0:11

On reality radio. You're

0:13

listening to the same auto show with

0:15

me, your host, Harriet Moffatt. Today

0:18

I have an exciting interview coming up

0:20

with Vaughn Rolls. Vaughn

0:22

is a lawyer, dad, keen adventurer,

0:24

and a senior handler. Vaughn

0:27

is going to tell our story and talk

0:29

about his life and partnership with

0:31

Sitting Idle Scooter. And tell

0:33

us about the trek for Vision New Zealand

0:36

that he'll be taking part in

0:38

in March to raise funds for Vision

0:40

Australia. We're going to be talking

0:42

about some of the special preparation

0:44

this trip has done to get prepared for this trek,

0:47

and we hope that you'll get behind them and

0:49

support Vision Australia's tele link and

0:51

radio program by donating

0:53

towards their track efforts, by donating

0:55

on their track page, which we'll share

0:57

on the news and social media

0:59

for you to find, as well as give details

1:01

about later. Now,

1:04

without further ado, here is my

1:06

interview with born. Hi

1:14

everyone. Thank you for joining me on the show today.

1:17

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

1:19

Uh, could you start off, please, by introducing yourself?

1:21

Tell us a little bit about yourself. And, uh, you're seeing

1:24

Eye Dog.

1:25

I'm 48 years old,

1:28

I professionally employed, I work as

1:30

a lawyer with Legal Aid, um,

1:32

here in New South Wales, and I've got a four year

1:34

old seeing eye dog. Uh, scooter,

1:36

he's my fourth dog. I've had a couple of

1:38

guide dogs and a couple of seeing eye dogs.

1:41

And I think, having said that, we're really

1:44

lucky in this, in Australia that we've got,

1:46

uh, a couple of different schools,

1:49

but all who provide a pretty positive

1:51

experience. That goes well for the guide dog movement

1:53

generally. But I'd have to say

1:55

out of, um, in recent times,

1:58

uh, seeing Eye Dogs Australia has been very

2:00

innovative in the way they've been working with dogs, and

2:02

I'll cover off on some of that later for you as well.

2:05

And how long have you been a handler

2:07

for overall?

2:09

Oh, um, probably

2:11

too long. I've had. I

2:14

got my first dog when I was about 26

2:16

or 28, so nearly 20 years now. I've had

2:18

four of them. First dog works until he was about

2:20

nine. I got another

2:23

dog, which worked for about three

2:25

years because I got him as an older dog,

2:27

as an urgent replacement. And then I've had

2:29

two seeing eye dogs, uh,

2:31

D.Va and scooter, who've

2:33

worked. SteveA worked till she was about nine.

2:35

And now scooter.

2:37

Have you always been blind or had low vision?

2:40

Yeah, always been totally blind.

2:42

And so what was the kind of, um. I

2:44

mean, I was going to say my next question was,

2:47

how has your life changed since being partnered with

2:49

scooter? And I guess to some degree that's, you know,

2:52

um, like, since having a senior

2:54

dog, I mean, you

2:56

know.

2:56

Sometimes it's a it's a two part question.

2:58

When I first got matched with the dog,

3:01

I was working in private practice in my

3:03

own law firm, and I was, um,

3:05

doing multiple quarts a day, and

3:08

I was getting between the courts with a came. And

3:10

I didn't realize that. I thought

3:12

most people that worked hard had headaches

3:14

every day, and I couldn't. I just didn't know it was anything

3:16

different to normal. And I kept getting, you

3:18

know, taking headache tablets 3 or 4 times a week

3:20

and having really bad headaches. And I just

3:22

thought that was part of working a busy job,

3:24

having a busy life.

3:26

The stress of being a lawyer.

3:27

Yeah, exactly. And the, um, the instructor

3:30

said to me, I think the dog would be really helpful to

3:32

you. And, uh, I had this misconceived

3:34

perception that people who had a

3:36

guide dog, um. You

3:39

know, I had the dog as much for companionship

3:42

as for mobility. And I

3:44

said, well, you know, I've got plenty of friends I don't

3:46

really want, you know, another job.

