[nagdu] Soul Searching

[Julie J.]

I wasn't at convention this year so maybe I'm missing something.  I've 
been to several other national conventions and a fair number of state 
ones.  There are loads and loads of people with canes, dogs, human 
guides and people who need some sort of mobility tool but aren't quite 
ready to admit that yet.  Each of these persons has a different 
background, differing access to training, varying capacity to utilize 
that training and a wide range of abilities to handle the unique stress 
that comes from a national convention environment.

Jeez, I consider myself a very good traveler with either cane or dog.  
I'm not bragging, I've had access to excellent training and was able to 
receive that training in my early 20's.  I've had good role models and a 
superb support system.  For a long time I thought this was the case for 
everyone.  I was very intolerant of blind folks who couldn't walk from 
the curb to the front door without precision directions and a lot of 
verbal support. At my first national convention I was truly horrified at 
the trains of 3 to 5 people that would be strung along behind one 
sighted guide.  I was embarrassed by the people who would call out 
directions to the various meeting rooms.  Then I began talking to some 
of these people in the exhibit hall, while waiting in the lunch line or 
on the way to a meeting.  These were people doing their very best with 
the resources they had.  Many of them came from places where training 
isn't readily available.  Or perhaps their training only lasted a few 
weeks.  Or they were only told to travel routes they had worked on with 
their mobility instructor.  Or maybe they were older when they became 
blind and couldn't physically handle the demands of a residential 
program.  Or perhaps they chose other things more important to them than 
going away for residential training, like young children, career or 
caring for an elderly parent.

I began to rethink every assumption about blind people and travel I had 
ever made.  What gave me the right to decide that blindness training is 
more important than caring for an elderly parent?  What gave me the 
right to expect that everyone would be able to understand and implement 
cane travel in the same way?   Why did I think that everyone would be 
crazy about the idea of giving up 6 months to a year of their life in 
order to get training?  Why did I have the audacity to think the 
decisions I had made were the right decisions for all blind people?

Not all cane users are the same.  I see a lot of comments about cane 
users not liking guide dogs, like every blind person that uses a cane is 
a clone or something.  I haven't read one comment that said Joe Smith 
who happens to use a cane was rude to me because of my guide dog.  It's 
the cane users were rude because of my dog.  We are never going to fully 
accept blind people who use canes if we don't stop lumping them all 
together.  There are a lot of complaints about the separation between 
guide dog users and cane users and each group not respecting the 
decisions of the other group.  That needs to stop.  We are not cookie 
cutter people out of some mold.  We are all different.  The first thing 
we need to do is to recognize that it is not all cane users that don't 
like guide dogs.  Sure there are specific blind people that use canes 
that may not be super excited about guide dogs, but it is most certainly 
not the entire group.

The second thing that needs to happen is that people have to realize 
"You must be the change you want to see in the world".  Yes that's a 
quote from Gandhi.  It's absolutely spot on true.  If you want respect, 
you have to give respect.  If you want people to be polite, you must be 
polite to them. Yes, sometimes that's hard.  Yes, sometimes it isn't 
going to work.  Yes, sometimes people are asses and no matter how polite 
and respectful you are they are still going to be nasty.  Get over it.  
Acting horrid back only contributes to the bigger problem.

This was written as a general commentary about the rift between cane 
users and guide dog users that I have seen evidence of over many years 
of being on this list, attending state and national conventions and 
other first hand experiences.  It is in no way meant to single out any 
particular person.

Julie