Hi Mohit, Whether people look at our white canes with awe and respect or not should not be the criterion when deciding to use a white cane. Those of us who choose to use it do so because it helps us get from point A to point B. Whether others find it attractive or not is immaterial.
As for the feasibility of using guide dogs in India, this has been discussed on the list several times in the past. In addition to the condition of Indian roads, the traffic and the general chaos on roads combined with the presence of stray dogs make it impossible for guide dogs to survive. Geetha -----Original Message----- From: accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of Mohit Shah Shah Sent: 27 April 2012 17:09 To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] Feasibility of guide dogs in India Hi all, I recently came back from the U.S. where I saw many great things. One of the things that I saw was how visually impaired people do everything quite gracefully with a guide dog. This really tempted me to think whether the use of guide dogs would be possible and feasible in India. Although it's true that India doesn't have the best of roads, it's also true that most indoor places like malls, airports, hotels, offices, etc have the same kind of structure all over the world. The roads in India have improved largely over the last few years and most of them now are at par with most nations. So, with that being said, the only major issue, I believe, is that people feel that Indians, in general, hate and are scared of dogs, so the experiment wouldn't work. Now, my point is this: How many people have you seen who look at the white cane with awe and respect? I, for one, haven't come across many such people. I believe that we can and must work towards promoting the use of guide dogs in India. I saw a blind man who was giving his guide dog instructions like, 'Find the stairs' or 'Find an empty chair' or 'Find this XYZ person' and the dog was able to do those things perfectly. Now, I don't think you can really do such things with a cane, even though I have full respect for those who use the cane -- me being one amongst them. So, what do you all think about this proposition? Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