3:49

Uh, if it adds to my life, I'm happy to try it,

3:51

but otherwise you can have it back. You know,

3:53

I love animals, and I've always loved animals,

3:55

but I was I was like, it's got a there's

3:57

got to be a value add here. Um,

3:59

and then my first dog, we

4:02

trained to find the courtrooms

4:04

by number. And of course, the dog

4:06

doesn't speak English, but it associates the

4:08

courtroom to the smell, uh,

4:10

and the sense of that around it. And I could

4:12

if I was in a complicated building

4:15

with multiple courts, I could tell him,

4:17

go to court five. Now, go to court seven.

4:19

And if I got if I said seven,

4:21

but really meant eight and

4:23

he headed for seven. And then I realized I'd made my error

4:25

and said, no, sorry, I mean eight. He would spin

4:27

around and head.

4:29

Wow.

4:30

So he was a brilliant court dog. I

4:32

think the most number of courts I did in a day

4:34

was nine courts across metropolitan

4:37

Sydney, uh, with a dog,

4:39

uh, and that was with him. But regularly

4:41

we didn't do that many. We used to um,

4:43

3 or 4. Um, but

4:46

he did 9 in 1 day across trains,

4:48

taxis and Sydney. So he was

4:50

a good operator. Um, but

4:52

and in the legal

4:54

fraternity, a lot of

4:57

people have said to me his name was Vincent. A lot of

4:59

people said to me, oh, you know, um, when

5:01

I've got successive dogs, um,

5:03

you know, they're not a they're not a patch on Vincent.

5:06

And then, uh, someone said to me that

5:08

about speed, and I said, well, I'm not sure

5:10

if I'd agree with you there. I think in time

5:12

he will be better than Vincent. Uh,

5:15

and that lawyer was with me at a function,

5:17

and we were walking home at night and he said, oh,

5:19

he said, I've now seen a bit more of his work. He

5:21

said, I think, I think he is better. I think he's the best

5:24

dog you've ever had. And I think that's probably true. And

5:26

if you get that when an animal's for,

5:29

um, yeah, dogs are a bit like a good

5:31

bottle of red, they only get better with age

5:34

6 or 7, in my experience, is when you really

5:36

usually start getting the best out of a dog.

5:39

Um, but I think Scooter's picked it. I

5:41

think you'll get slightly better. Um,

5:43

but I think he's really hit his straps already.

5:46

I don't think there's much more maturity to

5:48

be done, and I think a lot of

5:50

that. You know, I don't want

5:52

to embarrass anyone, but he's trying to. Caitlin

5:55

just did a marvelous job with him. I

5:57

couldn't have asked. And I've had some good trainers

5:59

over the years, but in terms of preparing

6:01

the dog for matching, I couldn't have

6:03

asked for a better, uh, preparation

6:06

process. And, um,

6:09

there's not a day goes by where I don't think how

6:11

lucky I am that Caitlin put in the dedication

6:14

and the work she put in on this dog. He's

6:16

he's very OCD

6:18

in the way he does his work.

6:21

Um, even, for example, when I had

6:24

Covid fairly badly last year,

6:26

I'd line up to cross at various

6:28

crossings and I might be

6:30

facing ten degrees off the center

6:32

of the crossing, and he would refuse to

6:34

go until that was corrected. And

6:36

I moved to the center of the perimeter because

6:39

that's where he'd been taught to cross.

6:42

It's very smart. He's not

6:44

letting you kind of get away with them. Slack

6:46

or subpar handling.

6:48

Oh, and also, he won't let me walk.

6:51

If he perceives that there's danger there.

6:53

And if we try to get through

6:55

a small gap, if it's a very

6:57

small gap and there's only a couple of centimeters to

6:59

the side, some dogs will go through and

7:01

that you brush, he he will not do that

7:03

unless I let go of the harness

7:05

and move him very slowly

7:08

through the gap until and

7:10

uh, stares at his other one until he

7:12

is assured that I've felt

7:14

the top step with my foot. He will not

7:17

step off under any circumstances.

