[nagdu] Therapy dog

[Marianne Denning]

Jody, you have some good ideas.  I just caution against assuming
everyone has the same reservations as the volunteer coordinator.

Just because one person has reservations doesn't mean it is systemic.
The person with the concerns happens to be the one who is making the
decision about the volunteers but don't assume anyone else has the
same concerns.  Fighting these prejudices is also how we break down
those barriers.



On 6/28/15, Jody Ianuzzi via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hello Karla and all,
>
> I have been thinking of Karla's post and I have a few ideas I would like to
> share.
>
> First of all and most important is the issue of therapy dog.  The purpose of
> getting a therapy dog certification is to be able to take a dog places where
> a pet dog is not allowed.  A guide dog already has this certification.  To
> be a READ dog the dog sits quietly and pays attention to the child who is
> reading.  A guide dog would do this.    Therefore the whole idea of getting
> the certification is totally unnecessary.
>
> As for safety, I love the way schools always throw that out as a barrier to
> anything they don't like.  Some schools even say a blind child can't use a
> white cane for safety reasons.  This is just hysteria to put up another
> barrier.
>
> As for Karla's qualifications, they should be thrilled to have a PhD and
> retired professor assisting with their students.  Instead they don't
> understand how a blind person can help a child read.  Really?  Give me a
> break.  When my children were learning to read they would read out loud to
> me and when they came to a word they didn't know I would have them spell it
> and we would sound it out together.  Again, the school is putting up another
> barrier.
>
> So lets remove all the barriers and what do we have left?  Plain and simple
> prejudice.   If it were me I would first decide if I really wanted to be in
> such an environment or if there were a better place to volunteer where I
> would be appreciated like the public library reading program.  If I decided
> to fight the prejudice I would first  talk to the person putting up all the
> barriers and I would tell them exactly how I felt discriminated against by
> their behavior.  If they still insisted on their position I would go to the
> next level up all the way to the Superintendent of schools and if they still
> closed the door to me I would contact the media.
>
> Just my two cents but really the therapy dog certification is not the issue
> here.
>
> JODY 🐺
> thunderwalker321 at gmail.com
>
> "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."
> DOCTOR WHO (Tom Baker)
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-- 
Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
(513) 607-6053