I was unfairly banned from many pubs/bars

People do go to bars to meet new people. But it depends immensely on the type of the bar the type of person. In my experience young people go to noisy clubbish bars to meet other young people.

also the approach is very important. If you overhear a conversation and perhaps you lean over and say ‘I couldn’t help but overhear you saying X and I thought you might like to know Y.’ And then if they respond as if they are interested maybe you can start a conversation and if they don’t you just have to excuse yourself and move on. 

there is a big difference between that and just sitting down at somebody’s table and saying let me introduce myself. But at the end of the day you were not expected to know these things will be an expert on how to approach people because you are autistic and it is a handicap for you. If the bar has not made allowances for you I think they are probably discriminating against you (in a moral if not legal sense).

Peter said:

probably discriminating against you (

Seriously? A pub is there to make money, not to provide assistance. Pubs have no obligations to cater for people with social difficulties. They are not a public service.

if those social difficulties are the consequence of a disability then yes they do. In exactly the same way that they have an obligation to cater to people with mobility difficulties by putting in ramps / lifts.

Amerantin (former member) said:

Autism isn’t a free licence to annoy and upset other people or to behave unacceptably, and arguing that it is only makes it more likely that we will be discriminated against.

This sentence should be printed on a block of wood and given to any person diagnosed with ASD (or any other mental problem).

> legally this is the case.

Yes, in your own little planet. You are welcome to prove me wrong, but I won't advise you to try that in a real world court. I do not want to be responsible for staining your penal record.

ok but there is a saying. You are allowed your own opinions but not your own facts. And the fact is the law says banning autisic people for behaving 'unaceptably' (when thats a product of autism) can be unlawful. You may disagree but legally this is the case.

We’ll have to agree to disagree Peter. 

Autism isn’t a free licence to annoy and upset other people or to behave unacceptably, and arguing that it is only makes it more likely that we will be discriminated against.

maybe he was. but if that behavior is a product of an autism driven misunderstanding anti discrimination law should still protect it in my opinion. People forget nothing in the equality act says 'bad' behavior is some how exempt from buinesses having to make special allowences for.

Section 15 was spicificly put the equality act because a court ruled that a schizophrenic man being kicked out of his house for letting someone else live there (because he was schizophrenic) was not discrimination. The court rulled that because he was kicked out for letting someone else live there, not because he was schozophrenic, it wasn't discrimination. And the goverment turned around and said 'no' and made a law that treating people badly because of something that happened because of their disability (including bad behavior / rule breaking) is ilegal discrimination. (subject to some posible defences)

Reminder of Rule 5:

Be nice to one another and enjoy chatting with others. We encourage conversation and respectful debate; please be aware that individuals may give opinions which are not shared by other members. Insulting posts or comments making personal jibes will not be tolerated.   

But if it’s happened in many different establishments it very much suggests that the poster is engaging in unacceptable behaviour of some kind.

You misunderstood or misread my post. I wished everyone an epiphany that makes them happy.

whether it was on a whim or not is really not the point. The fact that it's many bars only reenforces my point that it can have a big effect on a persons social life, or in this case atempts to get a social life.

I was once banned from a pub, along with others, for 'drinking too slowly'. Possibly connected with being penniless students at the time. Not really a substantive reason.

I don’t think anyone was banned on a whim Peter, and certainly not from “many pubs/bars” as per the original post.

being banned from things can be a lot more than hurt feelings though. Imagine you live in a small vilage with one pub and no vilage hall. Being banned from that pub is almost the same thing as being banned from vilage life.

Imagine you've been in one club for 10 years and all your friends are there? Being banned from that club is almost the same as being banned from that friendship group.

Autistic peoples social stuctures can be really narrow and deep. All eggs in one basket. So one ban can destroy someones social life.

Imagine if everyone with hurt feelings sued…

I'm not starting any claim. I'm not the party with standing. Nor am I advising Roswell to bring a claim. That's a dissision for him based on the facts. I'm merely pointing out that such cases have been sucessful before.