7:19

So the the

7:21

work that she's put in to his training,

7:24

as someone who's had four dogs, I can recognize

7:26

that she's put an enormous amount of work into his

7:28

training, and he's just a joy,

7:31

uh, to work with as a, as a worker

7:33

because he's so precise and correct.

7:36

Um, and it makes a

7:38

massive difference to what you can do with

7:40

him and what you're happy to try and accomplish with him.

7:44

So my next question was kind of what are some

7:46

of your favorite things about scooter? I'm assuming that

7:48

that kind of level of accuracy in his work

7:50

is probably one of the biggest ones.

7:52

Yeah, the precision of his work,

7:54

he he's he's a fun dog. When he

7:56

lets his hair down, you know, he'll have a bit of a

7:59

ball and that. But he's fairly

8:01

serious most of the time. But he's his

8:03

job and he's being. And life

8:06

is about making sure that I'm kept safe

8:08

and making sure that my productivity is increased.

8:10

And so if that's your job,

8:13

you do have to be serious.

8:15

Yeah. Not not only being a senior, but being a

8:17

seeing eye dog with a lawyer. It's serious business

8:19

in the courtroom.

8:20

Oh, no, no, no, we the courtrooms

8:22

are. But we have that fun outside the courtroom, too.

8:24

So he's just. If

8:26

what he wants is to be right next to me, and if

8:28

he's got that, he's complete.

8:31

What is a typical day in the

8:33

life of you and scooter?

8:35

Usually I get up at between 5 and 6, spend

8:38

an hour or two reading, and then

8:40

we head off to work. We usually walk

8:42

or get the bus to work one or the other, and then

8:44

he moves in and out and around

8:46

the courts during the day. And then.

8:49

That kind of an evening. Our typical day

8:52

is a bit. Really lucky

8:54

for a dog. Really.

8:55

But I mean, all of

8:57

that kind of public transport and then kind of going in

8:59

and around the courtroom. I mean, kind of slow, low

9:01

key for you, I guess, because you're kind of used to it.

9:03

But it's quite I mean, there's quite a lot of I'm

9:05

assuming there's quite a few kind of like people in obstacles and

9:07

things to navigate in a courtroom or in

9:10

within the kind of places that you're going

9:12

to.

9:13

I suppose there is. I mean, in some ways you

9:15

take it for granted, but if it's a really busy day,

9:18

I can certainly tell that he's when

9:20

I feel tired, he's usually tired, put it that

9:22

way.

9:23

Yeah. So you feel you finish up your days and you're both

9:25

kind of happy to like, put your feet up and do

9:27

a bit less. Oh, well.

9:29

I do twice a week, um,

9:33

when I can and

9:35

I usually I've got, you know, I'm either

9:37

running around with my daughter after

9:39

hours or in the weeks when she's with her mum,

9:41

I usually catch up with friends at least a couple of times

9:43

a week. So he's often moving

9:46

on into the evening as well. So and he's,

9:48

he's happy with that. He just goes with it.

9:50

There's nothing really extra exciting

9:53

coming up that I think you'd like to tell

9:55

you about. So could you please tell me what exciting

9:57

adventure is coming up for you to very soon?

10:00

Well, I was looking for something to do, which was community

10:02

focused and which would be a little

10:04

bit different to what I've done in the past.

10:06

And I noticed an ad on Facebook,

10:08

Vision Australia, doing a track to raise funds

10:11

for Vision Australia Radio and for

10:13

tele link programs. They're the two areas that are being

10:15

targeted by the fundraising campaign.

10:18

And I clicked on it,

10:21

um, because it said it was suitable for people with low vision.

10:23

I thought, oh, that's interesting because I like the outdoors

10:25

and I like walking and things like that.

