[nagdu] O&M skills

Sherry Gomes sherriola at gmail.com
Fri Jan 31 13:29:53 UTC 2014 

Nobody in my area that I know of. I have a friend who would help, but she
has an elderly ill mother living with her as well as three kids living at
home still.



-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2014 6:24 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] O&M skills

Hi Sherry.
I'm sorry to hear of your frustrations.  If I were there, I'd offer to do 
the legwork and try to work out some routes for you.  Do you know any 
sensible person or persons, who would be able to walk around and figure out 
things for you?  Are there any O&M teachers in the area who would take a 
private client?  You'd have to pay, but it would be an investment that would

pay you back.
There ought to be a way for people to get O&M when they need a bit, without 
going through a lot of rigmarole.  If we, the NFB, could work out a way to 
make that happen, I think we'd be doing a lot of blind people a great 
service.
Tracy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sherry Gomes" <sherriola at gmail.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 3:39 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] O&M skills


> 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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>
>
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