[nagdu] Jury finds IA Dept. for Blind's guidedog policy does not discriminate
Hope Paulos
hope.paulos at maine.edu
Sat Feb 21 00:01:19 UTC 2009
margo! Ithink you're right on! I could not agree more! I've been
avoiding takingtraining at the NFB centers because I'mn
willingffsacrifice the use of mydogddI like the structured
discovery method of teaching that the centers use, but they
should maketheir programs more individualized. If I use a dog,
it's likely I would not want to receive o and m training with the
cane. Since I've received approximately 22 years of it andonly 4
years with my guide. A college is individualized- yeseay hfftake
certain classes in order to obtain a particularmajor, but you can
choose the major.
Just mzopinion.
Hope and Beignet
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Margo and Elmo" <margo.downey at verizon.net
>To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog
Users"<nagdu at nfbnet.org
>Date sent: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:59:09 -0500
>Subject: Re: [nagdu] Jury finds IA Dept. for Blind's guidedog
policy does not discriminate
>But, one must take each person as an individual. if a person
already is
>willing to use a cane and it's noted that he or she uses the cane
and he or
>she can also use a guide dog, then he or she should use the guide
dog if
>that is her or his preferred method of travel.
>I think our centers would do well to be more flexible and not try
to mold
>everyone into one mold.
>margo and Elmo
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "JULIE PHILLIPSON" <jbrew48 at verizon.net
>To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog
Users"
><nagdu at nfbnet.org
>Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 11:18 PM
>Subject: Re: [nagdu] Jury finds IA Dept. for Blind's guide dog
policy does
>not discriminate
>> Angie I'll take a shot at this although I might be being too
brave to do
>> so!
>> Anything that helps by visual means is being referred to as a
visual aid,
>> so that could be a machine like a CCTV a magnifying device or a
human
>> sighted guide and in this case it is a guide dog because your
dog is
>> helping you by using his her ability to see.
>> What the NFB centers are doing is eliminating help from any
other visual
>> means and making you learn to tune into your own abilities to
gather the
>> same kinds of information and learn to trust and depend on
yourself and
>> only yourself without the confusion of in adequate vision. .
>> When someone is first learning or relearning travel skills they
are
>> learning much more than just traveling with a cane. they are
also building
>> and strengthening confidence and self respect. They discover
that they
>> have regained independent mobility, and eventually are still
able to do
>> all the things they could do before losing vision. Once someone
has
>> established that sense of confidence and can travel competently,
on an
>> emotional level you have proved to yourself that you can
accomplish what
>> ever you want to do. It didn't just happen in a week or a month
it took
>> lots of time to carefully build that confidence and trust in
yourself.
>> For example think of something that you feel you are really good
at, and
>> think about what you had to do to achieve that competence. How
did you
>> feel about yourself once you reached your goal? Pride, ability
to move on
>> to accomplishing other things? You could even compare it to
graduating
>> from school. You don't just become a psychologist, or a lawyer
in a short
>> period of time. You had to work at it and practice it, and do
it often
>> like learning to ride a bike or play an instrument. The more
you did it
>> the better you got at it right?
>> It is the same with learning to do anything even to use a cane
or a guide
>> dog. When you are learning to use a cane you might stubble on
an uneven
>> surface or miss a step but I'll bet you just learned how not to
do it
>> again! You notice the differences in the sound that your cane
makes and
>> you start being more careful paying attention to traffic sounds
as you
>> approach the corner. When you use a dog and skip the cane
altogether you
>> figure oh my dog will take care of it and stop when I get to the
corner so
>> I don't need to think about it right? You don't give yourself
the chance
>> to develop your own awareness to the environment. You learned
to be
>> overly dependent on your dog, not working as a team, and putting
way too
>> much pressure and stress on the dog. When you miss that step
you don't
>> take responsibility for it being your own mistake, no you
correct the dog
>> and blame it on him or her! By skipping the learning to use a
cane step
>> you are cheating yourself and being unfare to the dog.
>> When you get a dog for the first time you didn't all of a sudden
know how
>> to do it perfectly, in fact it takes several weeks of training
and then
>> sometimes months after that to feel comfortable and trust in
your dog, but
>> it still took a lot of hard work to accomplish that goal.
>> Now the use of sleep shades is a whole other issue. Like I said
before
>> you are eliminating the confusion of poor vision and tuning into
your
>> other senses. If someone has residual vision I can't tell you
how many
>> times I have thought I knew what I was seeing only to find out
it wasn't
>> at all what I thought it was. Is that a pot hole or just a dark
patch of
>> blacktop coming up? Is that door open or is it a glass door
that is
>> closed. How long am I going to feel around looking for the door
handle or
>> visually find the door bell. Once you start learning to do
these kinds of
>> things without the help of poor vision it becomes much simpler.
I think
>> this is probably hard for a congenitally blind person to
understand
>> because it has simply never been in their experience. I have
never been
>> trained or used sleep shades and I don't think I would ever like
to. What
>> I have done many times is closed my eyes and trusted my other
senses to
>> figure something out. That is a hard thing to do, and most of
us would
>> not want to or perhaps even be able to do it voluntarily. Most
of us
>> blind and visually impaired folks have simply never gotten
adequate
>> mobility training. There is a shortage of mobility instructors
and there
>> is neither the time or money to give mobility the time it
deserves.
>> Somehow some of us get good at it on our own or perhaps got
lucky and did
>> have a good mobility instructor who was able to teach something
and
>> managed to somehow give you the confidence to transfer those
skills to
>> other situations, but many times that just doesn't happen for
lots of
>> reasons. OK let me know how well I have explained it or how
much I've
>> screwed up! (grin)
>> Julie Phillipson
>> ----- 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 6:56 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Jury finds IA Dept. for Blind's guide dog
policy does
>> not discriminate
>>> Would someone please explain this nonstandard use of the term
"visual
>>> aid" to me? My dog is not a powerpoint presentation.
>>> Thanks,
>>> Angie
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