Tag: blind

Speak To ID Yourself When Meeting Someone Who Is Blind

With my workout finished, I walked out the door of the Y hoping that my paratransit ride home would be right there. My phone messages had let me know that my ride was on it’s way and I needed to be ready to go. That’s one of the positive new developments in Fort
Wayne’s Citylink Access. You get fair notice of your ride’s arrival.

Instead of being greeted by a driver’s voice, the loud honk of something across the parking lot sounded. Who could it be-I wondered. A parent picking their boy or girl from swim lessons? A twenty-something coming to take his grandpa home from time on th etreadmill? Or was it my ride hoping I’d get the point they were waiting for me?

The point is that we who are totally blind can’t distinguish who is honking at us when meeting someone who will take us somewhere. Not everyone will be as up front as I tend to be, asking in a loud, clear voice: “Paratransit?” Some folks will ignore the honks altogether or back up if they think the vehicle is too close.

If you who read this are blind, I imagine you’ve also faced this troubling set of events. It’s easy to come unglued and panic. After all, we want to be riding in the front of the bus and not standing dangerously nose to nose with the bus or van’s front.

You who are sighted, I hope this will be a helpful moment for teaching. After all, many peopole don’t know or look for the red tip at the end of someone’s cane. Perhaps, it remains invisible in our rush-rush hurried noontime traffic. Many today aren’t taught that the red-tip on the cane or the cane itself gives notice that the cane’s user is blind. Likewise, when someone follows a guide dog, the tendency may be to get enamored with the pooch’s cuteness or think he automatically knows to approach a paratransit vehicle or bus who has come to pick up his handler.

In any case, if you see a cane or service animal, honking does no good when signaling you are there to pick the rider up. A dog is trained to guide his person upon command, to avoid most objects that may prove threatening to himself or his person. A guide dog, no matter how alert, does not have ESP or clarivoyance. If anything, he will disobey any command to move toward a honking vehicle.

Likewise, someone who is sighted should not speak to the dog in place of speaking to the person with harness in hand. To do so is to distract the guide from his joy and duty of safely leading his handler.

In any case, if you are picking up someone, a paratransit rider, a friend or family member, say the person’s name and identify yourself. Then and only then will the person who is blind be able to trust your directions. In addition, pull up to the blind person so that the car or van door is in front of him, not the front of your vehicle.

I know it’s easy in today’s hurried style to take the fastest and most efficient way to get from point A to point B. Still courtesy and perception still count so that you don’t loose each tree for the forest through which we navigate life’s daily contours.

As for our responsibility as blind riders when meeting a ride from someone, promptness is the name of the game. If we’re in a college class or office for work, we need to give ourselves time to clean up our area and pack up what we’re taking with us before running into the fray. If we’re going to an appointment, we should schedule our arrival time jtten or fifteen minutes before that appointment so there’s enough of a window if some driving snaphoo occurs. Plus, the less rushed we are when interviewing for a job or seeing a doctor, the more comfortable we can help others be when meeting us, especially for the first time.

Now the honk did come from my paratransit driver who wanted me to hop on board quickly since she later said she was behind schedule. She was not wanting to hear my explanation of why she needed to be verbal when meeting me instead of relying on her van’s horn. Without much further plea to persuade her, I called the paratransit company’s dispatch manager and helped her understand the coaching and sensitivity training she might do with my driver. By the grace of God, that ended well and I arrived home a few minutes later, ready for a fish sandwich and coffee for lunch.

Thank-You Thursday: Puppy Raisers

I have always loved the song, “Wind Beneath My Wings.” Both the Gary Morris original and the Bet Midler cover have essentially the same lyrics. They are a big thank-you for that friend, spouse, or just anyone who’s been there and helped through the good and bad times. When my wife, Amy, and I got married, I used that song as that to which my mom and I danced at the reception. Why? Well, she had so much to do with my success going through mainstream public school, encouraged me through the stresses of college, and so much more. “Wind Beneath My Wings” is one of her favorite songs.

Well, on this first Thankful Thursday, we begin our weekly highlight of a type of person who’s been often behind the scenes and yet key in making the livelihood of someone who’s blind or visually impaired successful. We can think of many such people-teachers of the visually impaired, certified vision rehabilitation counselors, mobility instructors, outreach center directors, and the list can go on.

