[blindlaw] {Spam?} Re: Guidedog verses white cane

[David]

Dear Paul,  I am partially sighted with about 5 degrees of central vision.

1.  I can't help with the crawling baby issue from a personal experience 
standpoint, but I've seen dogs around babies without issues.  Your 
question is a good one for your guide dog school.

2.  I used a white cane during the last 9 years of my career as general 
counsel of an insurance company.  I met with senior executives and 
general counsel of some of the largest corporations in the U.S.  My 
white cane was an issue for about the first 10 seconds of first meeting 
someone.  It is also a non-issue in court.  I traveled as much as 80,000 
miles a year.  I did lose two canes to limo drivers in Manhattan.  The 
only other negative experience I had was one time when meeting a 
corporate general counsel, he shook my hand with his left hand. I 
stupidly asked him if he had hurt his right hand.  He raised a leather 
covered fist prosthesis and said, "Here."  The meeting was toast.

In my opinion, your acceptance of the white cane by others depends 
entirely upon your attitude, how you feel about it, and how you carry 
yourself.  I find it is the same with a guide dog, but except for bar 
association and board meetings I have not used a guide dog in 
professional settings.

David and Claire Rose in Clearwater, FL

On 7/21/2016 11:13 PM, Paul Harpur via BlindLaw wrote:
> I have a professional and personal question I wanted to ask for people’s views.
> I am totally blind and went from using a white cane to my first
> guidedog back in law school in 2000.  Since then I have always used a
> guidedog.  I tried for a while to use a white cane when my first baby
> came home and now that he is 1 I put my name down for a dog again.  I
> am not sure how:
> 1.	A guidedog will go with a crawling baby; and
> 2.	How I will be received using a white cane in the profession.
> Has anyone had experiences good or bad they could share with me?