Inclusive and Accessible Tourism Industry Workshop: Guide dogs NI demonstration - Torie and Vivvy
Hello. Hello. Hello. Oh, my voice went really high there. How are we doing? Enjoying the day? Oh, that did not sound convincing. Are you enjoying today? Yes. Still not convinced. Libby, are you convinced?
Livy's the guy dog of stage with me, by the way, for anyone who wanted to speak into. Are you enjoying the day? Yes. I'll take that one. So, welcome back. I hope you're enjoying this day of lessons, learnings, and I hope you're getting the opportunity to network with each other because again, today's all about sharing be best practice, sharing information, resources, and what you can do to start shaping change in your industry. So, what we are going to be doing now is we're going to kickstart some of our demonstrations. And I'm really excited to kickstart our first one with Guide Dogs NI. We have Mark and
Tori and Tori's guide dog, Libby, here. Now, fun fact, not least wanted this fun fact, but I'm going to give it anyway. Me and Tori went to school together. Me and Tori, it was a very long time ago. Tori looks a lot younger than I do for that time. Um, but we went to school together. We went to Jordan's 10 schools
for in Belfast for people who are deaf or visually impaired. And we were actually really good friends at school. Have lost touch. And I've now seen Tori twice this year, probably more times than I've seen my own parents this year.
So, it's really nice to connect to Tori, but I'm really excited for this demonstration. So, I'm not going to continue to waffle on. Mark, Tori, Libby, the floor is yours. Great. Hi, everybody. I'm H. Mark Quinn
from Guide Dogs and I am stepping in for my colleagues on the side of guiding team. Um, so I am a white male um with uh dark hair. I'm wearing our guide dogs uniform today, which is a inky blue jumper with a yellow guide dogs logo on it. The yellow is actually called Labrador yellow. Um, and it provides, you know, the the dark blue and the light yellow provides good um contrast.
Um, almost as good as black and white, but it's keeping our core brand colors of the yellow and blue. And I'll let Tori introduce herself here. So, yes. Um, I'm Tori and I am um again a white female and I'm sort of average height um and I'm wearing a pale green shirt um and gray trousers and black shoes and I have um shoulder length hair. Well,
that's not actually quite as long as that but we'll we'll improvise. And um I also uh live with a vision impairment. Um and lying beside me is my second guide dog, Vivy, who um has just made herself nice and comfortable. Um she is a yellow lab retriever. And um if you're
lucky, she might um go into split position, which she loves very much, and it is uh rather amusing. And she sticks her back legs out, and it's just fabulous. That's great to um you might know guide dogs for our signature service which obviously is our guide dogs which Feb is a excellent representation of. Um so
we're guide dogs and we're here to help people with sight loss live the life they choose. Our expert staff volunteers and dogs help people with sight loss live actively independently and well. Um but what a lot of people don't know we also work with children and young people through our habilitation service. So you
may have heard of rehabilitation. We also work with adults for rehabilitation. you know, using the long cane, independent living skills, you know, in the kitchen. But habilitation is what do you do when you know you're born without sight? You have to learn them skills from the start. So that
might be, you know, um we've have one example of a young boy that we had and um all he knew was the carpet in his living room and then it's getting out to the hall, the tiles in the hall, getting outside to the concrete, feeling mommy's car, feeling the grass. So, it's all building up them skills and when he gets to school, you know, that's okay. How do you find your way to the canteen? So, we do that as well. Um, we also work with um friends and family of those with a vision impairment as well. Um, we provide canine assisted and non-kanine assisted services, information, and advice and something that's not on here, which is uh technology as well for those with a vision impairment. So we're here to talk today about site of guiding which is about creating a more accessible society for people with a vision impairment. So
there's been a lot of talk today about you know different venues and and maybe even some um buildings that are that are at listed status and how do how do you adapt them for somebody with a vision impairment? You know you maybe can't even you know put a strip of tape on these buildings to to highlight that there's contrast there. So what do you do in the in between? Sight of guidance is a great step in between for somebody um with a vision impairment to come along. Um and we're going to talk a we bit more uh with Tori about that in a we second, but I'm just going to give you some of the uh top tips here. So top tips if you're dealing with somebody with a vision impairment, they come through your door and you want to create as welcoming an environment as you would for anybody else. top tips I can give is to introduce yourself to ask the person if they need any assistant assistance to offer your arm and to maintain open and effective communication. So we'll
