[nagdu] should the world conform to our desires was Guides at NFB training centers

[Sheila Leigland]

I didn't want to go to an nfb center for the exact reasons that you 
mentioned. My skills were checked out and my classes were adjusted to 
meet my needs as much as posible and my dog went with me everywhere 
except during a few cooking classes that I went to because of my hearing 
loss Tres was placed just out of the kitchen where he could still see me 
and it workid well.

On 8/31/2015 9:27 AM, Raven Tolliver via nagdu wrote:
> Julie,
> I don’t fully understand the complexity of O&M offered at training
> centers. This is because a big part of it includes a philosophical
> aspect that I find faulty. Also, I don’t understand how you can
> adequately teach a guide dog traveler O&M without incorporating their
> guide dog. Clearly, it makes no sense to me.
> If it is impossible for the training center to incorporate an
> individual’s guide dog, then there is something wrong with their
> teaching methods and understanding of adequate O&M training.
>
> I don’t want people to think I have infinite disdain for training
> centers, I really don’t. I think they’re great for people who have
> recently lost their sight or are having trouble adapting to being
> blind, which seems to be a large group of blind folks. However, For
> those of us who have been blind since infancy or toddlerhood, we don’t
> need half the training offered at training centers. We receive lessons
> in Braille staring in preschool or kindergarten., We receive once or
> twice weekly O&M lessons from ages 3-5 up into our late teens. We
> learn how to cook and clean house as blind children and teenagers
> because that’s all we know.
> So putting people like me in such classes and starting us from square
> one, rather than assessing individual skills and formulating lesson
> plans accordingly, seems like a huge waste of time. I think the same
> of college curriculum, and that’s so off topic, I won’t go there.
>
> Applying eye ointment and clipping nails are not major aspects of my
> job. And I did not use and would never use blindness as an excuse not
> to do something.
> I am not the only puppy and breeding care attendant to refuse to do
> such things. There are 6 of us. In a specific situation, my boss said
> a dog needed its nails clipped, while I and 2 of my coworkers were
> standing there. I and another woman both said “I ain’t clippin’
> nails.” The remaining coworker had no issue, so she just did it. Mr.
> Bossman obviously wasn’t clipping nails either since he could have
> done it himself, but did not, and stated that he was not comfortable
> clipping nails.
>
> Unlike many other people, I get to pick and choose a lot of my job
> duties because I oversee volunteers, and I can also ask vet staff to
> do something. A lot of the people in guide dog schools work with
> volunteers, so really, if there’s certain things you don’t want to do,
> you can ask somebody else to do it. It’s not playing the blind card.
> Where I work, it seems that no one’s job description is so strictly
> outlined and detailed as it is in other work places. Sometimes, you
> help out with things that aren’t exactly your area, and the volunteers
> just help out with everything. All that matters is that the dogs get
> taken care of, and that the standards of protocol are followed. If I
> need someone to do something for me or help me with something, it is
> not an issue. Thankfully, I work in an environment that isn’t uptight.
>
> Yes, I do choose to work my dog during that specific day of class.
> It’s usually during lunchtime, so it is not a concern since the
> students are in the cafeteria eating and not out walking. Even if they
> were out walking, I would still use my dog.
> If a supervisor said something to me about it, there would be a
> conversation. But it was not my supervisor who brought it up to me,
> and those people did not seem to have an issue when I pointed out that
> he is my guide dog. Is that considered playing the blind card? No. If
> he was some other service dog like my wheelchair assistance dog or
> diabetes assistance dog, I would do the same thing.
>
> To answer your question, no the world shouldn’t conform to our
> desires. I don’t expect people to. However, if I have certain
> preferences and needs, I will make those known. If I think something
> is pointless, arbitrary, or faulty, I’m not just gonna roll with it. I
> was not raised up to believe that I should let everyone dictate how,
> when, and where I do something. I have an understanding of what is
> legal, what is situationally appropriate, and what is against the
> “rules” of the individual establishment. Sometimes, I act against
> those factors because they don’t align with what I think is
> reasonable. Sometimes, I'm completely unsure and ask someone what I
> should do. And sometimes, I understand completely and do things by the
> books.