I agree about the sneering. Kind of similar to what happens when I make a
misstake while traveling such as getting lost or a little off the sidewalk
or missing a turn. I am surprised at how quickly folks tell me I am doing
something wrong and, even more surprising, seem pleased somehow. "Your dog
doesn't guide well." and that kind of thing. This is from someone who saw
one incident not the years and years of good guide work. It would be like
my criticizing someone's driving because they didn't park strait one time
or made one small driving misstake. I think folks who have good mobility
skills can only have them if they can ignore this kind of gleefulness from
fellow pedestrians.
E. At 07:05 PM 11/14/2005, you wrote:
I think it's more a question of sneering at the owners.
----- Original Message ----- From: <mailto:thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>E. To: <mailto:bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 6:34 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] stories have powerful effects
Cindy I assume you mean pass along the story of the guide dog who was so disruptive because her person did not choose to control her. Pass it along if you must. I do notice that people tend to pass along stories of how badly a dog, particularly a guide dog behaves with a lot of glee. I think it is one thing to pass along stories among ourselves. I do get concerned when sighted people gleefully pass along stories about how badly a guide dog behaves, how poorly a guide dog is dealt with by his or her person and how a guide dog failed and did something wrong like run a light, run their person into something or whatever. Then sighted folks can use those stories to be hesitant about renting to those of us with dogs, or letting us into restaurants and so on. It may be illegal but all of us with dogs have had issues of access at one time or another.
I know it is far from your intention to do this but be careful with stoires. They can have powerful results many unintentional. I am sorry if this sounds harsh but I have had a number of instances when sighted people just had to come up to me and tell me about bad behavior or guide dogs or their people.
I am therefore overly cautious about stories of incidents particularly involving food.
By the way, I have been with Seeing Eye dogs for over thirty years and do know those stoires from my own experience. But I would be careful telling them to restaurant owners or hotel operators or landlords, or cabbies, bus drivers and so forth. We still have barriers to access some of them fueled by lack of knowledge.
E.
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