demonstrate some of that as well. Um but I suppose the the reason we wanted to bring sighted guidance is in is although a lot of people as I said know about our our um our guide dog service for people without who a guide dog is not suitable for or who are long cane users or if they do have a guide dog and it is perfectly suitable for. It's just about creating that friendly welcome for somebody and making sure that your environment is as open and as friendly as it can be. Um, so I'll start I'll sit
down beside Tori here and um I'll ask you Tori about some of your experiences. So can you tell me because Tori is one of our um one of our trainers of our sight of guiding as well. Can you just briefly explain to me what sited guiding sort of means for you? Okay. So uh sited guiding is basically it's it's as simple as it says someone with sight is coming along to assist someone without sight if if they want it. Um, and it it makes such a difference because a lot of people want to help, but they don't want to be patronizing or you'll get the other extreme of you are grabbed. Now, that's going to get anybody's back up because I don't know what your intentions are. Um, and
the amount of times I have been marched quite forcefully across roads that I don't want to cross because um, a little old lady has decided I must need help. you know, whereas if someone comes along and actually says um you know, if they introduce themselves and if they offer their arm, it just makes me feel in control. And it means then that if Mark's going to the bakery for the third time today and I don't want another cake, I can say, "No, not today." And I can I can disengage. Whereas, if I'm
being grabbed, I'm not in control. Um and that's what all is all about. And um one of our our colleagues, Paula, who couldn't be here today, she would always use the expression of traveling up the lead and meeting the owner of the dog because quite often everybody, you know, it's oh, there's Vivy and there's Tori, you know. So, it's it's about traveling up that lead and and saying, "Well, there's Tori and Vivy," you know. Um but but most people obviously see Vivie and it's like, "Oh, yes. This is fabulous." and I'm sort of
forgotten about it, but we've got we've got thick skins, so we're we're straight. But no, it really is such a such a useful skill and, you know, it's it's not rocket science. Um, and it just is, you know, again, you just come along and assisting someone if they need it. Um, now obviously if someone doesn't need it, that's okay, too. But, um, it's it's fabulous when it's done right. Um I um stayed at a a hotel last night and um the receptionist was taking me up to my room and um the first thing he said was, "Would you like to take my arm?" And I just thought, "Happy days. This is this
is fantastic." You know, I'm I'm I'm sold now. You know, um because that that was just a a really good entry point in, you know, whereas if he'd have grabbed me, that would have been a totally different experience. And then I suppose at that stage when somebody's grabbing you the onus is on you I suppose at that stage to say oh no sorry can you just you know and that's putting that back on you whereas if somebody's coming and welcoming you know you and saying can I help you essentially and and also you know if someone does grab you it's very that's automatically going to put my back up for a start. Um, it's it's I'm going to remember that experience and I'm going to think, "Oh, I might not I don't really want to go again because they were a wee bit, you know, they grabbed me and I didn't know what the crack was." Whereas, you know, if
someone does actually offer their arm, it's just such a fantastic um experience and so empowering as well. Yeah. And I suppose the intent's there, I suppose, but it's just it's just maybe gone about it the wrong way, I suppose. Yeah. There's there's no there's no badness, but um if it's done right, it it's fantastic, but if it's done wrong, it can really have an impact. And what about can you give us a few examples of maybe just somewhere that you've been um in Northern Ireland on your on your many travels to Tories to as well traveled as I don't even know who like you're you'll go and as you say yourself, you'd go to the moon if we Oh, absolutely. I'm I'm um very confident. Um and that's because of obviously having the the guide dog. Um but not everybody is that confident. Um but you
know um me and a couple of friends we um every couple of months it's like do you want to go to we went to see lay in the in the grand opera house um and usually um it's a case of I I see the show advertised and I go do you fancy going to such and such and I was like I was like do you fancy we hotels stay as well you know so um but everywhere we have been it's been such a fantastic experience Um we uh went to Titanic Belfast there about 3 years ago and we're still talking about it today. Um we turned up and we um initially um whenever I rang up because all three of us have guide dogs and initially um the receptionist said you know um it's a self-led. thought, "Okay." Um, and we arrived at the, um, reception desk on the day, not knowing how it would go.
