July 01, 2005

A Good Charity

Next time we have a few spare dollars they’ll be going to Service Dogs of Virginia:

Service dogs are companions that can perform a variety of tasks for their handlers, including retrieving dropped items such as cell phones, pencils, and change; opening and closing doors; and “fetching” a cordless telephone to name a few. A service dog not only makes life easier and safer, additionally, the dog serves as a vital bridge to the able bodied community. A canine companion is an appealing warm magnet that draws people to an individual in a wheelchair, an individual who is characteristically ignored and rendered invisible. Once the dog performs this little bit of magic, disabled individuals can be seen for the people they are.
Posted by mgk at July 1, 2005 04:07 PM
Comments

Yeah, it makes friends for the person . . . Except when people, as they often do, ignore the person and go straight for the dog, talk to the dog, and pet the dog without asking the owner even though it is clearly wearing a sign that says "working dog" . . .

Please note, this actually looks like an OK charity, they're probably totally worth your time and money, and I'm not taking away from what service dogs do for their owners. But, from the perspective of someone who has lots of experience with people with disabilities, this is a bad argument.

The National MS Society had a good article in their publication recently on looking for service dogs.

I always encourage people to investigate their disability-related charities throughly before giving, and really think about the message the charity is trying to send. It's because people don't that we end up with tons of money going to charities that are just plain insulting to us or exploitative, like "Jerry's Kids" which uses us as spectacle/freakshow, or Cure Autism Now which is putting its money towards something most of us adult autistics don't want and reinforcing the idea that non-neurotypicality is always bad and not just different.

Posted by: museumfreak at July 11, 2005 04:29 PM | Link to Comment

I *thought* I just posted a long comment about service dogs. Did that not come through? (in other words, this is a test)

Posted by: museumfreak at July 11, 2005 04:31 PM | Link to Comment
Due to the proliferation of comment spam, I've had to close comments on this entry. If you would like to leave comment, please send email to me at mgk =at= umd =dot= edu. Thank you.