Cheree Heppe here: The portion of a letter appended below circulated via E-mail very recently And as a concerned consumer, I am responding.
Many blind consumers feel that having Options for dog guide training outside of California represent their best Hope for acquiring a dog guide that can guide, exhibit proper social Behavior and have good health. Many who are not directly tied into the California State Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind believe the Board's function to be superfluous, Stifling, repressive, controlling and self-serving. Many blind consumers prefer receiving Services through non-patronizing, consumer empowering agencies. The California State Board of Guide Dogs does not have, but would like to garner national and yes, international authority to force dog guide programs Or individuals coming into California to accept the Board's self-imposed, Self-administered program requirements. However, there is in the ADA a functionally based requirement for dog guide work and not a badging requirement. Basically, this Federal safeguard means that if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck and is in all respects duck-like, then it's a duck, even if the duck doesn't wear the "Duckie-booo-boo" label from Duckie-boo-boo, Inc. The largest program for dog guide provision in California, Guide Dogs for the Blind and other organizations of the same type with histories of embezzlement and hostile take over’s in their backgrounds, are trying to pressure other professionals in dog guide circles to support and use formalized efforts at re-making the dog guide landscape into their localized image. The re-making is being formalized through a Master's program in dog guide training through such well-known schools as San Francisco State with an Orientation and Mobility degree requirement and all that extra fluff. Most blind consumers are excluded from obtaining degrees in these areas. It's another top down, we serve and you lick it and like it sort of approach to blindness services. We don't like it. If I obtain a dog guide outside of California or move into California with a dog guide from elsewhere, it is none of the California State Board of Guide Dog for the Blind's business where my dog guide originates or who helps me with my dog, especially when such help may be provided by qualified staff from competing dog guide schools outside California. If I prefer to owner train a dog guide and show others how to owner train, I have the right under ADA to do this in any state of the U.S. I want to live in. I am an American and have owner/trained since 1989. I traveled with a dog guide since 1970 and decided to owner/train after one of the California program's dogs bit me in the face while still at the school for a correction I gave the trained dog over a cat distraction. At that point, I decided I was going to stop being a victim. If I want to avoid a dog selection bottleneck to knowledgeably select a breed and caliber of dog I prefer, I have that right as a free citizen, a competent person and the ADA. The State Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind doesn't defend dog guide owners who are injured by negligence from schools within California and doesn't address internal negligence, as I myself discovered some years ago. I determined then I would never utilize the California dog guide programs because of the damage the Guide Dog Board inflicted on the California dog guide programs, standards and quality. Trying to force the rest of the dog guide programs, some who have achieved world prominence over the past one hundred years, to kowtow to the California model is asinine. If you want to save California money, muzzle this Board's and it's minions' bid to bite off more than it can chew and eliminate this Board, which, if it ever had one, has out-lived its purpose. The following letter which brought this most recent California Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind activity to my attention circulated via E-mail very recently as follows. The headers and date had been removed prior to forwarding, so I cannot include this information about thisdocument. SNIP The original text of this letter can be found at: etter.shtml All grammatical, spelling and typographical errors in the document below are those of California state employees, and not my own. I guess they're feeling strapped for cash and really want that $100 a year per instructor. And boy, I hope this doesn't mean TSE will just hunker down and get one or two instructors licensed by California and thereby limit who can come out here to do follow-up. Let the games commence. --Carla Department of Consumer Affairs Disability logo Letter to out-of-state schools Re: Compliance with California State Law Pertaining to Guide Dogs Dear Out-of-State School: On July 8, 1947, Governor Earl Warren signed into law the Guide Dog Act. This act was established to keep out maverick guide dog schools, protect the visually impaired by setting minimum standards of training, provide oversight for the disposition of donor funds and maintain minimum competency of training for licensed guide dog instructors. The purpose of this letter is twofold. First, the Board wishes to inform all out-of-state schools the statutes requiring compliance with licensure requirements for instruction in the state of California. Second, the Board has a process for compliance - namely the examination for an instructor license. If a candidate for licensure meets the minimum requirements to sit for the examination, they are eligible for licensure status. The examination is given twice per year and involves a one-day Written Exam and a one-day Oral/Practical Exam. Fingerprints are also required before taking the examination. First, California law requires a license for the sale or the giving of a guide dog. Business and Professions Code section 7210 requires that: It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer for sale, give, hire or furnish under any other arrangement, any guide dog or seeing-eye dog or to engage in the business or occupation of training any such dog unless he holds a valid and unimpaired license issued pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. Second, California law requires guide dog instructors to be licensed. An instructor "means a person who instructs blind persons in the use of guide dogs or who engages in the business of training, selling, hiring, or supplying guide dogs for the blind." California law as set forth in 16 CCR section 2284 requires: Anyone instructing a blind person in the use of a guide dog must be licensed by the Board, provided, however, that a school may employ apprentices to assist in such instruction. No apprentice shall act as an instructor except under the direct and immediate supervision of a licensed instructor. Last, B&P Code Section 7213 provides that: Violation of any provision of this chapter is a misdemeanor. The process for obtaining an instructor license begins with an examination. To qualify to take the examination, the individual must have the following qualifications as set forth in Statute (B&P Code Section 7209) -- which states the following: [P [erson to be eligible for examination as an instructor must (1) have a knowledge of the special problems of the blind and how to teach them, (2) be able to demonstrate by actual blindfold test under traffic conditions his ability to train guide dogs with whom a blind person would be safe, (3) be suited temperamentally and otherwise to instruct blind persons in the use of guide dogs, and, (4) have had at least three years actual experience, comprising such number of hours as the Board may require, as an instructor, and have handled twenty-two (22) man-dog units; or its equivalent, as determined by the Board, as an apprentice under a licensed instructor or under an instructor in a school satisfactory to the Board. Applicants for the instructor license are required to take both a written and practical/oral examination. Applicants must provide a 15-30 minute video demonstrating instruction skills. A panel of subject matter experts will review the video and evaluate the candidate's oral defense of said video. The five steps to licensing are available on the Board's Web site. Applicants may also obtain the application for examination at www.guidedogboard.ca.gov The instructor licenses are good for one year and are renewed each year thereafter for a fee of $100. Along with the fee, an instructor must provide the Board with evidence of continuing education (either 8 hours of course/seminar attendance or 16 hours of attendance at meetings of guide dog users or organizations of the blind). If you have any questions about the laws cited above, please feel free to contact me at (916) 574-7825. Thank you. Sincerely, ANTONETTE SORRICK Executive Officer, State Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind END SNIP ___ Replies to this message will go directly to the sender. 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