10:28

And then I read further and said the hike

10:30

is suitable for a guide dog. And

10:33

it was a hike of the Queen Charlotte track

10:35

in New Zealand. I'd never been to the Queen

10:37

Charlotte track and I'd spoke to my partner and I said,

10:39

she's live in New Zealand. I said, have you ever heard of the

10:41

Queen Charlotte? Actually, it's a big walk through New

10:43

Zealand, so I thought, oh, that'd be pretty cool.

10:46

So I rang and double checked because I thought,

10:48

oh, I wonder where this suitable

10:50

for guide dogs suffer some from? Let's make

10:52

sure it actually is suitable before I

10:54

lock in and agree to go

10:56

without a guide and just rely

10:58

on the dog. And they said, oh, it's definitely

11:00

suitable for guide dogs. So I thought, well, you

11:02

have the dog. You can't, you

11:04

know, say that the dogs are there to increase

11:06

independence and be with you if you're not truly

11:09

going to give it a try. And

11:11

I thought it's a wonderful opportunity

11:13

for scooter, um, to

11:15

really see what he can do and to really test

11:17

him because like all of us, when you move

11:19

outside of your comfort zone, you

11:21

actually grow a bit as a person.

11:24

And I think the dogs are no different. So I thought, well, let's

11:26

give it a try. And at that stage

11:29

when I signed up, we hadn't really hiked

11:31

as a as a pair. We'd done

11:33

a few little walks, but normally

11:35

when we take scooter into the bush, um,

11:38

my partner guides and I lead him off lead and

11:40

he has a lovely run through the bush. So we hadn't

11:42

really done a lot of him on

11:44

harness.

11:45

Kind of working in that way.

11:47

Yeah, he handled it with great

11:49

aplomb. And there's

11:51

a kayaking element to it as well.

11:54

And last year I'd

11:57

been working with a company called

11:59

Easy Dog. Um, because

12:01

Skeeter hates the water or hates is probably

12:04

too strong, but dislikes the water. And

12:07

when we'd taken him into the local

12:09

lake where I live, he'd scratched

12:11

us all down the front trying to get out.

12:13

And so I was like, this won't do. So

12:16

I bought him a life jacket and we

12:18

went through a couple of different life jackets. So we found one

12:20

that he was comfortable with. And so once he's

12:22

got his buoyancy is assured,

12:24

he's then happy to be in the water.

12:27

So I thought to myself,

12:30

what if he could make some changes

12:32

and you could have a dog who

12:34

could swim independently, attack

12:36

you down to swim independently? Because

12:39

one of the issues with that site is finding

12:41

his harness, finding your towel, finding the

12:43

lead when you come out of the water. So I thought,

12:46

what if we could come up with a way

12:48

of modifying the life jacket

12:50

so that it becomes a guide dog harness?

12:53

So I organized a meeting with the product manager,

12:56

and we've come up with a

12:58

design that should achieve that objective.

13:00

And it's been designed so that you can put

13:03

branding down the side. So it'll have

13:05

seen our dog please don't touch and it'll

13:07

have a, um, a dry bag on it

13:09

so you can put a few things in it. So when

13:11

I swim independently, I have

13:14

my phone in a waterproof case

13:16

so that if I need it, I can easily get

13:18

it and ring someone or use a GPS.

13:20

But my AirPods and my

13:23

keys need to go somewhere.

13:25

So we've got a waterproof dry bag

13:27

on the back of the harness, which will hold

13:30

those things and keep them dry. So

13:32

everything I need when

13:34

I'm down at the water is either

13:36

on me or on scoot. So

13:39

the idea will be that when I step out of the water,

13:41

instead of having to change his harness over,

13:43

I'll just literally pick up the handle and

13:45

walk off home.

13:47

Yeah. Wow. I mean, and that's a quite

13:49

like, innovative product, isn't it? Because that's

13:51

not something that is it exists on the market already.

13:54

There's nothing on the market to meet

13:56

that need. And um.