And, um, one of the, uh, staff members, uh, Pip, he came out and he offered us literally a a oneto-one tour. It was fantastic. Um, we did have the option of using the audio guide, but we we decided we were getting much more information from what he was telling us. But the time that he took, you know, to explain everything and to go into all the detail, oh, it was just absolutely fantastic. And we still would talk about
it today, you know, because it it just made our experience. Um although I was um when we were sort of about halfway through the tour, we were having a bit of banter and I says to him, I says, "Pip, what does an iceberg look like?" And he says, "Oh, it's just a bit of ice." I'm like, "Oh, that's such a disappointing answer." But you know, I suppose it's just a bit of ice, but I wanted something about more. But, you know, that that really just um he made it work for us. Um you know, and
and it was absolutely fantastic. Um I do have a bit of a confession to make though. Um we do go to Dair every so often, but the only places we've been are are food places. We've never done any touristy things, so we'll have to rectify that. Um but you know, even the
fact that um Vive has made welcome is is fantastic. Um 99% of businesses welcome you with open arms, but all it does take is that 1% to either um refuse because you've got a guide dog or to offer you a lower standard of service. Um I have been in a restaurant um oh what was it was a good few years ago now and um I turned up and I was welcomed with can you tie the dog up in the alleyway which didn't go down too well and then um you know we were standing and I says would you be able to read the menu and and the um the person goes oh this menu is going to take about half an hour for me to read and I'm Right. So, it really it really wasn't going well at all. But the the kicker
was when she said, "Okure, we'll set you at the toilets in case anybody complains." Now, if she'd have worded that differently and said, "Look, the restaurant's a bit busy. We'll move you to a quieter area." That would have had a much better impact. Um, you know, when she kept going, "Oh, we don't know the rules and all this here." Um it it was just a really really horrible experience. And anything I asked for on
the menu, she wasn't willing to say whether they did it or didn't do it. So I was that upset and annoyed and I just says, "Right, I love sausages and chips." And that was all right. It come out and then she leaned over me to cut my food. And I was like, "Oh no." So after I sort of gathered myself and I calmed down and all the rest of it, I contacted the Equality Commission um for sort of guidance and advice on um how to welcome assistance dog owners um and the the the business were all over me when they when they knew I was um contacting the Equality Commission. Now, they did offer a me voucher um but I wouldn't darken their door again because of how I was treated. Now, I did give it to another guide dog owner and they were made most welcome, but um you know, we it shouldn't have happened in the first place and you know, it's it's 2025. It's
it's not like guide dogs are a new thing. Um but it's a legal legal requirement. Yeah. Mhm. But I suppose it it it does bring up the question of, you know, there there are many different um types of assistance dogs. Um but it also brings up the the question of um people bringing in maybe their emotional support dog. Um which again they don't have any rights under the Equality Act or the Disability Discrimination Act.
Um, but also more stores becoming just pet friendly can be a bit of a a turnoff I suppose because you know if a pet is badly behaved it's going to affect um working dogs. It's also going to affect um your experience as well. And it also means then you know what do you do if an assistance dog owner comes in as well? you know, who has the right to actually be there, you know. So, it's it's quite a a complicated um area, but it's um it's something that I think needs kept an eye on, you know, because obviously everybody has the right to be in places, but at the same time, you don't need to bring your little Chihuahua in its little handbag, you know, whereas someone with a guide dog or any other assistance dog does actually need that. Um, and I suppose also on that, um, you know, it's it's fantastic that I can take Vivy anywhere. Um, and people I love when people will say, "Oh, I didn't actually realize there was a dog there." Because it means
then I know that she's lying. She's chilling. She's not acting the maggot. She's not looking for food or anything like that. But she needs that experience from um puppyhood to know how to behave in coffee shops, how to behave, you know, on on in on in venues like this. Um you know, so it's it's um very useful whenever um our puppy raisers, our volunteer puppy raisers are allowed to bring the um guide dog pups in as well because it's it's preparing them for um their future as a potential guide dog. Yeah, that's great. And we'll do a quick
uh demo of the sight of guiding here just to show um and uh although we love Vavio so much, she can be a we bit distracting for this part and all the attention is drawn to her. So we're just going to um we're over here we second. Give me two seconds. Yes. There you go. Good job. Right. So the first thing I would do I suppose is come up to Tori here and I would just say um hello Tori. My name is Mark. Um can I help you at
