Some tips on the best ways to help a person with vision impairment
Offer help, rather than assume a person needs assistance. If they accept your offer, let them take your arm. Never grab or push them.
Talk directly to the person , and not through a third person.
It's fine to use words like "look" or "see". People who are blind use these words all the time.
Don't shout. Most blind people can hear as well as anyone else.
When you greet a person, say who you are. And when you're leaving tell them.
Helping in a shop or restaurant
When seating a person, place their hand on the back of the chair. They will usually seat themselves.
Read the menu to them and don't forget the prices.
It helps to tell the person about the position of the food on their plate and objects on the table.
When a blind person comes into your shop, greet them and ask if they need assistance.
Don't forget, Guide Dogs have legal access to restaurants and shops.
Please do not offer the Guide Dog any food.
People
with Guide Dogs
It is against the law to refuse a Guide Dog entry to a shop, restaurant, theatre, taxi, bus or other forms of public transport.
Guide dogs are working animals, not pets. They are trained to be quiet and clean. The dog can wait a long time before the need to relieve itself. The owner has received instruction about taking care of the dog's needs and will take it outside at regular intervals to relieve.
Talk to the owner rather than the dog. It sounds harsh, however the person relies on their dog as a guide. Its concentration will lapse if you talk to it.
Do not distract the animal in other ways, like feeding, patting or whistling.
Please don't grab the person or the dog's harness. Ask if they need assistance first.
Driver
education
People who have a vision impairment listen to the traffic flow to judge when it is safe to cross the road, so it helps if drivers don't do any of the following:
- Rev your engine while waiting at traffic lights .
- Slow down or stop to let them cross where there is no crossing.
- Stop when lights are in your favour.
- Shout instructions or sound your horn as a signal to cross.
- Also, please do not park across footpaths.
Being
a Guide
ТGuiding techniques are designed to enable the person to move through the environment with safety and efficiency. A good guide will continually monitor the anxiety level of the person, think six paces ahead, looking for potential hazards, and always think "two people" wide.
Initial Contact
The guide touches the back of the person's hand, as a signal for them to take the guide's arm.
Position
The guide holds their arm relaxed at their side. The person's arm is also relaxed and held close to their side. The person stands at the guide's side, a half to one pace behind.
Grip
The person grips the guide's arm just above the elbow, firm enough to maintain contact without causing discomfort.
Pats
are for pets
When the Guide Dog has finished working, off comes the harness and it's a pet again, as happy to roll on its back and be tickled as any dog.
But please, not while it's in harness.
When dog and handler are waiting to cross a main road, your well-meaning stroke can wipe out two years of training.
Much as we'd all love to believe it, Guide Dogs are not rocket scientists. They're just highly trained animals working as a team with their vision-impaired handlers.
Don't whistle while we work. When someone calls our name, we instinctively turn our head. Dogs do the same when they hear a whistle. If that dog is a working Guide Dog, not only is its attention now on the whistler rather than its owner, but an accident may be just around the corner.
Guide dog owners continually "read" signals from their partner through the metal harness. A sudden turn of the dog's head could wrongly indicate to the owner that they are about to encounter a bend.
How would you feel if your friendly whistle caused a vision-impaired person to step off the pavement and fall?
One bite and their brain's out to lunch. Labradors make excellent Guide Dogs. They are intelligent, reliable and love people. They also love food and eat just about anything they're offered.
Imagine having your favorite meal suddenly appear under your nose when you're trying to concentrate. At the very least, your mind will stray from the job. At the very worst, you're a dead loss to anyone who relies on you.
You try working with a wet nose at your bottom. Other dogs can also be a potential distraction for working Guide Dogs. If you take your best friend for walks off the lead, please stop. If you keep it on the lead, please keep it close when you meet a Guide Dog in harness.
As far as your dog is concerned, this dog with a metal lead that it has encountered, could be a long lost friend. No wonder he wants to say "hello" in that special doggy way.
Please remember that working Guide Dogs are really a breed apart. Not because they are superior or smarter, but because they've got a job to do while most pets are on one long holiday.
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