13:59

The idea that as a blind person, if

14:01

you go to a public pool to swim. You

14:04

never know who's in your line or who's around,

14:06

and you've got to find you. Like if

14:09

you get out of the water, you've got to find your dog,

14:11

find your stuff. It's actually a fairly

14:13

challenging exercise to do. So the idea that

14:15

if this prototype is successful, which

14:17

there's no reason to doubt, it won't be because

14:20

the guy who's helped design and has put a lot of thought

14:22

into it. So the handle, for example, the harness

14:24

handle is designed to float,

14:26

so there's no drag when the dog is swimming.

14:28

The handle just floats on top of the water on

14:30

his back. So the idea

14:32

will be that blind people

14:35

will be able to independently

14:37

swim, get out of a lake or river,

14:40

and have their dog. But one of the things

14:42

scooter does brilliantly is

14:44

if I'm swimming, uh, intuitively,

14:47

he comes out and checks on me, uh,

14:49

whilst I'm swimming, and I can be

14:51

30 or 40m off the bank,

14:54

and he just waits on the bank until

14:56

I'm ready. And then if I call him, he'll swim

14:58

to me, uh, collect me from where

15:00

I am, and then take me back to the swimming hole.

15:04

It's like a whole second, uh, kind

15:06

of occupation as, um, like,

15:08

life guard dog.

15:10

Well, it's absolutely critical,

15:12

because if you're swimming in a, like, it's

15:15

easy to lose track of where you've

15:17

entered the lake. And there's

15:19

a bit of work required to fine

15:21

tune that when the trainers have been there.

15:23

He's always swim back to the trainers. When

15:25

I've gone without the trainers, he goes

15:27

to the nearest point of shore, but

15:29

that he's got the overall concept

15:31

that's just going to take a little bit of modification,

15:34

so he'll get that and sort that

15:36

out.

15:38

So obviously the equipment

15:40

is one of the considerations in type in

15:42

kind of preparing for the track. But

15:44

how else have you prepared for.

15:46

Yeah, the track or the or any additional

15:48

training that you've done for these kind of

15:50

unique challenges that are quite different to

15:53

navigating, you know, New South Wales.

15:55

It's time in the harness

15:58

for these dogs as much as anything else.

16:00

I've walked up to 15km in

16:02

a day. Um, but usually

16:04

I do it in a burst continuously

16:07

without a break. Um, I

16:09

stop at about the seven kilometre

16:11

mark, usually to give one lot of water.

16:14

That's because it's flat ground. If it was

16:16

a hilly or more

16:18

rocky walk, I would stop

16:21

every five k's and provide him

16:23

with water. But it's the concentration

16:25

that he has to get used to of actually

16:27

guiding for hours on end

16:29

without stopping. That's been the challenge for

16:31

him. A dog has the physical

16:34

fitness to cover the distance without

16:36

issue. It's the it's the mental that's

16:38

the trick for him.

16:39

And it's not quite necessarily the same

16:42

actual kind of guide work challenges

16:44

as well that he might face in,

16:46

I guess, in a CBD or urban

16:48

environment. So I think before

16:51

we were recording and we, we

16:53

spoke a little bit about how a dog might navigate

16:55

something like, for example, um,

16:57

stepping stones or water. Could you explain

16:59

a little bit about, um, some of the interesting ways

17:01

that, um, he might interpret

17:03

different and new features

17:06

in the environment.

17:06

Every time we hike? I

17:09

learned something new about how he

17:11

interprets environments. So we

17:13

did a hike last week where we

17:15

walked down and across the

17:17

top of a waterfall where the water was

17:19

shallow, but they had stepping stones to cross the

17:21

waterfall. Rather than go

17:24

on the stepping stones, he

17:26

chose to go through the water because

17:29

it was a lot more stable to go through the water

17:31

in his eyes, because it was flatter, than to get

17:33

his owner to stand up on these narrow blocks

17:35

and stay on top of the blocks.

