Full Transcript
Belo Cipriani:
When I gotten my first guide dog, my life changed tremendous. It changed in every imaginable way just from getting to a place much quicker, walking on the street faster. I could dart to my friend’s house down the block and get there in minutes.
Jim Power:
My primary duties are is I work with our clients in the field if they’re having any issues. I do assessment of people who are looking to get a guide dog.
Belo Cipriani:
The instructor handed me the leash and it was love at first touch. Because as soon as I reached for the leash and grabbed his head, I fell in love. Oslo is a 70 pound of Lab energy who was just ready to take me in and love me to pieces.
Jim Power:
If you’re visually impaired and you meet the federal standard for legally blind and you have safe and effective guide dogs skills, reach out to us at 1-800-295-4050 or come to us at www.guidedogs.com.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson. While in attendance at the National Federation of the Blind 2019 Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, I was excited to come across the table of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Now, Lori’s guide dog, Logan, came from Guide Dogs for the Blind, and a lot of my friend’s guide dogs have come from Guide Dogs for the Blind as well. One of them being Belo Cipriani. He’s a fellow resident here in Minnesota and he’s an author. He also did a YouTube video of his experience with Guide Dogs for the Blind when he himself went and got his guide dog. At the table of Guide Dogs for the Blind, I met up with Jim Power.
Jeff Thompson:
He is a field instructor and he talks about what the experience is like as a graduate and applying and going through the process of gaining your guide dog. He also talks about Guide Dogs for the Blind, of course, and stay tuned because I’m going to include Belo Cipriani and his experience with his guide dog Oslo. Let’s start out with Jim Power, field structure for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson, and I’m at the NFB Convention Las Vegas 2019. I’m at the Guide Dogs for the Blind booth. I’m talking to Jim. How you doing, Jim?
Jim Power:
I’m doing well. How are you doing today?
Jeff Thompson:
Good. Thanks for taking the time to give a little information to people about guide dogs.
Jim Power:
Sure. I’m glad to do it. My name’s Jim Power. I’m a field service manager at Guide Dogs for the Blind. Just a quick message from Guide Dogs. Guide Dogs for the Blind is more than just an industry-leading guide dog school. We’re a passionate community that serves the visually impaired with exceptional client services and a robust network of instructors, puppy raisers, donors and volunteers. We prepare highly qualified guide dogs to serve and empower individuals who are blind or have low vision from throughout the United States and Canada.
Jim Power:
All of our services are provided free of charge, including personalized training, an extensive post-graduation support, plus financial assistance for veterinary care if needed. If you’re visually impaired and you meet the federal standard for legally blind and you have safe and effective guide dog skills, reach out to us at 1-800-295-4050 or come to us at www.guidedogs.com.
Jeff Thompson:
Now Jim, as an instructor, you’re an instructor for people training with a dog?
Jim Power:
Yes. Yeah. Well, my title is field service manager. I’m a qualified instructor. What my primary duties are is I work with our clients in the field if they’re having any issues. I do assessment of people who are looking to get a guide dog. We provide annual follow-up visits. We go out and see grads in the field to make sure they’re doing well and if they need any assistance and to just build a sense of community.
Jeff Thompson:
That might include a Juno harness, right?
Jim Power:
Yeah, it can. A Juno harness, it’s a simulated guide work experience for somebody who’s never had a guide dog to help them get the feel of the differences between traveling with a dog and a cane.
Jeff Thompson:
If someone is interested and they’re working or employed or going to school, how much time would they have to breakaway to get the training?
Jim Power:
It’s usually a two-week program from the time you start the admissions process, which takes a month or two to get all the paperwork in, until you go to our admissions review committee. If they find that you meet our criteria and accept you into training, it’s usually about a four to six month wait to get in. It’s a two-week waiting period and then there’s continuing education provided by us throughout the dog’s lifetime.
Jeff Thompson:
If they qualify, it’s free to them to come up, get the training and have a dog?
Jim Power:
Exactly. Everything’s free of charge, what we do once you start the application process to your cost of travel to the school, to the training and your room and board at the school, all the equipment you need, the dog, the follow-up services. We also provide veterinary care financial assistance. We cover all the dog’s healthcare throughout its life.
Jeff Thompson:
All right. Can you tell me the website one more time?
