[nagdu] NAGDU and NFB centers

[Marion & Martin]

Angie,
    The seminar is in the process of being formulated. We will definitely 
take your ideas into consideration.

Fraternally,
marion


----- 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: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 1:09 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] NAGDU and NFB centers


> Hi Marion,
>
> Thanks for the information. I have a few questions about the cession.
>
> I firmly believe a panel discussion, including someone who advocates for 
> more inclusion of guide dogs at NFB and similar centers, would be more 
> productive than a presentation by Center staff. Is this a possibility? I 
> believe that a debate would
> be more beneficial to everyone than a question-and-answer session that 
> will necessarily be vary brief.
>
> Also, I hope the cession is honest and open enough that questions can be 
> raised concerning center students' perceptions of guide-dog use. In 
> particular, I'd like to know if anything was done in the wake of Catherine
> Kudlick's article in the May, 2005, issue of the Monitor 
> (http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm05/bm0505/bm050503.htm). 
> In that article, Dr. Kudlick presents her interpretation of NFB 
> "philosophy and policies" on guide-dog use,
> based on her time as a student at CCB:
>
> ***
>
> The NFB's sense of rugged independence also translated into its philosophy 
> and policies that discouraged using dog guides. Because numerous schools 
> across
> the country specialize in working with dogs, a rehab center like the CCB 
> could reasonably argue that it should specialize in teaching cane travel. 
> Besides,
> people should first have good cane mobility skills, lest they find 
> themselves without their dog for some reason. But I think something else 
> was also at
> work: the NFB seemed to be engaging with the sighted world's long-held 
> belief that dogs served the more needy--and therefore less competent, more 
> feminized--blind,
> that the dog leads the person rather than the person controlling the dog 
> like any other tool. Rightly or wrongly, we internalized the message that 
> using
> a dog was tantamount to copping out and creating unnecessary barriers with 
> the sighted world because animals are intrusive.
>
> Still the center didn't rule out dogs altogether. Among the students the 
> ex-Hell's Angel Gavin had a dog, an unpleasant, high-strung German 
> shepherd that
> wore a bandanna. Keyla had to spend most of her days curled up under one 
> of the tables in the meeting room while her owner learned to travel with a 
> long,
> rigid cane outside. I never understood why Gavin had Keyla in the first 
> place, especially since he was clearly such a talented cane traveler; I 
> could only
> figure that her surly growls helped maintain his tough-guy biker persona 
> in a way a white cane never could. More often our travel teachers gave 
> certain
> students, including Harriet and Don, who had both experienced serious 
> hearing loss, their blessing for getting dogs after they graduated. But 
> the general
> message was clear: canes were about independence, confidence, 
> assertiveness, and full social integration, while dogs were not.
>
> ***
>
> Of course, this is merely Dr. Cudlick's interpretation of NFB philosophy. 
> But if students other than Dr. Cudlick are leaving the centers with the 
> impression that guide dogs serve the "less competent" blind, the centers 
> should take affirmative steps
> to remedy the situation. I'm not implying that this information is 
> deliberately conveyed by the staff--I believe there are guide-dog users on 
> staff at CCB, aren't there? But if this attitude is somehow being 
> transmitted, it does no one any good to
> pretend that there is not a problem.
>
> I don't raise these points to re-ignite the old "NFB is anti-dog" 
> controversy. I do believe these are important considerations, and I hope 
> they can be discussed at the NAGDU meeting.
>
> Thanks to you and the board for your work in this area.
>
> Best,
>
> Angie
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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