“You Can Clearly See” – How One Blind Man Was Publicly Humiliated for Simply Existing

By Scarlett Red

Wayne Pugh wanted to celebrate Father’s Day. That’s all. No campaign. No protest. Just a meal with his family at the Chatterley Whitfield pub in Tunstall. A table they’d booked weeks ago. A heads-up already given: he would be attending with Liberty, his beautiful blonde guide dog. Simple, respectful, reasonable.

Instead, Wayne — who is blind — walked into a nightmare. The table his family had booked for Liberty’s safety was gone. No call. No apology. No consideration. Instead, they were offered a cramped corner where Liberty had no choice but to lie in a busy walkway. A guide dog — a highly trained working animal — left at risk of being stepped on while the staff shrugged and said, “It’s suitable.”

When Wayne’s family tried to advocate for him, they were kicked out. Let me say that again: a blind man’s family were thrown out of a pub for asking whether their disabled son and brother could sit at the table he had booked — in a way that wouldn’t risk harm to his guide dog.

And Wayne? Still quietly sitting at the table, trying to clip on Liberty’s harness so they could leave in peace. He hadn’t said a word. But a stranger — emboldened by the manager’s outburst — marched up and started accusing Wayne of causing trouble. Of swearing. Of being a problem. He hadn’t even spoken.

The final blow came when the general manager, Rehana, shouted at him across the pub: “You can clearly see I’ve got 30 covers and 16 in this room — why don’t you just leave?”

Wayne is completely blind. When he pointed that out — heartbroken and humiliated in front of a packed restaurant — her reply wasn’t an apology. It was:“I’ve got a disabled son — I know what I said.”

Let that sink in. If a man in a wheelchair had been told “why don’t you just walk out?” If someone with a stammer was told to “speak clearly”…We would be horrified. Rightly so. But time and time again, disabled people are spoken over, shouted down, and dismissed — not for being rude, but for existing in a space where we are treated as inconvenient.

Wayne’s story is not rare. It’s just rarely heard. In the weeks leading up to this, Wayne was ignored by bus station staff, turned away by taxi drivers, treated like a nuisance in shops, and even denied proper treatment at the dentist.

This is not about one pub — it’s about the repeated erosion of someone’s dignity simply because they are disabled in public.

What happened at the Chatterley Whitfield was not just bad service. It was a breach of the Equality Act 2010, which protects disabled people from discrimination and requires reasonable adjustments — like suitable seating for guide dog users. Yet none of that mattered on the day.

Wayne, his dog Liberty, and his entire family were failed — not just by Greene King’s staff, but by a society that still makes people feel they must apologize for being disabled.Wayne isn’t asking for sympathy. He’s asking for change. So am I.

As someone who also lives with a hidden disability, I know what it’s like to be looked at, doubted, dismissed, even sacked, simply for existing outside the norm. And I know that so many others do too.

We are not “special cases.” We are not burdens. We are your colleagues, your customers, your friends, and your family. And we deserve to be treated with the same decency and humanity as anyone else.

If Wayne's story moved you, don’t let it fade.

• Speak up when you see discrimination.

• Share Wayne’s story.

• And if you’re Greene King — train your staff, apologize publicly, and live by the values you claim to stand for.

  
  

  Because no one should leave a pub in tears just for turning up blind.

  

  Wayne Pugh with his guide dog, Liberty. Photo credit: Wayne Pugh - Facebook