by Alexis Read
Alexis Read grew up in Williston, ND, and received services from NDVS/SB as a child. Last summer, she attended an Orientation and Mobility (O&M) program at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Michigan to learn O&M skills that would allow her to independently cross a complex intersection near her home in Florida. As Alexis shares in this article, both the on-campus and in-home instruction from Leader Dogs made a huge difference in her life, giving her more independence and confidence. She hopes this article will encourage others to take steps that will expand their world.
I graduated from high school in 1999. Prior to graduation, I received services from North Dakota Vision Services/School for the Blind. In my adult years, I learned about a resource that I want to share with others.
I was born in Australia in early 1981. My parents did not receive the official diagnosis of my visual impairment until I was four months of age. After my first birthday, my mother decided to move back to her home state of North Dakota with my older brother and me. She realized she would need family support raising a child with a visual impairment. Her parents still lived in the small community where she grew up.
I started to receive vision services in the summer of 1982 from a woman who was my teacher until I graduated from high school. Phyllis taught me skills related to the Expanded Core Curriculum; however, I would meet another teacher in 1991 who would help me learn to navigate my home area. Paul Olson, then the Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist for NDVS/SB, had to travel six hours to work with me so his trips were infrequent but beneficial.
After I moved away from North Dakota in 2006, I received O&M instruction on a more frequent basis. I was exposed to many different teaching styles and methods over the years.
I moved to Jacksonville, FL, at the end of 2018 as my family now lived in this city. I started to work for the state in January of 2019 as a counselor for children who were blind or visually impaired. In 2020, I was promoted to the role of transition counselor for the same agency. I have been working in this role since March of 2020 when the pandemic affected everyone in different ways.
During the time before I lived in Jacksonville, I was partnered with a guide dog named Yankee. He was a yellow Lab trained by Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights, NY. Sadly, in 2021, he started to develop what I came to believe was arthritis, although the veterinarian never officially gave him this diagnosis. It was always labeled as “restricted motion.” Yankee also had a severe fear of thunder. Coupled with his thunder phobia and pain when walking, I made the difficult decision to retire him in 2022.
I returned to Guiding Eyes for the Blind the same year I retired Yankee to train with a successor dog. This partnership did not work out for a variety of reasons, specifically the fact that I had not learned walking routes to work and other destinations from my home.
In the spring of 2020, I moved from a small apartment across from my office to a nicer complex that was a mile from work. I only received one or two O&M lessons before face-to-face instruction with this provider was paused indefinitely due to the pandemic. Outside the complex was a very large and complex intersection. I was terrified to cross this intersection because I had been informed it was unsafe and not fit for me to cross. I also had asked instructors about learning to walk to work but was again told this was not a good idea. Safety concerns with traffic and ramps on and off a large interstate highway were cited.
By 2025, I was well settled into my role at work and had even purchased a condo near the complex intersection. I felt trapped because I was informed by several people that this intersection was unsafe to cross.
During work one day, I received a call from a local acquaintance. He told me about a program at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Michigan where students learned O&M skills in an individual and, according to another friend, “trauma-informed” environment. I put this out of my mind for a while because I was so busy at work.
A short time later, another colleague told me about this program. She teaches O&M in the local school district. I had expressed concern to her that I had not crossed streets in a long time and felt I would never be able to walk to the store across from my home. She encouraged me to apply for the same program.
A short time later, I received an e-mail from the school. Somehow, I must have gotten on their mailing list. This e-mail was specifically about the O&M program they offered. I decided that I wouldn’t wait anymore. Having heard about this from three different people meant the universe was telling me to act.
I contacted the Outreach Director, and she told me about the program. We discussed my O&M history starting when I grew up in North Dakota and had limited instruction. She told me I would be a perfect candidate for the program.
The application process was very simple. The online form was accessible and asked standard demographic questions such as name, address, date of birth, etc. I also needed to have my primary care doctor complete a medical form and an eye doctor fill out a vision report form. Both of these were easy to print from the website. Both my primary care provider and low vision doctor completed their forms and faxed them to the school.
I also needed to locate references who could answer questions about my adjustment to my blindness. Locating references was the easiest part of this whole process as I had friends willing to complete the forms.
The school also needed a recent O&M teacher to fill out a report on my O&M skills. When the teacher called me to tell me she received the form, she informed me there was a question about my knowledge of compass directions. My stomach dropped. Those darn compass directions! All I remembered from O&M class in North Dakota was “Never Eat Soggy Wheat.” I never learned compass directions in my current community. I was nervous this would cause me to be rejected from the program.
