[nagdu] Jury finds IA Dept. for Blind's guidedog policy does not discriminate

[Angie Matney]

Hi Nicole,

You're exactly right. My objection isn't to this idea; it's to this misuse of the term "visual aid."

Best,

Angie

On Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:56:40 -0800, Nicole B. Torcolini wrote:

>I think that part of the problem is that people, like Julie said, depend on 
>their dogs too much sometimes. There are certain things that I know that my 
>dog will almost certainly do, such as taking me to the lounge door when 
>crossing the courtyard at my dorm, but that is still no reason for me to 
>become oblivious to my surroundings; dog guides are still dogs and can 
>become distracted or simply mess up for no particular reason. Humans are not 
>perfect, so why should dogs be expected to be?

>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Angie Matney" <leadinglabbie at mpmail.net>
>To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
><nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 9:52 PM
>Subject: Re: [nagdu] Jury finds IA Dept. for Blind's guidedog policy does 
>not discriminate


>Hi Julie P,

>You make some excellent points in your post. I understand the logic of their 
>position (though I think it is taken to an extreme, and often, such 
>extremism is not healthy). But I really do believe that calling a dog a 
>"visual aid" as a pretty unforgivable
>attack on the English language. (grin) This is simply not a standard way of 
>talking about these things. I think that one of the first people to 
>introduce this specious terminology was Paul Gabias (sp?), a guide-dog user 
>and (for a few years) a leader in
>NAGDU. I think that if a member of the general public heard the term "visual 
>aid" in reference to training for blind people, they'd take a stab at 
>defining it and likely get it wrong. So a statement that "visual aids, 
>including guide dogs" are against
>center policy is likely confusing.

>JMO,

>Angie






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