sally.geek.nz

Category: Sienna

  • How I see it … what does “working” mean for a Guide Dog?

    Since becoming a guide dog handler, one of the things that comes with it is more public wanting to interact. However, not with me with my Guide Dog Sienna.

    This post will give examples of recent interactions we have had with the public while Guide Dog Sienna was working in a 45-minute timeframe at a shopping mall.

    The environment and previous or planned activities need to be considered while we are working as a team. However, any unexpected distractions can cause knock-on effects that may compromise our safety.

    I have found that people are inherently curious about Guide Dog Sienna and often want to interact with her. What I find interesting is that often they do not interact with me or are disinterested in subjects that do not relate to Sienna. Most of the time, I encourage curiosity and take every opportunity possible to educate those around me about access needs.

    For example, when I asked someone to stop patting Sienna while she was actively guiding me and needed to concentrate. The person replied, “but she is just too cute and I wanted to pat her”. What this person and some others don’t seem to understand fully is that the dog is there for their handler, not for them. Their purpose and job are to detect dangerous situations or obstacles and ensure their handler is safe.

    Earlier this week, Guide Dog Siena and I were at Sylvia Park Mall with a friend. We had had a long day already and stopped in very briefly for one thing and were actively limiting the time we spent there to around 45 minutes maximum.

    As context, we were both woken to the earthquake and Te Aroha at 0330 and with the poor weather (rain and high wind), Sienna was not concentrating as well as she usually does. She was very excitable, wanted to play more than usual at home and when we were out, was very distracted and needed extra time and encouragement. For me this means that I need to concentrate more, it also means that she is more likely to interact with the environment around us which could ultimately be unsafe.

    Photo of a golden Labrador in harness in the sit position.
    I am working – my harness is on.

    Our first interaction was with a shop assistant, who got visibly excited to see a dog, kept circling us, not interacting with my friend or me and reached out to pat Sienna. Sienna responded by wagging her tail and watching the shop assistant. I was lucky she was doing this in the small section of vision I have and I could therefore intervene. I asked her not to interact as Siena was working and needed to concentrate. She went completely silent and backed away and left before I could talk with her more and another shop assistant came and asked me if she could help.

    The interaction in the shop caused Sienna to be even more distracted by her environment and she kept turning to face the door. As a result, I needed to concentrate on her rather than the task I was there to do. This was made more difficult by large cardboard boxes being unpacked on the shop floor, my need to move around these and Guide Dig Sienna trying to lead me to the door to leave (her reaction when she has had enough shopping). The extra cognitive load and responses to the environment for both of us prolonged our time there.

    The second interaction was at the cafe. My friend went to the bathroom and I ordered. I asked the server about the menu and she kept pointing at the overhead sign and asked if I could just read it over there even after I had explained the reason I was asking was that I could not read it. I had Sienna sitting between me and the counter while I ordered. I then asked about cold drinks and she pointed to a small printed sign saying just read this. I explained again I could not read it and asked if she had flavoured tea. The queue behind us was growing and the assistant looked stressed, so I asked for a soft drink that I knew would be available (but didn’t want) and turned to find a table to wait for my friend.

    I asked Sienna to turn around and find a seat. She was about to start doing this when a woman caught my arm, which distracted her from this task and meant she was left without me following through on an instruction to her and had to stop and talk with this person.

    The person who caught my arm said if you need some help, I can help. I know exactly what it is like. I have had keratoconus. I thanked her and explained I was okay and had ordered. She then repeated what she had said, expanding on her story about her keratoconus experience. While her words were genuine, I understood she wanted to talk about her experience. I acknowledged how hard that must have been for her and explained I needed to go.

    At the next table, there was a large family, two adults and four or five children. The two youngest children kept leaving their table and trying to get to Sienna. Their parents managed the other children and actively worked to keep the younger two away. Although this was distracting for Sienna, I appreciated that they understood Sienna was working and explained this to their children.

    On our way back to the car, we were stopped by a woman while we were walking (quite fast). She didn’t interact with Sienna but talked with me (a nice change). She explained that she volunteered at the Guide Dog Kennels and wanted to know Sienna’s name as many dogs she cared for do not go on to work.

    In my experience, most people know not to interact with their Guide Dog while working. However, what seems unclear to many is what working means. Is it only while they are walking? The short answer I use is when she’s wearing her harness. If a child pets Sienna without asking or makes a fuss to their parent about wanting to pat the dog, I use this as education and I often show them how the harness comes off and that they can pat her when it is off but not on.

    This was not the most convenient mid-stride, but a breath of fresh air as most people assumed I was training Sienna and when I explained she is my guide dog and fully trained, they either seemed to be less interested or said, “but you don’t look blind”. I will leave unpacking this for another time.

    The subsequent encounter was the real issue. While I was having a conversation with the volunteer from the kennels, another stranger walked up briskly and started patting and fussing over Sienna, who was sitting, waiting perfectly for us to finish talking. I said to the woman, “excuse me, please don’t pat her. She is working”, and she seemed taken aback by this request and said something like “but, I like dogs”, and left us to finish our conversation. Sienna was getting increasingly distracted each time a person stopped me or interacted with her and I could tell she just wanted to leave the mall.

