VIEWPOINT: Traveling While Blind

Navigating cabs, airports and life with a guide dog
Photo © Bill Healy

We all love our dogs. I sure love mine: I’m blind, and my Seeing Eye dog Whitney, an eight-yearold Golden Retriever/yellow Lab cross, leads me everywhere I go. Including airports.

We live in Chicago, and since the city introduced reduced taxi fares for people with disabilities, I’ve been taking cabs to get to O’Hare or Midway independently. The cab driver calls out when he arrives at our door, and I point to his voice and command, “Whitney, forward!” She guides me to the cab, I open the back door and command, “Whitney, sit!” She stays seated outside the cab and waits as I slide over on the seat.

Seeing Eye dogs are taught not to sit on car seats, so once I say, “Whitney, come!” she jumps in and settles on the floor. “Good dog, Whitney!” After checking to make sure her tail is inside, I close the door and we’re off.




via Whisker Therapy
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