A blind man has strapped a GoPro camera to his guide dog to record the daily discrimination he faces during his London commute.
Amit Patel, a 37-year-old former A&E doctor, lost his sight in 2012 and relies on his guide dog Kika to navigate his way around the capital during rush hour.
The decision to fit his guide dog with a camera came out of frustration over the number of incidents he faced on a daily basis, but could not see for himself.
"People barged me out of the way, Kika got abused, hit with umbrellas, bags," he told Mashable.
When he gets back home, his wife Seema reviews the video to see if they have done it deliberately, and then shares videos and pictures on Kika's Twitter account to raise awareness.
One particularly bad incident involved a woman who had a go at him for holding everyone up on the escalator: "I was with my 2-month old baby on my chest, the dog on the left side blocking the escalator. A lady came running behind us. I told her I couldn't walk up the escalator because of my dog. She had a go, saying was going to miss the train because of my dog," Patel said.
Despite these incidents, Patel says 99 per cent of the time he has no issues whatsoever, and he encounters genuinely nice people. But 1 per cent of the people are "rude and arrogant"
"People distract her (Kika), get in the way, try to be funny or bump her," he said. "Some parents don't care and have their children screaming at the dog or petting it - so I have to kindly tell them she's working and ask if they can wait until we get on the train."
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