“[Having a guide dog] is kind of like driving a Ferrari, you know you’ve got this powerful intelligent machine, totally obeying you whisking you through the environment. But if you don’t know how to drive it, you’re going to be in trouble.”
In 2022, the guide dog remains an indispensable tool in the toolbox of individuals who choose to use it. Guide dogs offer practical and social-emotional benefits that have been documented extensively in the literature and were confirmed by the guide dog users in this study, many of whom have happily worked with guide dogs for much of their adult lives into middle age and beyond.
As the above quote illustrates, though, guide dog users need the foundational O&M skills to effectively partner with a guide dog. A shortage of O&M services may reduce the number of individuals who can become qualified guide dog users. Additionally, extending the Ferrari analogy, guide dog users must have regular access to a track— that is, regular opportunities to travel and walk with their dog—in order to optimize the quality of the dog’s work and bond. Recent trends such as increasing telework and rideshare usage may impact the number of individuals who have a purposeful need for a guide dog. Future research will be useful in determining how post-pandemic return to work may or may not impact these trends.
Furthermore, the research findings point to a number of areas in which guide dog schools, O&M professionals, and people who are blind or have low vision can collaborate to maximize opportunities for independent, safe, and efficient travel. These include efforts to improve access to O&M services; practices that increase diversity and inclusion in guide dog training programs; and collective advocacy to defend guide dog users’ rights to access public spaces. Regardless of the choice to use a guide dog, a cane, or other tools, blind and low-vision individuals value their right to travel freely and independently using the tools that work best for them.