17:37

So, and he was a bit put

17:39

out when I tried to insist

17:42

on staying on top of the block. So one of the lessons

17:44

I learned from that was in terms of his confidence

17:46

and his assuredness. Sometimes there's

17:49

a benefit in actually

17:51

going with it, even though it's not the route

17:53

that humans would choose, but it's the dogs

17:55

chosen. And that leads

17:58

to some some interesting, uh, positions,

18:00

because I end up with feet wet

18:02

a lot earlier than most people on the walk.

18:05

But but I suppose in terms of, you know,

18:07

the way that he's interpreted that, I

18:09

mean, he's got a good point, that actually, if

18:12

you're not able to see the distance between the stepping

18:14

stones, it would be much easier to miss it just depending

18:16

on stride length itself.

18:18

And he doesn't take into account. There's another

18:20

person saying to me, step over.

18:22

Yeah, you're on it now. He's looking at it

18:24

as a dog, going, I've

18:27

got to manage this. This is.

18:28

My job.

18:29

For me. Yeah. And which

18:31

is? And you learn about him.

18:33

But by doing these things, you learn

18:36

about what what's going through. And to

18:38

that end, um,

18:40

GoPro, a friend of mine said to me, it

18:42

would be really good if you would think about

18:45

having a GoPro on

18:47

student, because that's a different perspective.

18:50

And it's through a contacts, um,

18:52

a website called Tech Guide Teacher

18:55

Guide. Com.au

18:57

put me on to GoPro and

19:00

um, GoPro have donated a camera and

19:02

some accessories. So we

19:04

tried one mount last week and the camera

19:07

moved around a little bit too much, but I'm pretty

19:09

confident we've got the right mount now, so we're

19:11

going to try it this weekend. I'm expecting

19:13

to get some really interesting footage, because

19:15

you'll find I'm hoping

19:17

anyway that you'll see him, what he's

19:19

looking at. And then

19:22

say you'll have a preview of the scene, and

19:24

then you'll be able to watch how he chooses to

19:26

tackle that and

19:29

understand the reasoning behind it, because you've

19:31

seen what he was approaching, if that makes sense.

19:34

Yeah, which is so interesting. I mean, because,

19:36

like, I'd never have considered

19:38

that whole. Yeah, take taking the water

19:40

or um, or how they navigate this and

19:43

it's not necessarily like the standard,

19:45

you know. Yeah. Taking the

19:48

straight line from curb to curb.

19:50

No.

19:51

And when we walk down and if we go down

19:53

rock steps and the steps are quite

19:55

wide apart, he will keep moving

19:57

continuously down the steps if they're narrow

19:59

steps, like I said before, because

20:02

his trainer was so precise,

20:04

if they're narrow steps, he does one step at a

20:06

time and pauses until he knows my foot's

20:09

on the next step, ready to go down. If

20:11

they're wide, he'll keep going and let me feel the

20:13

gate. But it shows really advanced

20:15

communication by him to be able to go,

20:17

well, hang on, I can't get that message across.

20:20

Yeah. Um, because these steps

20:22

are too narrow. So I'm going to go down one step

20:24

and have two pores on one step,

20:26

two on another, and I'm going to stop until

20:29

my feet are on the next step down. So

20:31

there's a real there's a real

20:33

precision. And one of the things we've heard is that

20:35

some parts of the track and narrow, uh,

20:38

and some parts have significant

20:40

drops off the side. But I have no

20:42

concern whatsoever about his capacity

20:44

to deal with that stuff.

20:46

Which is quite remarkable. It's a quite, um,

20:49

remarkable amount of trust to have in

20:52

in a dog. That's probably. Yeah. I mean, his formal

20:54

training was not conducted in an environment

20:56

like that.

20:57

No, that's one of the walkers that was walking with me last

20:59

weekend. I said, you know, um, in some

21:01

ways I prefer to have scooter as the guide

21:03

over one of you guys. Not in

21:06

a in a nasty sense, but this is what he

21:08

specializes in. Yeah, this is what

21:10

he knows. Um,

21:12

the help you guys give me is wonderful,

21:15

but this is his calling in life.

21:17

This is what he does. So I

21:19

know that he's going to get it right, you know?

