An Aberdeenshire woman was wrongly refused entry to a taxi because she had a guide dog.
Samantha Little commutes from the north-east to Glasgow three days a week, and relies on taxis to make journeys easier for her and her canine companion Ziggy.
She said: “Having a guide dog is a way for people with visual impairments to lead an independent life.
“Refusing a taxi is a violation of that and I want to go about my life confident that I can get in a taxi and not be refused and end up feeling horrible.”
Mrs Little, who is registered blind and is hearing impaired, had just left a train in Aberdeenshire in terrible weather conditions when the incident took place.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland she said: “I knocked on the passenger door of a taxi and I gestured below to say I’ve got a guide dog.
“The guy in the taxi just looked over and shook his head.
“I felt rejected, we were soaking and I just wanted to get out of there.”
The 29-year-old had forgotten to take the taxi driver’s details and only realised what he did was against the law once she returned home.
The 2010 Equalities Act makes it illegal for registered bling people to be refused access to a taxi with their animals.
Pamela Munro from Guide Dogs UK said: “If you a taxi driver and have an exemption certificate, you can say to the guide dog owner ‘I’m really sorry, I have an exemption certificate. I am allergic to dogs.
“However, please go to the taxi behind me’.
“But, if you don’t have an exemption certificate then you must take the dog.”