    I finished the conversation with the volunteer and directed Sienna toward my friend’s car. Sienna was extraordinarily distracted and as a result, walked herself and me straight into a big metal 1.5 meter sign (video signage). We were both unhurt but if this had happened about 10 metres away we would have been in the busy carpark which is even more dangerous.

    What I have learned is that many people do not actually understand what working means for a guide dog. Some believe it is when they are walking along or actively guiding but it is more than that it is when they are wearing their harness. For this reason, I do not allow others to pat her while in harness. I know some handlers do let people interact while in harness but the majority do not to make this delineation clear to both the dog and public.

    As a result I plan to change my language and be more descriptive instead of just saying she is “working”.

    The key message here is consider the consequences of your actions. Even though guide dogs are cute and well behaved and are in public places they have tasks to perform and any interaction or distraction of a guide dog could in turn cause harm.

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  • How I see it … thoughts on accessibility in Auckland

    Recently I completed an interview on accessible places in Auckland for Stuff, which led me to reflect on the messaging around access needs and the normalisation of poor access encouraged in our society.

    When asked what places in Auckland had good accessibility, I found this difficult to answer. Firstly I thought, what does good accessibility look like and then how do I explain the complexity and nuances involved?

    So often, I see one size fits all solutions being implemented in many contexts. While in some situations, these may make a difference for some, they may not. This approach also promotes a societal perception of a singular solution and singular experience of disability and access needs.

    Suppose I relate this to my disabilities, which are blindness and hearing impairment. With both of these, there is often a societal perception of have or have not. You are blind or are not, which again promotes a singular problem and solution.

    As an example, if I am working with my Guide Dog Sienna, the majority of the time I am in the community, people will either assume I have no vision or am fully sighted and am training her. I was standing outside the Art Gallery in Auckland yesterday talking with someone and I was approached by one tourist and their friend who wanted to photograph my Guide Dog. They asked me if I was training Sienna, and I replied, as I usually do, “no, she is my guide dog”. The tourist promptly said, “but you don’t look blind”.

    My initial thought was to answer, “what does a blind person look like”? But in my experience, sarcasm isn’t a good educational tool. So I let them take a photo and explained that many forms of blindness manifest differently and individuals’ experience of these is also unique instead of focussing on “the look” of someone who is blind.

    With this in mind, in the interview, I expressed the role that people play in making a place “accessible” and that making a place accessible is multifaceted and doesn’t always relate to physical access needs alone.

    My experience of the UK and some of Europe in 2019 was that access needs were more normalised and a part of everyday life at most tourist attractions. While in many cities, the physical access needs were less developed than in some of NZ, it was the forethought, staff attitude and availability of things like audio description, touch tours longer timeframes for those with access needs that made a big difference. In the place I went, there was more of a willingness to individualise experiences, for example, asking “how can I best help”, “would you kike some assistance”, “here is what we offer” and so on. In the UK, on multiple occasions, I was offered a large print menu automatically.

    Sally standing in an exhibition with a guide a dog Sienna sitting next to her.
    Accessible Audio Described tour at Auckland Art Gallery.

    In NZ, people will make assumptions I can not read a menu. They may be right in some situations, while in others, I can read a menu. There are so many contextual influencing factors like the size of the print, the contrast and layout of the menu, how visually fatigued I am and the environment’s lighting. Many times I will walk up to the counter in a cafe and ask what flavours of drink they have, only to have the person behind the counter say they are written over there, point at a board on the wall that I can not see and their body language or demeanour will show that answering that question is an inconvenience.

    Often my answer is would you mind telling me as I can’t read them, or pulling my phone out and taking a photo of where they are pointing to zoom in and try to read this. Often the time taken in doing this is considered a further inconvenience by some staff, exacerbating their original issue and negative perception of disability.

    There are multifaceted solutions here that include addressing physical access needs and ensuring an inclusive and positive environment. Another example, just yesterday, before my interview, was entering a cafe for a drink. I asked about flavours and then asked if the counter staff could point me in the direction of a free table as the cafe was very busy, all the tables I had seen on my way past weee full and there were a lot of moving people. First I got “over there” without hand gestures, so I assumed they were using their eyes to indicate this. I said excuse me, what direction is that and she answered, “outside”

    One solution I particularly liked overseas was restaurants and bars that have a table number in large print and Braille with an app to order. As a blind person navigating crowds to a counter to order is challenging, I gravitated to this option when available as the menus etc., were already accessible.

    Those who know me well will know I like good local coffee but dislike Starbucks for many reasons. However, despite what I consider to be better coffee elsewhere, I find myself ordering from Starbucks at times because they have app-based ordering and payment options.

    In response to the need for social change, I developed a website celebrating good access experiences in NZ (http://www.shoutoutforaccess.com). However, as a time-poor academic, I am struggling to keep the momentum of this social change initiative and the financial commitments of the domain name and hosting charges. If anyone would like to assist with maintenance or sponsor this site so that user logins and self-posting could be added, please reach out.

