[nagdu] O&M skills

Sherry Gomes sherriola at gmail.com
Thu Jan 30 20:39:56 UTC 2014 

I'm in a situation like that. I'm working; I'm not a client of rehab. But I
am looking to retrain with a new guide dog maybe within a year, but I need
orientation to my area. I have one route I work with my dog. I have other
disabilities so the discovery method of orientation is not practical. I need
to have a set route, go out the door, turn this way, walk this many blocks,
cross this street and so on. I can't just wander around discovering, because
every step I walk is painful. I can walk, but exploring is not what I can do
because if I walk too far or get lost or whatever, I can have myself in
extreme pain and stiffness with severe swelling for several days, barely
able to hobble. But since I'm not a client of rehab, I can't get o&m
training to get orientation to the area, and most of the guide dog schools I
would consider wouldn't accept me with only one route. It's very
frustrating. 

Sherry



-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 1:17 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] O&M skills

Hi Julie M.
I agree wholeheartedly.  Being afraid to go out is very sad.  It also 
disgusts me to hear of people who want to get training but can't find anyone

to provide it.  It ought to be a basic thing provided by any state agency 
for the blind, to help any blind person who asks for it get timely training 
in O&M.  Is there anything we can do about this?  And I don't mean just 
telling everyone to take several months out of their lives to attend an NFB 
center.  That's useful, but not always practical, IMO.

Hector Chevigny, in My Eyes Have A Cold Nose, wrote that he thought it was 
better for newly-blinded people to get a dog and get on about their lives, 
rather than waiting on some agency for service forever, and, often enough, 
being taught by the agency that he or she needed sighted help for 
everything.  Now, that was written in the 1940's or early '50's, but I can 
still see some merit in the argument.
It's a darned good thing that Leader has its cane class.  I wish there were 
more options for people who can't seem to get the services they need.
Tracy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie McGinnity" <kaybaycar at gmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] O&M skills


> Hi Tracey,
>
> I agree with you, and that's a great speech.  I think it's great to
> work on O&M skills, but some people just have a harder time with
> directions and orientation.  Does that mean this should stop them?
> No.  But it does mean that they have to ask for help more often when
> finding a particular place or navigating somewhere for the first time.
> It's about independence: getting where you need to go with no
> inconvenience to yourself or others.
>
> The tools we use to do this don't matter as much as that we are
> getting out there and doing what we want to accomplish.  We all know
> people who's skills may not be as good or who may not do things the
> "right" way--or so we think, but let's work harder to encourage those
> people who don't go anywhere, feel like they can't travel, or are too
> afraid to get training of any kind.  Those cases to me are truly sad.
>
> On 1/30/14, Darla Rogers <djrogers0628 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Tracy,
>>
>> I couldn't agree more, and sadly, we will see more peo9ple without
>> skills perhaps as good as yours or mine, but if you can do what you need 
>> to
>> do, in a manner that is comfortable for you, far be it for me to judge 
>> your
>> independence or lack thereof.
>> Darla & Handsome Huck
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 1:03 PM
>> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
>> Subject: [nagdu] O&M skills
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> -- 
> Julie McG
> National Association of Guide dog Users board member,  National
> Federation of the Blind performing arts division secretary,
> Missouri Association of Guide dog Users President,
> and Guiding Eyes for the Blind graduate 2008
> "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
> everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
> life."
> John 3:16
>
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