21:23

So other than, um, I suppose

21:25

kind of what you're actually, I mean, you kind of

21:27

mostly cover this, but you

21:29

know what? Why did you decide

21:31

to sign up for the trek? And why should people

21:34

get behind behind you?

21:36

Well, you need to get behind me because we need to raise some

21:38

money. That's the bottom line. Um,

21:41

but I'm going to try and provide you with something

21:43

that gives you an incentive

21:45

to do it. So there's an Instagram

21:48

page called Vaughn Virginia

21:51

Adventures. You can follow that on

21:54

Instagram. There's a YouTube video,

21:56

uh, YouTube channel called Scooter Underscore

21:58

Cam. If you search

22:00

for at Google, spelt

22:02

the usual way underscore cam

22:05

or you search for scooter space

22:07

cam and choose channels,

22:10

uh, the channel will come up and there's a picture of scooter

22:13

on the channel. And what we're putting on there

22:15

is various videos of

22:17

his training and

22:20

I'll be posting track videos.

22:22

Um, showing what he gets

22:24

up to. Well, I'll try and post him

22:26

in New Zealand if the mobile networks

22:28

permit. Otherwise they'll be posted when I

22:30

get back. But really,

22:32

what it's about effectively what I'm saying

22:35

to you is tele link services

22:37

are incredibly important for people

22:39

who lose their sight. If you put yourself

22:41

in the position of someone who's lost their sight. And

22:44

I can't do it because I

22:46

was born without sight. But could

22:48

you imagine losing your sight in

22:50

your 20s and 30s? 40s? 50s.

22:53

And bear in mind we're all only one accident away from

22:55

that happening, and then

22:57

trying to fathom how your life

22:59

is going to operate. And

23:02

and what you can manage, and the idea

23:04

that you can connect with other blind people who

23:06

can who can talk you through that,

23:09

I actually think is really important.

23:11

It it's something I'll never understand

23:13

the benefit of because it didn't happen to me.

23:15

But I think it's really important for people and

23:17

the other um, services Vision Australia

23:19

radio. So bottom line

23:22

is we need your money, we

23:24

want your money. And scooter and I

23:26

are the team you should sponsor because

23:28

we're giving you something back. We're giving you a free little

23:31

dog clips in return for your donation.

23:33

You get some very cool content, and

23:35

I get to understand just some of the,

23:38

um, yeah, some of the things that you're supporting

23:40

as well.

23:41

And I'd like to say that people are interested in me, but

23:43

I know it's not true. People are interested in scooter

23:45

and so scooters content will be there

23:47

for everyone to see.

23:49

Well, scooter is a very, very handsome,

23:51

um, you know, young black

23:53

Labrador, you know, I mean, that's what the

23:55

people want, isn't it? Really? I mean, people,

23:58

yeah.

23:59

No one's interested in the middle aged, balding

24:01

male who hangs on the scooters handle.

24:03

They're interested in scooter. That's okay. I can

24:05

live with that as long as I don't like.

24:08

So how can the show's listeners support

24:10

your efforts in the track?

24:12

You can go to Vaughn Dot Adventures on

24:14

Instagram and you'll find my YouTube link there.

24:17

Uh, sorry, my, um, donation link

24:19

there. You can go to my YouTube channel

24:21

at Scooter Underscore Cam, and there's

24:23

a link in each of the video descriptions there.

24:26

Um, or you can.

24:30

Um contact region Australia and make a donation

24:32

through these in Australia. All your donations

24:34

are tax deductible and

24:36

every donation will be greatly appreciated.

24:40

So is there anything else that

24:42

that you wish that the general public knew

24:44

about synagogues or any messages

24:46

that you'd like to share with donors, volunteers,

24:48

or supporters of seeing eye docs?

24:50

One of the things that's really important to me

24:53

is narrowing

24:55

the gap between the unemployment statistics

24:57

of people who are blind and have low vision,

25:00

and the unemployment statistics for

25:02

the rest of Australia. And.