all today? Yes, that would be perfect. So again um Mark's offering help. he's not just assuming that I need it. Um, so he's he's offering it. And it's really important that you do introduce yourself because you're by the time someone gets to your venue, um, it might be point B for you, but um, it might be point D, E, or F for the person with a vision impairment because they have to actually learn how they're going to get to the venue. Um, they have to plan how they're
going to get to it, you know. So um it it can be by the time someone gets to your venue it could they could have quite a difficult or stressful journey. um you know so just having someone introducing themselves is is just fant even if someone knows you um always introduce yourself and say who you are because if I'm working for I'm I'm going to be in the zone whereas if someone says oh hi Tori it's Mark I know instantly oh yes they're for me you know whereas if if someone says oh hello you know and they don't tell me who they are you know I'm not going to know are you staff are you a cleaner you know who are you Um, I felt that one. Tori, sometimes I
can forget to introduce myself again. Would you like to be guided on the left or the right hand side today, Tori? Uh, if you come around to my right, that would be fabulous. So, again, um, Mark asked what side I'd like to be guided on. Um, some people might have a a specific side. They they might have maybe no vision on one side.
They might have some vision on the other. They might have a hearing impairment. So again, always ask what side. Um now obviously if I had Vivy, most of our dogs work on the left. So again, you'd approach from the the opposite side. So um I'm going to um
hold Mark's arm in what's known as the C grip. Um now that's basically just best practice. Um you don't really need to worry about the technicalities too much. Um but um you know just that act of offering your arm is is just fantastic.
Now if I had maybe a balance problem, I might link um or if I was maybe two men, I might hold on to the the person's shoulder, but you'll not be the first person to guide that person um and they'll very quickly tell you what what they need. Um and again, when you're taking off, you would just be um walking at a normal pace. Um it's important that you're relaxed as well. Um I've had people when they're guiding me holding their arm up like this, you're going, "Do you normally walk like that?" They're going, "No." You know? So, um again, um you
you'd be walking half a step ahead and you just walk normally. So, are we Yeah, we're going to take a right here, but it's a we bit narrow to to So, what I'm going to do is just drop my hand behind here. You're still in control cuz you've got that grip. That's perfect. And then we're just going to turn it right around here. Perfect. and I'll take you back the way I'm guide you this way. And um Oh, you okay? Yeah, I'm just stopping. Mark
was um that was a narrow space there. So um again, you would drop your arm in behind. Um and then obviously once you'd come back out again, you would explain that you have actually come back out. Um that was another dig cuz I forgot to do that. Um I've had people who have kept their arm in that narrow space position for maybe 10 minutes. You go this narrow
space on for ages and then they're like oh no we've come out that ages ago and you're like all right okay and another thing I suppose too is just to explain you know we're on carpet here but if the surface was to change is just to explain that. So if you're coming on to particularly something which could be dangerous which could be like cobblestones or something like that just to explain that you are coming onto that or even if the ground is wet or something like that Tori that would be important as well. That would be very important. Right. I'm just going to take you back to your seat here and we'll explain how that so we're just going to go around the way. Right Tori the seat in front of me is um it has back and two sides. It's not the most uh uh easy to
explain of seats actually. It's quite unusual. It's almost in a C grip itself if that makes sense. Um, but it has no wheels on it, so it's not going to move in you when I do. I'm just going to set my arm down here, and you can feel with your non-guiding hand. Yep, I've got it. So, again, Mark didn't grab my arm to put it into the seat. He used his
guiding arm. Um, which is is kind of so useful, you know, it's it's almost like a pointer. Um, you know, um, and then it meant that I could use my free arm to actually um, find uh, the seat. And again, you know, it's not about you don't have to be walking along going, "Oh, we're going on to a green carpet and oh, there's bits of blue on it and oh, you know, but it's just about peppering your conversation with those we important details. Um, obviously um again, if your um if your venue has stairs, again, um you would um will we demonstrate? Will we pretend that there's stairs?" We can do. Yes. So I would So again, I'd be guiding you on this side. Yep. And then I might say,