Jim Power:
Sure. That’s www.guidedogs.com.
Jeff Thompson:
Thank you very much, Jim.
Jim Power:
You’re welcome. Thank you.
Belo Cipriani:
The instructor handed me the leash and it was love at first touch. Because as soon as I reached for the leash and grabbed his head, I fell in love. Oslo is a 70 pound of Lab energy who was just ready to take me in and love me to pieces. It was very magical. My name is Belo Cipriani, and I lost my vision back in 2007. I was 26. It was two months shy of my 27th birthday. My cause of blindness is retinal detachment. It took me a couple of years to get over the grief of losing my sight. I was grieving the loss of my job, the loss of my friends. It was very hard. There was times where I really struggled with getting out of bed, doing various simple tasks.
Belo Cipriani:
When I gotten my first guide dog, my life changed tremendous. It changed in every imaginable way just from getting to a place much quicker, walking on the street faster. I could dart to my friend’s house down the block and get there in minutes. I couldn’t that with a cane. The big effect of me losing my sight was really finding something that I was passionate about. This may sound bizarre, but if I hadn’t lost my sight, I wouldn’t be a writer. I love being a writer. I also train capoeira, which is an Afro-Brazilian martial art. Outside my walking around with Oslo, I want to workout and keep in shape. That’s important to me. There are three basic skills to being an independent blind person.
Belo Cipriani:
There’s reading, and then there’s adaptive equipment, and then there’s your mobility. To me that’s the one where I put the most emphasis. By far, Guide Dogs for the Blind has the most assistance than any other school in the country. That automatically put them on the top of my list. Guide Dogs for the Blind creates these amazing partnerships between blind people and their guide dogs. It’s part magic. It’s part formula because there’s a lot of training involved. There’s an intuition that they have that’s needed to have these teams bond and become fruitful partnerships. The magic begins with the puppy raisers. These people are volunteers and these people are the first phase of the puppy’s life.
Belo Cipriani:
They bring him to the homes at about eight weeks and they’d socialize them. They housebreak them. In results, what it creates are these amazing guide dogs who are able to manage high stress situations. All that is thanks to the puppy raisers. When I came back into the two weeks program, it was just exactly what I needed. Very comfortable. I felt like I was at a resort somewhere. I didn’t have to share my room. Very fancy with WiFi. All the latest gadgets. The instructor to student ratio was amazing. There was two students per instructor. The fact that I could customize it to my lifestyle was perfect. They even did a simulation with some airport travel, which was just great.
Belo Cipriani:
They have campuses. One is in San Rafael, California and a second in Boring, Oregon. They have an alumni organization which is first class, and they provide a lifetime of support. For example, if my dog ever needs help with something, whether it’s training or even veterinary care, whether you live in Miami, Toronto or even Anchorage, you’re not able to make it to their local vet, they will give you money to cover the cost to see your local vet. That’s just amazing. All of the services Guide Dogs for the Blind provides are completely free. They don’t receive any funding from federal or state agency. It all comes from donors. They have this amazing support center.
Belo Cipriani:
There is no question too small or too big that they cannot answer. They’re always keeping up to date with what’s cutting edge. They have the latest training techniques to just make yourself a better guide dog team. As a blind person, you’re not able to smile across the room, make eye contact. A guide dog, a service dog, is definitely something that helps break the ice with the public. I think people don’t recognize that blind people before anything else are people. We crave the same things everyone else does. Vision in general denotes the ability to make a connection. I could see with my fingertips. I’ll touch something. I could also see things through my mind.
Belo Cipriani:
However, blindness is a lot more manageable when you have a faithful companion that loves you unconditionally.
Jeff Thompson:
You can check out more stories on the YouTube channel for Guide Dogs for the Blind and check out Guide Dogs for the Blind on the web at www.guidedogs.com. Call 1-800-290-4050. Be sure to enable the Blind Abilities skill on your Amazon device just by saying “Enable Blind Abilities.” I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye, bye.
Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:
Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
On Twitter @BlindAbilities
Download our app from the App store:
‘Blind Abilities’; that’s two words.
Or send us an e-mail at:
Thanks for listening.
*****
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org and search the directory for your agency.
Contact:
Thank you for listening!
You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
Send us an email
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store.
Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impairedand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.