an arbitrary decision, but I’d made a fuss about it, so…) and I simply had to fill out a form stating that I had this physical condition.
There would be no problem getting my learners permit at all.
Grrrrrr.
I don’t know about you but I’m absolutely gobsmacked and horrified that individual staff should apparently decide that someone who is deaf (albeit with cochlear implants) has no brain and is unable to drive, even though all the documentation available to them says it’s not a problem. But because they personally find it a problem, it becomes a problem — unless, of course, the customer complains loudly enough.
Government of Western Australia — the buck won’t stop here. Although it ended well enough (I have my motorbike learners’ permit) this is a clear case of discrimination.
Shame.
Dreadfully arbitrary behaviour by them. Glad to read that your not going to let them get away with this.
Go get ‘em V! xx
That’s a terrible story Vicki. I can see how it started though: the person behind the counter probably isn’t the sharpest person in the world, and would be thinking they would need to cover their ass. The for shame should really go to whoever it was, presumably higher up, who told her you needed the letter in the first place.
Yes: I would have been angry too. For this to happen in a government agency is particularly worrying.
Does not surprise me in the least. Especially the part about needing to arbitrate the decision to look at their record on you. What are they looking for a shady past. Terrorist links, or maybe a record as a trouble maker. Licencing systems often allow for free text comments to be completed by operators. I know often person options get transcribed into them. You will never get to see them under FOI as they are seen as operational information. Yes I hate public servants that misuse power.
This is a precise case of mindless discrimination that some mindless counter clerk has made. I can see they need a little training. I wouldn’t let it rest there by the way or they will just have forgotten the incident a week later.
Thanks folks — yep no doubt it started because over-zealous staff members (both at the counter and elsewhere) were determined not to let anyone with a disability, however irrelevant, slip through the cracks if they could possibly help it — best keep ‘em off the roads just in case, eh? And the added satisfaction of a job well done!
It’s sickening really. And if I hadn’t questioned it, I would have had to jump through hoops, wasting time, and money due to the expense of going to a doctor. (And wasting the doctor’s time too.)
Hrm I guess I haven’t quite calmed down yet. ;-)
Hi Vicki! Good on you for your persistance. I have bilateral Cochlear implants and am an Aircrewman (Rescue Hoist Operator/Navigator) on Rescue Helicopters. It took me 9 months of test/documentation/test correspondence between CASA and many Specialists to regain my Aviation Medical certificate- post hearing loss, but I got there. I was so close to giving up until a chance night of binge drinking with an old pilot friend who recounted to me his trials and tribulations in passing his Aviation medical after 1st Heart surgey, and 2nd, Multiple Schlerosis- he got there, so that was enough to know I should keep going…and here I am, back in the Air. Never let anyone but yourself be the decider of your limitations!
My licence stipulates I must wear my glasses to drive, and that’s OK with me, so I would be equally happy to have it similarly endorsed for my cochlear speech processors. I think this would be logical.
Danny, that is an inspirational story. (Amazing what a night of binge drinking can achieve, eh? ;-) ) I am so pleased for you that it all came good in the end.
Mr — I agree it would be logical, but only if there was an issue with deaf or hearing impaired people driving! The point I’m trying to make is that if hearing impairment or deafness was documented similarly to eyesight issues, with special rules or requirements, that would be different — but as that is not the case, it was improper at best and discriminatory at worst to be asked to jump through unnecessary hoops on the whim of individuals within the Licensing Centre.
I can only guess they wanted to check your drivers licence in case there’d been medical conditions imposed in the past. . . I wouldn’t be subscribing to gary’s public service paranoia, it was probably just good old fashioned inefficiency and stupidity.
Well — I have no argument with the theory that they were inefficient and stupid. :-)
Still, a request to see the guideline should never have become a personal check-up on my details.