[NAGDU] Introducing a New Member

Wed Nov 29 16:47:19 UTC 2017

I can attest  to this.  I couldn't help looking down all the time with
my cane or even walking without it got forbit.  But my puppy is
starting to realize what I need and what I don't, and it works.
everyone finds what works with practice.

On 11/29/17, Tracy Carcione via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Bree.
> Welcome to the list!
> I have heard many low-vision people say that a dog takes care of looking
> out for obstacles, curbs, and big cracks in the sidewalk, so the person
> can focus more on looking for landmarks, or just seeing what's around.
> They don't have to be looking down all the time.
>
> My name is Tracy, and I am working my 7th guide dog.  My current dog is a
> yellow lab/golden retriever from The Seeing Eye.
> Tracy
>
>> Thank you for letting me join your list. I don't know if this is a list
>> that can help me. Or if I belong here. I think I want to at least try to
>> get some more info about guide dogs before I decide whether or not a
>> guide
>> dog would help me with travel.
>>
>> I finished mobility training through ACBVI before I moved last spring. I
>> met a few people who had guide dogs and I wondered if they were even an
>> option for me. I know I should talk to the guide dog schools to ask but
>> it's intimidating since what if they just say no & I'm wasting their
>> time.
>>
>> I don't think or don't know if I should even try because I have done
>> mobility training and it helped a lot. I don't think I have to have a
>> guide dog to be safe. Or take someone's dog who needs them more than me.
>> Mostly because my better eye I can see out of is corrected or can be to
>> 20/70. I think that I would not think of a guide dog if I could see
>> enough
>> to not use a cane & if the people I met didn't make me wonder.
>>
>>
>> ACBVI said it is low vision but not blindness & I know guide dogs are for
>> people who are really are blind. I just can't use what I can see very
>> well
>> I guess is how to explain it because what I see doesn't match what is
>> there. I don't have RP but it's similar they said except there's just rod
>> and cone dystrophy and mostly it's a male condition so they didn't know
>> what was going on for a long time. I wear glasses over contract lenses
>> which is how I can see 20/70 in one eye and it's like 20/200 on the
>> other.
>> My glasses are made with crystals and they're supposed to help them work
>> together but it doesn't always work and sometimes makes it worse. I am
>> night blind since I was a kid and have amblyopia where my right eye won't
>> look straight and also photophobia. I think if I could see 20/70 really
>> like 20/70 is then I wouldn't need a cane even it's just it is not the
>> same trying to walk or get around as it is to read letters on a chart.
>>
>> The counselor at the last session I had with Voc Rehab told me my vision
>> is really not bad at all and to be grateful and I am. I think that is why
>> I don't want to call and talk to guide dog schools because I feel guilty.
>>
>> I wanted to ask someone with a guide dog though if I really couldn't try
>> to have a guide dog. I remembered the name of the NFB from something a
>> while ago so I found a google result for your list when I searched NFB
>> and
>> guide dogs.
>>
>> I hope it's ok for me to ask this here. I mean I know Im glad I can still
>> see and all and I hope I don't keep having worse vision but I'm 27 and it
>> has been getting worse for many years now. I feel bad though if I sound
>> ungrateful. I'm really not. I just wonder if it is true that I cannot try
>> to get a guide dog and that they are for only totally blind people. I
>> sort
>> of wish I could try to have one now because it seems like it would be
>> much
>> better to travel and to not have to run into something to know its there
>> with my cane and to move around things a dog would see especially in the
>> winter when it's hard to tell where curbs and roads are and the snow
>> makes
>> it hard to find landmarks.
>>
>> I hope it isnt breaking any rules for me to post here and thank you. I am
>> nervous as you maybe can tell.
>>
>> Bree
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> NAGDU mailing list
>> NAGDU at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> NAGDU:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/carcione%40access.net
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> NAGDU mailing list
> NAGDU at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> NAGDU:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/chris.omeally%40gmail.com
>

-- 
Very Respectfully,

Christopher O’Meally.

NVB of Virginia 2016 leadership fellow.

Lead instructor and CEO of Access Tech Media INC.

Contract Closeout Specialist, Defense Contract Management Agency.

Chris.omeally at gmail.com

(804)658-6668