Bowerman v B & Q PLC [2005] (westlaw WL 7863629) comes to mind. Or J Clarke v Marks and Spencer plc: 3313186/2022.

Start the claim.

You will be laughed out of court and possibly charged with wasting the court's time.

Please keep me posted. 

Yes it can be unlimited but it’s very unlikely to be. Awards for injury to feelings are rarely  over £10,000 (which is generally the limit for anything on the small claims track)

I imagine the typical recovery for a lawsuit against a pub might be a few thousand pounds. That might not sound like a lot. But if you’re unemployed & have no savings and are doing all of your own paperwork there’s a good chance you won’t have to pay any money to file the case at court provided you fill out the right forms to have your fees waived.

if it does end up on the small claims track and you don’t use a lawyer your expenses are probably measured in printer ink and bus fare to and from the courthouse.

How is a 'public house' not public? To quote, "Operators of pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels need to be aware of the obligations of the Equality Act, which requires equality of access to their services for disabled people." This includes mental as well as physical disabilities. The managers and owners of 'hospitality venues' can be taken to court if they infringe a disabled person's right of access to their facilities and the amount of damages that may be awarded is unlimited.

Then you’re looking at the wrong thing. The poor compliance with the equality act has far more to do with how difficult it is to bring a case in the first place than the merits of the case when it actually gets into court.

what you should really be looking at is how many cases have been successful versus how many cases have failed.

cases have been brought successfully against pubs for not having wheelchair access. I can actually give you a list of some of some of the key cases brought against people for failing to make reasonable adjustments for autism although it does tend to be more in employment. This is because bringing a case to court in employment law is just a lot easier with the way the system is set up not because the cases are somehow more likely to succeed in employment as opposed to services.

Amerantin (former member) said:

I thought one of the purposes of this forum was for we aliens to share our learnings about the humans and their rules.

why you reply to my posts after wishing that everyone in the forum had the epiphany of not speaking with me again? Please shut up

Again, you cannot tell your fantasy world from the real world. In theory, it should be like that. In practice, it's not. If you do not believe  me, try to ask Pathfinder in this thread. He is more attuned to the real world than you.

As a homework, do a census of your local pubs and see how many of them have effective wheelchair access. You will be surprised. 

You know who else probably hasn't worked in a bar? a county court judge deciding a discrimination lawsuit. The law does not give a free pass to bussnesses just because equality law is inconvenient or they don't understand it or thats not the way things are usually done. The civil law is a rod for beating those who don't care about the law into complience. As the pholosopher said good men don't need rules. These laws were writen with the understanding that they would have to be used to make busnesses do things that hurt their busness interests.

You know who else probably hasn't worked in a bar? a county court judge deciding a discrimination lawsuit. The law does not give a free pass to bussnesses just because equality law is inconvenient or they don't understand it or thats not the way things are usually done. The civil law is a rod for beating those who don't care about the law into complience. As the pholosopher said good men don't need rules. These laws were writen with the understanding that they would have to be used to make busnesses do things that hurt their busness interests.

Then you’re looking at the wrong thing. The poor compliance with the equality act has far more to do with how difficult it is to bring a case in the first place than the merits of the case when it actually gets into court.

what you should really be looking at is how many cases have been successful versus how many cases have failed.

cases have been brought successfully against pubs for not having wheelchair access. I can actually give you a list of some of some of the key cases brought against people for failing to make reasonable adjustments for autism although it does tend to be more in employment. This is because bringing a case to court in employment law is just a lot easier with the way the system is set up not because the cases are somehow more likely to succeed in employment as opposed to services.

Again, you cannot tell your fantasy world from the real world. In theory, it should be like that. In practice, it's not. If you do not believe  me, try to ask Pathfinder in this thread. He is more attuned to the real world than you.

As a homework, do a census of your local pubs and see how many of them have effective wheelchair access. You will be surprised.