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

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Angie,

I prefer to use terms like adaptive tool and such, whether I'm talking about
my dog in her role as guide, my cane, JAWS, my mPower, whatever.  I guess I
think of an adaptive tool as a means for me to adapt to a sight-oriented
world now that I am not sighted.  Or something on that order; I don't think
I put it very well.  I guess I mean that it's not so much about the tools'
helping me adapt to blindness as it is about their enabling me to adapt to
the world around me within the context of blindness.

I did just crack up at the PowerPoint reference, though.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Angie Matney
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 11:32 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Jury finds IA Dept. forBlind's guidedog policy does not
discriminate

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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