Safe & Sound blog

In my Law & Order: Special Dog Unit post last October, I wrote about testifying against a cab driver who refused to pick Hanni and me up. That very morning, when Mike helped me hail a cab to go to court, another cab driver refused to pick me up with my Seeing Eye dog.

A cab slowed down, the driver looked past Mike and saw me standing there with Hanni. “No dog,” he said.
“It’s a Seeing Eye dog,” Mike explained. “A service dog.”
“No dog,” the driver said.
Mike was angry. “You’re going to court!” he shouted at the driver
“I don’t care,” the driver said, then sped away.

I was somewhat reluctant to report this second cab driver. Going to court the first time was not fun, and I didn’t want to have to go back. But I filed anyway. I figured if word got around that drivers were getting fined for refusing service dogs, maybe I wouldn’t have to file any more complaints after this one.

Good news arrived in our mailbox this week. I guess this second guy pleaded guilty?

re: CSR#07-01972211
DOAH docket number: 08CS00267A

Dear Beth Finke:
This letter is the final update of the Department of Consumer Services investigation of the prosecution of the cab driver you reported for investigation. The Department of Consumer Services (the Department) investigated your complaint, and…the cab driver was found liable of violating the municipal code of Chicago. Accordingly, fines and penalties were imposed on the cab driver.
Thank you for reporting this cab driver…your participation is assisting the departmen’ts goal towards 100% clean and safe cabs and 100% courteous and safe cab drivers.

Sometimes the things you wish for really do come true. Hanni and I never did have to go to court to testify against that second driver, and we haven’t had a cab driver refuse us since I filed that second complaint.

Here I am, composing this blog as I sit at my gate at Bergstrom International Airport in Austin. Hanni just made good use of the airport dog park, if you know what I mean, and is now resting happily at my feet. And me? I’ve got headphones attached to my ears as I type away at my talking computer.

It’s official. I’m a geek.

I suppose I’ve been influenced by the conference I just attended. John Slaten Access University, (Access U) is an annual conference/workshop about accessible technology – it’s put on by a non-profit in Austin called Knowbility. A few years ago I sat on a panel with Knowbility’s Executive Director and co-founder Sharron Rush. Ever since then, Sharron has been trying to get me down to Austin to speak at Access U.

This year it finally happened. Easter Seals agreed to fund my trip as part of the Technology Opportunities Project (TOP) grant I worked on with them. I gave a speech about the TOP grant on Tuesday — my mission was to show attendees the many ways accessible websites can really make a difference in a person’s life. It was an easy speech to give – all I had to do was tell the truth! Thanks to the efforts of programmers and website developers who value the importance of accessibility for the blind, I google to do my research, I’m able to fill out online forms on my own, I flip through websites to find information about events, times, locations and on and on. All that stuff the rest of you do using your eyes and a mouse? I do that by using my ears and keyboard commands.

And hey, without website accessibility, I wouldn’t be able to blog. Hmmm. Not sure that’s a plug for or against accessibility for the blind!

In addition to giving a speech, I attended a few sessions at Access U, too. It was heartening to be around so many people with an active interest in keeping the web accessible.

All in all I had a great time. Hanni, too. She wasn’t the only guide dog in the bunch this time – she shared the spotlight with two other guides who were there helping their own blind partners. I have a funny feeling the guide dogs exchanged secrets under the desktops while we blind geeks typed away at our computers.

Uh-oh. They just called our flight. Gotta go. Here’s hoping there are no storms in Chicago this time!

Last Wednesday Hanni and I took a commuter train to St. Pius X — a Catholic School in the Chicago suburbs. my nephew Ben’s kids go there, their great aunt came to talk and answer questions for Riley, Haley, Colin and their schoolmates. And then yesterday Hanni and I boarded a commuter train again, this time I talked to kids at the West Suburban Montessori School in Oak Park.

The questions kids ask from school to school vary, but whether we’re at a city school, a country school, a public school, whatever, one thing they all want to know is this: how old is Hanni? The answer always gets the same response from the audience– Eight-year-olds squeal with joy to discover Hanni is the same age they are.

Sometimes the kids want to know how old she is in human years, too. Turns out the idea that every dog year equals seven human years is a myth. Hanni is not 56 in human years yet. Not according to a converter on a Flat- Coated Retriever site, at least.

“To work out the human age of a dog or other pets many people will multiply their age by seven years. This is not that accurate, as differing breeds of dogs will age at differing rates. For example, many smaller breeds of dogs such as a west highland terrier will live well into their late teens, whilst larger dogs may only live to about ten years. “

Did you catch that “whilst” word in there? That website is from Britain, and my talking computer reads it using a robotic British accent. It’s like having Michael Caine at my fingertips. Imagine.

But back to dog years. The site points out that dogs mature quickly in their early years – a medium-sized dog (Hanni weighs 63 pounds) will be 14 human years by their first birthday, a two-year-old dog her size is the equivalent of a 21-year-old human. No wonder Hanni was so goofy when I met her. She was about to turn 21!

Thereafter for every actual year, add on…5 years for a medium dog breed or 7 years for a large dog breed.

Big dogs age faster? I’ll stick with calling Hanni a medium-size dog. That means she’s 51 in human years.

Hanni and I don’t have any more school visits scheduled for this academic year — our upcoming events are more for grown-ups. At each of these, I plan to announce this new calculation of Hanni’s age in human years. We’ll see if all the 51-year-olds squeal with the same exuberance those eight-year-olds do.