[nagdu] O&M skills

[Tracy Carcione]

While I agree that good orientation skills are an excellent thing, and make 
using a dog a lot better for both partners, I've known some people who 
didn't seem capable of finding their way out of the proverbial paper bag, 
and yet used the dog effectively to get where they wanted to go.
A late lamented friend of mine always seemed confused about which way to go, 
but he travelled all over the country and the world, going places I'm sure
I'll never go.  Was he the ideal dog user?  No.  Did he get where he wanted 
to go, when he wanted to get there?  Absolutely.  Yet he was
sneered at by people who seldom stepped outside their familiar routes.

I recommend people read, or re-read, Jernigan's essay, The Nature of 
Independence, which I'm sure is somewhere on nfb.org. Dr. Jernigan argues
persuasively that getting where you want to go when you want to go is the 
quintessence of independence, and judging others for how they accomplish 
that goal is not particularly useful.
All I'm trying to say is, we can encourage people to improve their O&M  to a 
high standard, and help them find the resources they need to do so, but not 
look down on them if they're unable to do it, or assume that, if their O&M 
doesn't seem excellent, that they are not independent people getting where 
they want to go.
Tracy