    Back to the overall theme of accessible tourism in Auckland. The question that keeps springing to mind is, “who’s responsibility is poor accessibility in society?” my answer to this would be everyone, with education leading to social change is the key component.

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  • How I See It … six months with Guide Dog Sienna

    On the 1st of October, it will be six months since Guide Dog Sienna entered my life! To mark the occasion, I will write a series of posts over the next few weeks explaining the difference working with a guide dog has made for me.

    It seems like a lifetime ago that Guide Dog Sienna arrived at my house. In reality, it was 1 April 2022 and we promptly began our training the next day. At the end of the training, we were released into the world and that is where much of the learning began!

    Sienna a Golden Labrador cross sitting next to our geaduation photo.
    Sienna sitting next to our graduation photo – a gift when we graduated as a guide dog team.

    The most significant change I have noticed is that I am more confident when out and about in unfamiliar environments. Working with Sienna has considerably decreased the fatigue associated with navigating the environment with deteriorating vision.

    I will describe an example. I had not noticed that I had unconsciously stopped going out as much and was experiencing extreme fatigue due to vision changes and associated cognitive load with getting around my environment.

    One particular instance where this was particularly challenging was after I got a new hearing aid and had a professional event after work with a health informatics organisation I support (about a year ago) in a part of town I was unfamiliar with.

    I did my usual preparation with bus routes and arranged to call a friend to get me when I arrived at a local Pub as I was worried I would not be able to see her in a crowd so we could walk the rest of the way together. This journey meant walking through the city at dusk during rush hour. I had lost about 30 degrees of my central vision over the preceding six months and was pushing myself to keep engaging in my professional responsibilities.

    I was walking up Victoria St in Auckland, there was rush hour traffic, many people bustling and dreaded road works that made the route different to what I expected. The sun was going down and reflecting of a building making it very difficult to see anything. I was using my cane but because of the new hearing aid and vision loss the visual and audible stimulation this situation became overwhelming. So much so that I needed to stop, sit on a nearby bollard and close my eyes to recover a little.

    To give more context, I had about 20 degrees of vision on my left lateral side (now I have about 5-10 degrees). In this area, my vision is patchy and my brain fills in the gaps in vision that the blind spots obscure. When I am tired or in fast-moving crowds, my brain stops being able to fill in the gaps. This causes distortion, nausea and dizziness.

    After five or so minutes, I continued up the road to the Pub, texted my friend and I waited for around 10 minutes. I followed this up with a phone call which went to answer phone. By this time, the street was even more crowded, so I went into the pub to look for them. There were four large areas. I scouted around all of these, hoping that one of the groups would recognise me or I would recognise one of their voices.

    Unfortunately, I didn’t recognise anyone and no one called out. I went back outside where I had arranged to meet my friend and called again, getting her answer phone. By this time, the visual distortion from the crowd and traffic made me nauseous, dizzy. and emotionally drained. I was already tired from a typical work day, so I decided it would be best to go home and skip the awards dispute wanting to go. I left my friend a message saying I would get something to eat and head home because I couldn’t find the group.

    I retraced my steps, realising I would need to walk some distance to get the bus home, so I stopped at a small cafe to get a cup of tea. My friend called me as I finished my tea, saying her phone was in her bag and she got my message. We agreed she would wait outside the pub. I decided to join the group and returned to the Pub.

    With the fatigue associated with getting there, I found interacting with the group in a noisy social environment almost impossible and had run out of energy. In hindsight, this may have been an excellent opportunity to listen to my body and go home to rest.

    However, I chose to push on my goal had been to reengage with professional obligations, colleagues and industry. We walked as a group down to the company hosting the event.

    Awards were given, and food and drink were shared, but I was so exhausted I couldn’t engage at the level I usually would have. I was lucky my friend noticed and arranged a lift home for me with a colleague, as the travel to the event had left me physically and emotionally exhausted.

    I had applied for a guide dog about eight months before this occurred, thinking that it would be something that would be useful later in my life. I had heard that the wait time was 2-6 years and that getting a guide dog was something of the future. It was after this that I realised that perhaps working with a guide dog was something I needed at that time rather than in the future.

    If I contrast this with similar events now with Guide Dog Sienna, the difference is immense. Last week we went to Wellington to a Digital Health Leadership Summit, which was all city centre, unfamiliar routes and many people and moving objects. However, having Sienna there decreased my visual fatigue and cognitive load as she helped me avoid people and objects as opposed to locating and navigating them with a white cane and vision. This means I don’t need to use my remaining vision or interpret tactile feedback and is the difference between participating fully or in a limited fashion.

    Sienna curled up under the seat in front of me on the Plane on our way home from Wellington last week.

    While I didn’t attend one function, this wasn’t related to my vision or fatigue but redundancy notices at my work that I wanted some downtime to process that announcement.

    So the conclusion of my first post about the difference that Sienna has made is that she has allowed me to function with less cognitive load and visual fatigue in my job.

    I can’t end a blog post without some Sienna cuteness.

    Sasha left a golden labrador guide dog with Sienna right a dark golden labrador waiting at the bus stop together. Both in harness in down position.
    Guide Dog Sienna with her Sister Guide Dog Sasha last weekend when we went out for dinner and a show.

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