[nagdu] Guide dogs and state centers

[Wayne Merritt]

Greetings all. I'll keep this short given all the discussion that's
already happened on this topic. However, when reading through one of
the threads, there were a couple of things I felt compelled to
mention.

First, the thought was mentioned that the student should have known
about the guide dog policy ahead of time, or something to that affect.
Though some people pointed out that she did know, since she was
returning to the Iowa Center, another point should be made here. As
some may know, I work as a technology teacher at the Criss Cole
Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, which is the state's training
center for the adult blind. WE have a policy like many of the NFB
centers do regarding sleepshade training. Mainly that students must
wear sleepshades from 8-12 and 1-5. I believe that low vision students
even sign a contract stating that they understand and will comply. So,
they sign a contract, they are told numerous times, both when they
tour the program for a day or two and when they arrive at the program.
However, people slipping their blindfolds up to check the computer
screen, to verify that they're cutting in the right place when
chopping vegitables, or when out on O&M routes, is one of the biggest
problems in our center. If I'm to take this arguement full force, if
the studetns know and are told time and time again that they must wear
blindfolds, why do we continue to have the problems of students
lifting their blindfolds to check out or verify what they perceive
with alternative techniques? I haven't yet answered this question
myself, but I'm inclined to think that it's because they're human and
felt that they have to verify in order to learn these "skills of
blindness." However, the struggle goes on, of getting the student to
trust their skills and not feel like they have to check everything
with vision. Not everyone may be as defiant as this, some may
genuinely want to check something on the computer screen, but there
are those students that will willingly and knowingly lift that
blindfold right when you walk by them in class, and they know that
you're by them even before they lift it. Ug. I think that this is
something that even our NFB centers struggle with, reducing the amount
of lifting of the blindfold, among their students. I can read all the
articles about wonderful training and training in the alternative
techniques of blindness, but there's still that X factor of the
student at our nFB Center who feels like he has to lift his blindfold
in order to check something.

Finally, as I've stated on this list several times before, Criss Cole
does give students freedom of choice regarding guide dogs. A student
can bring their dog with them to training, provided that they use the
dog only 4 hours per day and the cane the rest of the training day.
Before training and after 5pm, it's up to them. This is perhaps the
most generous and compremising position that i've heard of in recent
years with the current training center model, other than being allowed
to use the dog the whole training day. I'm not sure of the policies in
O&M, but I believe that the student is requested to use the cane to
start out in their O&M time, and later in their training they are
allowed to use the dog. Please pardon my lack of knowledge on the
specifics, but that's what I understand things to be. Now, why more
state centers aren't doing something like we're doing is a good
question. Perhaps because each center is it's own individual intity
and there's no set standard across the board. Not making excuses here.
In the 3 years that I've been at Criss Cole, there have been a number
of students with guide dogs that have completed the program. I don't
know about the time before I came, I can only speak for what I've
seen. And what I've seen have been a lot of dogs around the building.
Something else that Criss Cole has that I've yet to hear about from
the NFB centers, is a lot of staff that use dogs. Granted, not all 100
plus staff are using dogs, but about 10 percent of them do, which is
around 7-10 people. Granted, not all of those are in direct teaching
with students, but most are. Staff take their dogs to classes, and
they leave their dogs in their offices during class. Yes, I know that
Diane McGeorge had and used her dog at the Center when she was
director of the Colorado Center. However, I've yet to hear about other
staff, particularly those in teaching classroom roles, that regularly
take their dogs to class. I'm sure they're  out there though. Further,
it seems that there's only one or two staf that might fit this mold at
an NFB center. Why is this? Granted, it may be in part due to the
smaller staff at an NFB center verses the larger staf at a state
center, but still. And finally, lest anyone thing that Criss Cole is
solely inhabited by NFB people, since it's a state center, plenty of
ACB and unaffiliated people work there as well.

Incidentally, Criss Cole now accepts people from anywhere in the
United states. So if you're interested in training, want to bring your
dog, and are willing to be trained from 6-9 months, then contact me
off list and I'll pass your desire along to our admissions
coordinator.

So much for being short, but hopefully I've offered something to the
overall discussion.

Wayne Merritt

-- 
My blog:
http://wayneism.blogspot.com
My websites:
www.wayneism.com
www.whitecaneday.org