The application also required a video recording, but when I contacted the school to first talk to the Outreach Director, she told me that this was no longer required. They were running a pilot study to see if requiring a video recording for the O&M program was still necessary. At the time of this writing, the video recording is no longer required. There is a short interview with a representative from client services that substitutes for this requirement.
I received the acceptance in mid-June about six weeks after submitting the application. I was scheduled for class the week of August 24, 2025.
I arrived in Detroit on August 24. A driver met me at baggage claim and drove me to the school. Sunday was a day to relax, get acquainted with my classmates, and learn the building. The next day, I met with my assigned instructor in the morning. Tommy and I hit it off from the start, and I discovered throughout the week that we had many of the same interests.
During the first morning, we discussed my O&M history, which included the instruction I received in North Dakota and other states. We also discussed my history with three previous guide dogs. My main goals for this week were to relearn street crossing procedures and regain confidence in crossing large and complex intersections. I also had another goal to learn orientation skills in large areas because my employer was going to have a training in a large hotel several weeks after returning home.
Most of the week was spent practicing street crossing skills starting at quiet intersections, gradually increasing in complexity. By the end of the week, I was confidently able to cross the six-lane intersection near the school. This was the final test.
On Thursday afternoon, Tommy and I also did a Juno walk with him playing the role of dog. A Juno walk is where the instructor plays the role of a guide dog and takes directions from the student. This was part of the instruction because he had requested a guide dog walk for me on Friday morning. This is an available option for students who desire this at the end of the week. I was uncertain at the time whether I wanted to partner with another guide dog, but I missed that feeling of a harness in my left hand.
The walk with the guide dog in training was such a good feeling even though the dog’s trainer had her support leash attached. I felt like I had never had a break between dogs, even though by that point it had been over two years since the last dog was returned to the school for behavior reasons and a lack of work.
The class finished on a Friday, and I flew home on Saturday with homework from Tommy. His assignment was for me to go with a friend to the intersection and ask her true/false questions. This was designed so that I could determine if I was correctly analyzing the traffic patterns. Tommy didn’t want me to cross the intersection yet. After recording the traffic at the intersection and sending the video recording to Tommy, he felt that I could cross this intersection safely.
During the work with my friend, we discovered the audible pedestrian signal (APS) was broken. I contacted someone I knew who worked in the disability services division of my community. She put in a work order for this to be fixed.
Tommy called in early October for the scheduled 30-day check-in. We discussed my homework, and I told him I still wasn’t quite comfortable crossing this big intersection, especially knowing the audible signal was broken. I knew how to analyze traffic, but with this big intersection, I felt more comfortable with a working APS. Tommy agreed that scheduling follow-up in my home area was a wise idea. He put in the request for the field representative to schedule a week in my community.
Several weeks later, I received a phone call from the instructor, Barry. Barry and I discussed the goals I had for the week, which were to conquer the big intersection as well as possibly learn how to walk to work. We scheduled his visit for mid-January. I made the necessary arrangements at work to take that week off. I then waited and hoped.
Barry and I met early on Monday, our first day of work. After a short introduction in which I shared with him about my vision and O&M history, we went out to review the intersection. I had butterflies in my stomach thinking that Barry would agree with everyone else and his trip would have been for naught.
The intersection has about five lanes of traffic and two turn lanes. This is similar to one of the last intersections Tommy and I practiced in Michigan. At that point, Tommy said I could cross the intersection near my home with confidence.
Barry and I stood at the corner for a while just listening to the traffic and trying to figure out any patterns. Once I thought I had started to understand the traffic flow, he agreed that we could cross together. I was by no means ready to solo this intersection, or, as Barry called it, “the dragon.” We crossed the intersection with Barry providing human guide.
There were many repetitions of this intersection crossing throughout the week. By Thursday afternoon, I felt confident enough to solo the crossing.
The last day came all too soon. At the beginning of the week, I had requested that for the final test, we do a Juno walk. I wanted to test myself to see if I could remember the route and maintain my orientation without the tactile feedback the cane provided. I passed the test and made it safely to the store Publix with Juno guiding all the way.
Having participated in both the on-campus and in-home O&M instruction models that Leader Dogs offers has given me the confidence to cross a variety of intersections, whether they are busy or quiet. If anyone feels that the five days of intensive instruction would benefit you, I highly encourage you to apply for the Leader Dog program. Having the confidence to cross any type of intersection opens up your world and allows you to travel anywhere within your comfort zone.
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On the Road with Barry - Jacksonville | Leader Dogs for the Blind