25:04

I.

25:06

I'd like to think that by scooter

25:08

and I doing normal things

25:10

a little bit differently, which is really what we're doing.

25:13

We actually it's

25:15

a it's a positive message that goes out

25:17

to the public. And it's

25:19

a, it's something that's quite positive for,

25:22

for people to see and hopefully that that

25:24

comes through in, in

25:26

this interview and also in the in

25:28

the YouTube videos we produced,

25:31

they are going to be a bit rough. But

25:33

that's the whole nature of um, of

25:35

YouTube and it's authentic. It's um,

25:38

it's it's real and it's, um,

25:41

it's earthy.

25:43

Yeah. And I even just, I guess

25:45

not just the trick, but thinking about the fact that, you

25:47

know, I mean, we've had handles on the

25:49

show with a number of different occupations,

25:51

but I'm sure that there would be lots of people that wouldn't

25:53

necessarily consider all of the,

25:56

um, different occupations that people who are blind or have low

25:58

vision could have, including being a lawyer

26:00

working in courtrooms. I mean, you'd have to adapt

26:02

to, you know, some of the interesting ways

26:04

of, I guess, reading some of those documents.

26:07

But it's doable, I think.

26:09

Well, it's funny.

26:10

When I first started in law,

26:12

you, you you didn't have portable

26:15

scanning technology. You didn't have,

26:18

um. Easy

26:20

access to Braille in boxes and things like

26:22

that to convert material. But everything

26:25

has become so mainstream, and even some

26:28

of your files now come already

26:30

electronically as electronic

26:32

files. So the divide

26:35

caused by an absence of sight

26:37

is being markedly reduced,

26:39

if not for all intents and purposes,

26:42

eliminated. And I think that goes

26:44

for many of many professions. You

26:46

know, the technology is it's it's

26:48

a very exciting time to

26:51

be blind right now because

26:53

the opportunities are

26:55

only going to grow for us.

26:58

And one of those ways that people can actually help

27:00

support all of that type of thing is by

27:02

donating to organizations like Virgin Australia,

27:04

right?

27:05

Absolutely. And so when

27:07

you finish this, if you feel inspired, check

27:10

a YouTube channel out, check an Instagram

27:12

video out. But most importantly,

27:14

make sure you click on the link and pop a donation.

27:17

Well, best of luck for the track

27:19

and I'm hoping that the listeners really get behind

27:21

you guys because yeah, lots and lots of work has gone

27:24

into this preparation. And I'm excited

27:26

to to check out and hear about how you've

27:28

gone afterwards.

27:30

I thank you. Really appreciate your time.

27:32

Thanks so much, Juan. Have a great one. You've

27:39

been listening to the Seeing Attack show

27:42

on Virgin Australia Radio. I

27:44

hope you enjoyed my chat with Vaughan.

27:46

If you'd like to support Vaughan and Scooter,

27:49

you can find their story shortly

27:51

on the Idexx news page

27:53

of the website, which will have the

27:55

links to their donation

27:58

page as well as YouTube and Instagram.

28:00

And that will also be on our social media

28:02

soon. As well as you can head directly

28:05

to their fundraising page, which

28:07

is fundraising Virgin

28:09

Australia. Org forward slash

28:11

fundraisers, forward slash

28:14

Vaughan roles or one

28:16

word Vaughan spelled vague

28:19

h a n r o

28:21

l e s. Or

28:23

you can visit them at their

28:25

YouTube, which is youtube.com

28:28

forward slash at Scooter

28:30

Underscore cam or

28:32

their Instagram, which is instagram.com.

28:35

Forward slash Vaughan underscore

28:38

adventures. If you'd like to

28:40

find out more about seeing eye dogs,

28:42

the work we do, or how you can help,

28:44

head to our website at SC

28:46

Dot Vision Australia. Org.

28:49

Thank you for listening and don't forget to

28:51

tune in Same planet next week

28:53

for another episode of The Seeing

28:56

Eye Dog Show.