This week, we say thank-you to puppy raisers. Most of us who’ve had guide dogs met the boy, girl, parents, or whole families who nurtured our  four-legged friends from the time they were two months old for the next year or so. Depending on the school or even the State in which a puppy raiser lives, they’ve had to learn the basics of a guide dog’s purpose, a bit about what’s like to be blind, and how to care for and train a dog to act in any number of settings.

Pups in training have the same rights as fully graduated guide dogs. Raisers can take them pretty much anywhere in public from shopping malls, restaurants, supermarkets, and gyms. That’s why these pups where a specific jacket with the school’s colors and logo emblazoned on the chest.

You can be pretty much any age and raise a pup. Kids as young as nine do it  on their citizen track in 4-H or Future Farmers of America. It’s always so neat meeting whoever’s raised our guides. When I graduated from Leader Dogs (Rochester Hills, MI), Edgar’s raisers were a relatively young couple both of whom worked. My second guide, Lali, came from Guide Dogs of America (GDA), and was raised by a kindergarten teacher from nearby Chino Hills.) The exposure Lali had to her classroom was great preparation for the hubbub he’d experience when guiding me around my office in Philadelphia a year and a half later.

Of course, puppy breath is so quickly addictive! Many raisers think they’ll start with one dog but can’t give it up after that. They’re back in their school’s volunteer office before they know it requesting another pup to raise. I’ve known some who’ve been at it for ten, fifteen, or even twenty years nurturing our furry guides-to-be.

They don’t work alone. Schools like Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar, CA www.guidedogsofamerica.org require raisers’ participation in area obedience classes, say with a local Pet Smart or YMCA, as well as joining other raisers for monthly get-togethers. Sometimes, trainers from the school will visit and speak on the pups’ future work. They’ll show the harness which will be the graduated dog’s business suit when leading his person around. They’ll talk vet appointments and encourage raisers to bring their pups into all kinds of places like movie theaters to ballgames and church services. We handlers can tell pretty quickly if our guides were exposed to food courts in shopping malls. The more they were, less prone they’ll be to play centerfielder when that flying fry drops from a table near us.

Lali’s raiser wouldn’t return her dogs to canine college, a.k.a. formal training) until they passed her fried chicken test. That is when she’d leave a sumptuous bag of chicken in the back seat of her car when running errands and have her pup sit in the front. If he kept nose, paws, and tongue off that chicken, they passed. It was great preparation for that part of training when the instructors teach our future guides to resist food distractions. Even when matched with Lali at GDA, he and I went on an obstacle course where one trainer dangled a Twinki, some feet later another threw puppy snacks in our path, then another dangled a big old hot dog in front of his nose.

Guide dogs, after all, must behave in harness. A big part of that is keeping a visibly low profile around food.

So, what do puppy raisers teach beyond the basic house rules? At least with GDA, raisers refrain from issuing commands specific to guiding like “forward,” “right,” “left,” or “follow.” They’ll teach commands like sit, chill, down, heel, and come. The more each raiser works on these with his or her pup, the more that pup gets comfortable following directions in public at obedience meetings or when walking around a park.

And you’ve got to love how much folks get attached to the pups they have for such a short time! I remember coming back to GDA’s open house a couple years after getting Lali. On either side of me during the puppy obstacle race sat raisers I’d previously met on an email list. They treated their girls like they were their own daughters. Both had nurtured two or three pups before, so they knew the question that most people ask when meeting them:

How can you give back your pup for training? Many raisers I’ve known give the empathetic, “It’s hard to do,” response, before explaining that they care for that little lab or golden retriever for a greater purpose, seeing him bring independence and friendship to someone who can’t see. So even with veteran raisers, pups are so much more than replacement parts to “bring back that loving feeling” of needing a snuggly little pooch. Raising pups for the purpose of being guide dogs becomes the unbroken thread in the beautiful tapestry each raiser quilts.

So we say, “Thank-you” to puppy raisers for their zeal in nurturing, joy in caring, and eagerness for seeing us follow our guides on the journey of being boldly blind.

Fitness Friday: Goalball

Sports are a big deal for many people who are blind. And we do say we are watching hoops, football, baseball, swimming and so forth when ESPN or another channel is showing on the TV.

But, along with watching sports that most folks know about, many blind people play sports uniquely invented for people who can’t see. Check out this video about goalball. It’s fun, it’s fast, and full of action!