[nagdu] Guide Dogs, Canes, and Blindness

[Nicole Torcolini]

Barb,
 
    After reading your email and the rest of the thread, I have a few
thoughts that you might want to consider. I have pasted your original email
and written inline. I have also written a few more thoughts at the end.
 
I have been doing a lot of thinking sense I started looking into getting I
guide dog. Like do I need one, will it be a help to me, or can I get around
well enough on my own. Plus do I have to much vision to qualify.
 
Response: These are very good questions. You and only you can know the real
answers.

I have a good amount of vision for a blind person. My mother went to a
school for the blind, and didn't want her kids to go to one.
 
Response: Agree about not going to a school for the blind, but probably my
reasoning is a little different. However, as it is not related to guide
dogs, I will not say more here, but you are welcome to email me off list if
you would like to know my thoughts on the matter.
 
She wanted us to learn to use the sight we had.
 
Response: Learning how to use a tool or sense also means learning its
limitations.

So now I feel like, I can do these things, cross the street, walk without a
cane, find my way.
 
Response: Can you tell us more about what you mean by cross the street? Do
you use your vision? Can you do it at night?

I have had people I know ask why do you need a guide dog? My answer is
because the dog would help me at night when I don't see so good, and in the
bright sun, plus I have thick glasses and I have little side vision. I get a
long well at work, but I clean locker rooms for a living and fold towels.
Not a lot of need for dog.
 
Response: This does not necessarily mean that you do not need a dog. Do you
get out and about besides work? Would you get out more if you felt more
secure in unfamiliar places?

I don't like going places that I haven't been so much because I do think
about, will there be a step or something I don't see. I walk slower because
of it and when I am with people I walk a step behind and watch where they
step.
 
Response: Did you tell the school these things?
 
So I feel like a dog would make my life easier, and having a companion with
me would be nice. 
I Am in my 50's and do think about how walking a dog, people think twice
before they want to jump you. But having a dog is a good way to meet new
friends.
 
Response: Um, I really hope that you did not tell the school this. Yes,
these are potentially two of the several perks of having a guide dog, but it
most certainly is not what a school wants to hear.
 
More thoughts:
Here is something that you could try to help yourself gage just how well you
can get around using just your vision.
1. Find someone who you trust and to whom you can talk about your blindness
without that person trying to tell you what to do or how to act.
2. Have that person take you to an unfamiliar place.
3. With the person walking beside you, start walking through the unfamiliar
place. As you walk, tell the person what you can see that is important, such
as chairs on the sidewalk or overhanging tree branches. Have the person tell
you if you missed anything. If the person asks you if you saw something, and
you did not, resist the temptation to say yes.
4. Without the person telling you information, walk as fast as you are
comfortable walking without making yourself feel unsafe.
5. Have the person take you sighted guide and walk as fast as you and the
person are comfortable walking.
If you find that you missed a lot of objects in step 3 and/or that you could
walk faster in step 5 than in step 4, then you should consider getting more
orientation and mobility training with a cane, and getting a guide dog some
day.
 
>From reading your email, I think that I understand why the schools are
hesitant to give you a guide dog. If you get a guide dog, will you be able
to trust it and let the dog make all of the decisions? Even if you can see
fairly well, you cannot try to help the dog do his/her job or act before the
dog has a chance to help you. Most likely, if you get a guide dog, whatever
school it turned out to be would want you to use a blindfold at first to
make sure that you trusted your dog.
 
Nicole

  _____  

From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Barb breuer via
nagdu
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 10:50 AM
To: Full Name
Subject: [nagdu] (no subject)


I have been doing a lot of thinking sence  I started looking into getting I
guide dog.  Like do I need one, will it be a help to me, or can I get around
well enough on my own.  Plus do I have to much vision to qualify.  
I have a good amount of vision for a blind person.  My mother went to a
school for the blind, and didn't want her kids to go to one.  She wanted us
to learn to use the sight we had.  
So now I feel like, I can do these things, cross the street, walk without a
cane, find my way.  
I have had people I know ask why do you need a guide dog?  My answer is
because the dog would help me at night when I don't see so good, and in the
bright sun, plus I have thick glasses and I have little side vision.  I get
a long well at work, but I clean locker rooms for a living and fold towels.
Not a lot of need for dog.  

I don't like going places that I haven't been so much because I do think
about, will there be a step or something I don't see.  I walk slower because
of it and when I am with people I walk a step behind and watch where they
step.  
So I feel like a dog would make my life easier, and having a companion with
me would be nice.  
I Am in my 50's and do think about how walking a dog,  people think twice
before they want to jump you.  But having a dog is a good way to  meet new
friends.  
Sorry for it being so long, I just have a lot on my mind. 
Barb

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