Disabled campaigner Willard Fox is pushing for shops and restaurants to welcome guide dogs which are currently banned from many premises.

Speaking on the eve of Access Awareness Week he said some proprietors ignorantly took the view the dogs would swipe food and leave droppings.

Mr. Fox, who is chairman of the Bermuda Handicapped Association, said: "They are trained not to take food unless their master allows it. I have seen meat dropped in a Chinese restaurant and the guide dog just looks at it."

He said taxi drivers were sometimes reluctant to take guide dogs. "The same driver will take a dog from Tucker's Town to the vets but money talks."

Former Chairman of the restaurant division of the Chamber of Commerce Jay Correia said he had no problem with blind people with dogs entering the Swizzle Inn, which he runs.

He said: "They are welcome, the guide dogs are trained to be in public places.

"It's a moral decision. I would feel inappropriate to tell a blind person they couldn't come in because they had a guide dog.

"I think they have legislation in the States saying they must be allowed in. Here it's a choice and businessmen must make a decision on what's best for them."

Mr. Fox said more needed to be done on improving disabled access to shops, restaurants and offices.

And he said business owners who failed to adapt were losing out.

"Why go if I know they will have steps? If there is a ramp I will go there. It's common sense. My $20 is just as valuable as anyone else's."

He said able bodied people also gained from ramps. He said he had monitored entry to the BTC building which had a ramp and 85 percent of people used that rather than the steps.

"It's good for people with baby carriages."

Al Swain, who is in Bermuda to give a motivational speech for Access Awareness Week, said: "The bottom line for restaurants is money, they should remember that some of us have money. It makes good business sense to improve access."

Mr. Fox said the Corporation of Hamilton had made efforts to improve facilities for the disabled but elsewhere the picture was bleaker.

He said St. George's old buildings and narrow streets made it difficult to make alterations.

Bermuda also need to make parking in disabled bays an offence said Mr. Fox who praised the attitude of Police and traffic wardens for helping the disabled.

However employers also needed to change their attitude said Mr. Fox as many viewed taking on disabled people as an act of charity - and paid accordingly.

"Work isn't something just to occupy us. Some employers want to pay $1.50 an hour."

Access Awareness Week will also look at transport for the disabled. Mr. Fox said although the Transport department were allowing larger taxis fitted with ramps the steep incline would put off older drivers from picking up passengers in wheelchairs.

He called for taxis which sat lower to ease access.