> Oh well, I can't manage to be quite as polite as Andrew.
> >David Andrews commented:
> >
> >> Finally, my observations tell me that very few foreign people have
> >> good cane travel training like we do at our centers.
> And my five years direct observation suggests that few people other
> than Americans would have the right combination of ignorance and
> daring to make such a comment.
> >> If they did, I wonder how much they would be interested in
> >> these electronic aids.
> >> They may be using them as a substitute for good travel training,
> >> which they don't know about. They don't have many expectations of
> >> good cane travel.
> Do we not indeed, poor fools that we are. This argument has certain
> difficulties with evidence I'm afraid. It was reiterated to the point
> of a mantra by my Sonicguide instructor that the Guide was absolutely
> no substitute for good cane technique. He had, after all, spent the
> previous decade as a long cane instructor. At the time no one was
> allowed to instruct in the use of the Guide unless they were a long
> cane instructor first, a perfectly reasonable policy in my view. At
/> a later stage during training, when the Guide was making an obvious
> positive contribution to my mobility, it was removed for a couple of
> days. Can you equate this with an inculcated dependency to the
> exclusion of proper cane use?
Well, I can see where my statement might be offensive and
parochial. It was not my intent to offend anyone, but I did
wish to explore this area, and some of the answers may not be comfortable
for any of us, Americans and/or others.
There are both good and bad travelers in the U.S. and in other
countries. I have seen both.
In the United States, there are many poor cane or dog users.
One of the reasons for this is poor training and low expectations.
Many sighted instructors do not truly believe in the capabilities of a compatent
blind traveler, so he/she won't push the student that hard,
won't expect that much. Most students won't go past the expectations of their
instructors.
I know that generalizations are dangerous, and my sample may
be skewed. However, as Director of the International Braille
and Technology Center for the Blind, I meet quite a few foreign visitors.
A higher percentage of them, then Americans, come here with sighted guides.
I can even think of one person who came all the way from Europe without
a cane. There was also one who came from Turkey with out a cane.
It is difficult to travel independently without a cane, wouldn't you admit.
I can think of at least five overseas visitors who insisted on taking my arm
inside our building, hjust in the past month.
I am a blind person too.
Yes, it is unfamiliar, but a good traveler can handle a new building
and more.
I am not trying to make fun of anyone, or put them down, or eneegrate them.
It really is an expectations thing. Until the expectations of
instructors and students are higher, everywhere, we will have poor travelers.
I will make another controversial statement. Many blind people in this country
get a guide dog, and they are not good travelers, not with the dog or a cane.
I believe this is because they know they aren't traveling well,
and don't know what else to do besides to get a dog, because they know
they didn't get good cane travel.
David Andrews, director
International Braille and Technology Center
for the Blind
National Federation of the Blind
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