[nagdu] expectations of the blind & guide dog programs' admission standards

[Tracy Carcione]

But Raven, you did graduate, and you did well.  I understand the idea that
people should have good travel skills before getting a dog, but I've known
enough who didn't and still have done very well with a dog that I'm not
sure it should be a hard and fast rule.  Yes, it helps a lot, but it
doesn't seem to be absolutely essential. Basic traffic-reading yes, but
great orientation and walking straight, maybe not.
I think more instructors are getting degrees in O&M.  I know TSE has a
few, and so does GDB.  Leader too, I think.  I agree, it is helpful.

My TSE Juno, I called the crossings.  In class, my trainer, ex-GEB, did
advise us when to cross in the beginning, a bit, on quiet streets where we
weren't sure of the traffic patterns.  "Is this a stop sign, or a
light...?"

As to being served meals, I agree.  I wouldn't want to deal with carrying
food the first day or 2 with the new, very excited dog, but after that,
why not?
At TSE, we come and go from the dining room as we please, though
instructors direct traffic a bit when everyone is coming in.  "Hold up a
minute; we've got a traffic jam (or Kathy is reworking a clearance, or
whatever).  The students' section is past the staff section, so a student
has to walk past staff tables to get out.  More than once I was reminded
to watch Krokus's big nose, walking past those tables.
Tracy