"So there's stairs going up. They're going up the way, Tori." Yep. Um are you happy enough? So I'll give you um Would you rather uh grab the handle on your left or right hand side? Uh the left left hand side. So I'm going to go here. Yep. So there's the handle there. Imaginary handle. And we're going to
make our way up here now. Again, you're in control there. Yep. Perfect. Perfect. Happy days. So again, it it really is as
simple as that. Um, obviously if you're going through doors, um, manners kind of go out the window because, um, a lot of people will hold back, but I'm not going to know what's behind the door. You know, there could be stairs there. There could be, you know, anything at all. So, it's really important that you would go through the door first. And it's really important that the person with vision impairment is on the hinge side as much as possible because again that means that um you're in control. Um you would
use your guiding arm to um open the door and then the person would follow down with her free arm um and they would then hold the door open. Um, obviously again if I had Vivy, you would just treat it like a narrow space or if the doors uh automatic, you would just walk through just side by side. Um, lose again can be a bit of a um a touchy subject. They don't have to
be. There's nothing relating to personal care at all. Um it would literally be again uh most venues have an accessible L and it would literally be taking someone up to the door and saying you know do you need the layout explained if they say yes then you would um you know the L's in the back wall as you're sitting in the loo the sinks to your right and the dryer's to the right of that and then you would leave them to it and obviously meet them outside again. Um, if you're leaving or finishing assistance, again, um, tell the person that you're leaving. Um, you know, if you're, um, in a a a restaurant, for example, um, and you're, um, getting someone a cup of tea again, you would just say, "Oh, I'll be back in a we minute. I need to get the milk." And then obviously saying when you've come back again.
Um cuz there's nothing worse than talking to nobody and and thinking the person's there and having a full-on conversation. And um but if you're if you're actually leaving someone um you know if you're finishing assistance again you would check to make sure the person knew where they were. Um if they didn't, you would then um obviously, you know, if it was out in the street, you would obviously walk with them until they knew, oh, boots is to your left and set all to your right. Um again, you know, don't just don't just leave the person. Um again, with a a guide dog, um it's really important. And I know it's
hard, but if you can ignore the dog as much as possible. Um because Vivy's a sucker for a pet and she just loses a run of herself. Um but by all means you can ask. Um but um if if someone says, "Oh no, I would rather you didn't, you know, don't don't take it personally." Um also the likes of um you know, the likes of hotels and whatever. If someone
is staying um and it's a a buffet service for the breakfast, you know, go up and and get the person because it's going to be awkward enough me going up trying to wrangle a dog and my cups of tea and my cereal and all the rest of it. Um, I was staying um a couple of uh weeks ago in the Leonardo Hotel in Belfast and um there was a we he must have only been about 19 and it was it was his second shift and rather than all three of us sort of going actually you know we'll have this this this you know we kind of thought right we'll give our order all at the one time so he's not having to make multiple trips and we must have totally bamboozled him because he come back or he he went away with all our bits and bols and then um someone else come back and says, "Oh, I'm I'm here to take your breakfast order." I says, "Sure, we just ordered our breakfast." I was like, "Ah." But the person got a we
bit confused. So, I was like, "Oh, please. I'm so I think we might have made the wrong impression on him that day." Um, have I missed anything? No, I think that's good. It was sort of a whistle stop off our training, but we do provide it. Um so do definitely get in touch with us. So there's you know it's
for the professionals, it's for the public and we do do it for friends and family of those living with a vision impairment as well. There's uh one hour sessions, twoour sessions, threehour sessions and that can be in person or online. Um oh it says that there good. I didn't think it did. So um definitely do uh get in touch if you think that's useful. Another thing that um myself and Tori have presented on a few times as well is um on accessibility and and social media and websites and stuff which know is going to be a topic later but um just to point out that Tori is a published author in that as well. So um yes no definitely please do the emails and screens partners.org.uk or speak to us after if
you're interested in the training. Uh we can make it um accommodating for you and and and your particular business needs as well. So, um, we'd love to hear from you. So, um, thank you, Tori, for that demonstration. No problem at all. I think V's ready for you to come back now. Pleasure. Thank you, folks. There
she is.
2025-05-11 09:23
