4. Service Dogs with Pat (Part 1)

It’s not like there’s a lot of service animals out there, right? And it’s a different sort of thing. You know, you’re out there, and you’re doing your daily activities, and lo and behold you encounter this incredible thing. And it is incredible. I’ve been working with them for 20 years, and that doesn’t mean I’ve become sort of numb to it. If anything I’m more in awe of what they do now than I was 20 years ago.

We talk with Pat McKenna about service dogs. Pat is the Assistant Division Director at the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. He is also an attorney and a long time guide dog handler who lives with his wife and sons in Central NJ.

Transcript

Links related to the episode:
Pat and Finn Go-Pro video
The Seeing Eye
The Seeing Eye’s Guide Dog at Work campaign
The National Federation of the Blind
The rideshare (Uber and Lyft) accessibility issue discussed in this episode is so widespread in the US that the NFB legal department is conducting a survey to catalogue incidents for future legal action.
CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind)

Hear more from Nathan Leigh who composed our music (link).
See more art from the Rev’d Stephanie London who created our title graphic (link).

A 40 something man with light skin and a ponytail, wearing jeans and a sweater, walks past a store, guided by a yellow lab in a leather guide dog harness.  Both look happy.

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