> I can't speak for all schools. But I think some schools have low
> standards because they have low expectations. I have heard stories
> about students who have graduated from programs and certainly
> shouldn't have. I can't speak to them, I can only speak to my personal
> experiences with GEB. And this is in no way bashing GEB, the
> instructors, or the graduates. These are merely my observations and
> experiences.
>
> First, I confess I should not have received a guide dog because at the
> time I applied, I had poor mobility skills. I was never comfortable
> crossing traffic-lighted intersections, and I hoped that the field rep
> who came to do my home interview and video would not ask me to do any
> street work on busy roads. Fortunately for me, the person didn't. The
> field rep recorded me walking a route on my college campus, which was
> pretty much like walking through a residential neighborhood because it
> was a small campus.
>
> During guide dog training, I scared the hell out of my instructor. It
> was just once, but I was ready to cross a super busy street. For a few
> seconds nothing was coming, so I thought it was okay to go. I told the
> Golden Guy forward. He stepped off the curb, because ... well, nothing
> was coming. And my instructor nearly had a heart attack. I played it
> off like I was just joking, and wanted to test the intelligent
> disobedience thing. And I ended up getting an in-depth lecture about
> the ins and outs of traffic training.
> When I got home with my dog, I admitted to my O&M instructor that I
> struggled to cross busy streets by myself, and we needed to work on
> it. I mean, before the dog, it was just me. But after training, I
> wasn't just handling some inanimate object while crossing the street,
> I was using a living, breathing creature whose life and well-being I
> was responsible for. If anything horrible happened to him because of
> poor judgment on my part, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. So I'm
> one of the people who faked it to make it.
> It's great that I was responsible enough to admit my weakness and
> improve my travel skills before even daring to put my dog's life at
> risk, but at the time, I really felt I shouldn't have graduated with a
> guide dog.
>
> In my class, a few other people shouldn't have graduated and ended up
> leaving with dogs, or at least shouldn't have left with their specific
> dog. One guy was a previous student of Leader and had been sent home
> without a dog. So GEB takes him in and gives this guy a dog. This guy
> has horrible orientation skills. I mean, maybe he's one of those
> people who was well-oriented outside and completely lost indoors, but
> ... I didn't understand. It was a 26-day program, and 3 weeks in, this
> guy acted like he knew where absolutely nothing was located in the
> building where we waited while other teams were out on route. He acted
> like the place was rearranged everyday. And there was no excuse. There
> were 2 deaf-blind students there whose orientation skills were pretty
> flawless, and this guy ... I guess he didn't care. Idk. He graduated
> with a dog, and the dog ended up going back to GEB and was rematched
> with someone else all within a year.
>
> This is to say that I don't think the trainers are well-versed in
> appropriate or sufficient orientation/travel skills. Their job entails
> training dogs and telling people how to work with them, I'm willing to
> bet most guide dog schools' trainers know little about O&M training
> and what level travel skills someone should have when they are working
> a guide dog. They see when a person makes a mistake, but don't know
> how to recognize when to crock it up to poor traveling skills.
>
> In addition, I think certain schools want to give people or the dogs
> the benefit of the doubt. They're under stress, so they did this.
> They're in a new environment, so can you really expect them to do this
> well? You're just here to learn to work a dog, the other stuff will
> come later when you get home. No one has said these things, but by
> their actions and attitudes, they may as well have.
>
> Again, not knocking GEB, but some of the things they did during
> training pretty much screamed, "We got low expectations." If they have
> changed any of this, please correct me. I would be delighted to know
> that this is no longer the case.
> 1. During the 2 Juno-walks, the instructors didn't require us to
> decide when to cross the street. They said: "Tell Juno forward," or
> something along those lines.
> During those walks, we were not expected to judge traffic or make
> calls. Those who have done Juno walks with dogs might have had a
> different experience.
> 2. The instructors served us our meals.
> This was incredibly shocking to me. I've been to a training center for
> the blind twice, and I expected that at GEB, we would line up at a
> counter and someone would serve food onto our plates and we would have
> to find our way to a table while carrying our food. Nope. We all sat
> down, the instructors actually brought us our plates, and even poured
> our drinks! How old are we?
> I mean, I get that it could get a bit disastrous with people not
> knowing the lay out, some people having multiple disabilities, and
> when you throw dogs in the mix, it could get complicated and
> stressful. But that's life. If the rehab training centers do it, the
> guide dog schools should, too.
> 3. There was one day where I was the last person eating in the dining
> room, and a staff member who was there with me had to run downstairs
> to do something. This person told me to stay in the dining room until
> he came back. I piped up because I thought it was ridiculous that I
> couldn't just leave when I felt like it. Nope.
> I never really noticed or thought about it before, but whenever a
> student got up from the table to leave the dining room and go
> downstairs, an instructor or staff member would magically appear to
> watch you go down those eleven steps because God forbid you might
> fall. For people who have balance issues, I understand. But for your
> regular blind Joe, I don't see the need for it.
>
> That is just some of the things I noticed during training. It's
> possible that the things I discussed simply depend on the staff
> manning a certain class. It could also happen at other guide dog
> schools, but I can only speak to the one I attended.
> Maybe I'm making mountains out of molehills. But it is little things
> like this that show what the schools think we are capable of doing
> successfully. I mean, what am I supposed to think when people are
> reluctant or refuse to let me get my food and successfully carry it
> back to a table to find a seat? How should I feel when I'm not allowed
> to descend a single flight of stairs on my own. It makes me feel like
> a liability.
>
> I'm not trying to paint a bad picture of GEB by any means, but I'm not
> a loyal client who won't acknowledge the school's flaws. If I had to
> get a guide dog again for the first time, I'd choose GEB. They were
> able to give me what I was looking for in a guide dog school at the
> time and matched me with the perfect guide dog, and I appreciate the
> foundation they instilled in me for dog training and canine care.
>
> All this to make my point that guide dog schools likely have low
> expectations of their blind clients, and so they have low standards of
> who they are willing to accept and graduate. They don't know what it
> looks like or means to be an independent blind person, nor do they
> understand the ways in which they are robbing us of our independence.
> And because they don't allow us to fully demonstrate the extent of our
> responsibility and independence, they exercise paternalism in varying
> degrees.
> How do we as graduates change this? How do we demonstrate that we are
> not liabilities? How do we bring about a change in attitude so that
> schools treat us as independent individuals.
> --
> Raven
>
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