The lived experience of guide dog owners

Abstract

The Equal Opportunities (Persons with Disability) Act (2000) categorises guide dogs as “assistive means” (p.1) and states that no person shall be discriminated against because they “are accompanied by or possesses any assistive means” (p. 6). Nonetheless, over the past few years, there were three reported incidents of discrimination towards guide dog owners in Malta ("Cassola claims”, 2014; Muscat, 2017; Iversen, 2018). By using phenomenology and emancipatory research principles, this study aimed to generate a degree of understanding on the unique life experience of guide dog owners in Malta. The use of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was central to the study’s methodological framework as it helped bring out the participants’ interpretations of a topic (Pietkiewizc & Smith 2012). Considering that an integral part of phenomenology deals with the embodied experience and with the concept of being (Roche, 2014), and that a substantial amount of IPA studies revolve around the “identity changes associated with major life transitions” (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009, p. 163), Identity theories were applied. Furthermore, since a great part of the working relationship between a guide dog and its owner is based on the bond formed between them (Olson, 2002), Attachment theories also formed part of the conceptual framework. Purposive sampling was used to select six guide dog owners through the Malta Guide Dogs Foundation (MGDF), which acted as a gatekeeper. They each consented to participate in an audio-recorded in-depth semi-structured interview. IPA guided the data collection and analysis. The process of describing their experience as guide dog owners brought to their consciousness the change that this journey brought to their identity. In Husserl’s words, they went back to the things themselves (Lewis & Staehler, 2010) as they captured, through their description of their life before and after, the true conscious meaning of what being a guide dog owner means for them. They reflected on their intersubjectivity with the people around them as they expressed their awareness at the physicality of their existence. For most of them, having a visual impairment meant a different way of navigating the environment which made their being-in-this-world and being-with-others to be perceived as flawed. With the introduction of the guide dog in their life, these perceptions were altered. Their being-in-this-world became more autonomous, efficient and safe. As Merleau-Ponty puts it, with the help of their guide dog, they became body-subjects who communicated confidence, skill and elegance which altered the perception of their identity (Smith et al., 2009). Being a guide dog owner also came with a collective identity which held with it a certain responsibility to deal with unsolicited attention or discrimination in ways that would not harm the reputation of guide dog owners and with a merged identity which made the dog become an invaluable extension of the self which is grieved as intensely as the death of a loved one when retirement or death separates a guide dog from its owner.