2013-01-16-airport travel trav… · web viewsome things to think about when you’re buying the...

2013-01-16-Airport Travel

Seminars@HadleyThe Independent Airport Traveler

Presented by Jay Stiteley

Moderated by Douglas Walker

January 16, 2013

Douglas WalkerWelcome to Seminars@Hadley. My name is Douglas Walker and I am an instructor of Assisted Technology here at the Hadley School for the Blind. I will be your moderator for today’s seminar.

Today’s seminar topic is The Independent Airport Traveler. You presenter today is Jay Stiteley. Jay Stiteley, it seems like almost everybody coming into today’s room has met Jay. He’s been everywhere. Jay is currently the Dean of Students at the Tennessee School for the Blind. He’s a member of Delta Airlines Customer Advisory Board on Disabilities, so he is the one to be here talking with us about airport travel, for sure.

©2013 The Hadley School for the Blind of 56


It really is great having Jay with us today. I have had the opportunity to listen to Jay speak on airport travel and I know all the wealth of information that Jay has. So every one of you today will learn a lot of really great information and tips and tricks that’s going to make your airport travel so much easier in the future.

So without further delay, I would like to welcome today’s presenter, Jay Stiteley. Jay I’ll hand the microphone over to you.

Jay StiteleyFirst of all, thank you all very much for coming today and the Independent Airport Traveler is a workshop that I’ve developed over a series of years just doing 23 years of traveling. I recognize some of the people on here, and when we go into question and answer, you may actually -- I’ve recognized some voices in here that do a fair amount of traveling themselves and if you will have some things that I have missed, or you’ve got tips, I’m definitely open to hearing some.

First of all, it’s the Independent Airport Traveler is the title and I want to be sure people understand that somebody who is a once or twice, or three times a year traveler, odds are they’re not going to want to spend the time it would take to figure out how to travel in an airport. But, somebody who travels routinely,



I’ve got a variety of tips and just pieces and parts that make that process of getting through the airport a little more independently. For those people who are that once, twice, three times a year traveler, my suspicion -- Oh, I’m being censored from the background -- I’m in the school and I get the tones in my office, so I apologize for the background noise.

People, it’s important to recognize that you can request certain levels of assistance. I’m sure that many of you have been traveling and you request that assistance and they immediately bring you a wheelchair. First of all, that is -- you are not required to sit in the wheelchair. But there’s some things you can do to minimize that chance of having to fight that battle, as it were.

Part of that starts out with when you make your reservations. Many people oftentimes are reluctant to mention that they are blind or visually impaired or don’t feel that they want to share that information. You really don’t -- but if you want assistance, all you need to share is that you need, that you have a disability and you’d like some assistance. Now, some questions may be asked of you by the airline folks to understand better what services you need.



So, if you want to think about that prior to making your reservation, that’s very helpful. For instance, you may share, okay, I would like some assistance, but really all I need is a sighted person who can walk and talk, and that’s what you request. Or you can use a phrase within the airline industry -- it’s the letters DPNA, and that stands for “disabled person needs assistance.”

If you say DPNA, one, you have implied to them that you have a level of knowledge and therefore they’re going to -- they may step up and listen to you a little closer. But be prepared to explain what it is you are requesting. As I travel, when I travel by myself with my seeing eye dog, I do not request assistance. I just ask for directions from the bell stand person where I drop my bags off, or as I get in, I ask questions as I go through the airport of someone that I hear walking by, that type of thing.

But when I travel with my wife, she’s visually impaired, and my dog and I walk much faster than she does with her cane, or using her remaining vision. And, so we always request assistance. She goes sighted guide with the assistance person and then she gets mobility babble going.



Mobility babble is something that I use in a variety of ways, and you may all use it and did not realize it had a formal name. Mobility babble is where you can talk to somebody and you’re basically cuing off their voice. If you hear them starting to drift further to the right, you realize, okay, maybe they’re making a turn here. I think any number of us have, especially dog guide users where they say, well, you just walk and talk with me, I’ll be able to follow you. Because when you start getting into rights and left then they think they have to direct you to move over to the right side of the hallway because you’re dog tends to walk to the left.

I oftentimes will also stop before we ever start and explain how my dog is going to travel, and each of us know our respective needs of our dog. One of the things my wife has also done, she’s developed a whole repertoire of questions that she asks a person who’s providing assistance. Then I just listen to them and I give my dog the appropriate commands in that process.

What I’ve just described is a process of being proactive and being assertive in a polite way and taking over the process of how we get through the airport. With that as sort of my lead-in, I’m going to kind of back up just a little bit.



The first thing you always do is plan a trip. And something you may want to think about is if you are traveling and by plane you’re going to get there inside of an hour, you might want to think about the fact of either using a bus or train. Because even though your flight’s only an hour, if you’re checking bags you’ve got to be there at least 90 minutes ahead of time. So there’s 90 minutes before the flight ever takes off, and then if the trip is an hour itself providing there’s no glitches there, or a long delay on the taxiway, then you have at least that other 30 minutes to retrieve your bag.

So, you’ve already figured out it is three hours. So, if you can get there by bus or train within three hours, it might be to your advantage, plus it’s also potentially less expensive and, depending on where you need to go to your destination, bus and train stations tend to be more downtown locations where airports tend to be outside the city, then you’ve got to get from the airport to downtown if that’s where you are ultimately going. So, just some thoughts in that area.

Some things to think about with flights. There are three kinds of flights. There’s direct, connecting and non-stop. Direct means that you fly from point A to point B, but they stop at point 1A. You don’t have to get off the plane, but other passengers get off and get



on and then they continue on to B. That’s your direct flight.

The connecting flight means that to get from point A to B, you do have to stop at point 1A and get off the plane and then get on another plane that will connect into your city. The non-stop is just clearly you get in the plane, they take off at A and they land at B. That’s always my preferred option because one of the things you think about -- the direct isn’t quite as bad other than it’s add at least a half an hour to your overall plane trip if not an hour.

Connecting flights will definitely add an hour to an overall trip. But it also potentially adds the other process of well, how do I get from this point to the next gate? So that adds that whole other level of learning a new area. Plus, depending on what your comfort zone for flying is, it may add a little extra stress, another take off and landing, so those are all factors that the individual has to think about themselves. All right. So that kind of takes care of point No. 1.

Passenger Rights and Responsibilities. In 1986 the Air Carrier Access Act was developed and this started giving passengers with disabilities certain rights as a traveler. There are situations in which, prior to 1986,



airlines exercised the right to give a person with a disability, in particular blind people, a quiz to figure out if they really understood what they were doing. Where they were going, did they have -- well, the Air Carrier Access Act stopped that activity. That indicated that they are no longer able to do that.

It also now guarantees that you get a -- it’s supposed to guarantee that you get a private briefing so that it doesn’t draw added attention to your disability. Most airlines are pretty good about that. Sometimes if a flight is running late the flight attendants may skip that process. They may forget it because though you may have pre-boarded, there are other passengers that are right behind you because the plane was running late and they’re trying to get it back on schedule.

This is where you responsibilities are to step up and make sure you have the information you need, confirm the row that you’re in, confirm that you know where the various exits are. Also, one of the things the Air Carrier Access Act did is, you cannot be required to sit in a specific seat because you have a disability, because you are traveling with a dog guide.

Many, many years ago, there was more space between the front seat and that bulkhead wall that may be separating coach from first class or in front of



that first class seat to the first wall up there of the cabin. There used to be much more space and that was a logical place to place somebody with a dog guide. And it’s pure choice whether somebody wants to position their dog under the seat in front of them or if they want to be in a bulkhead seating so they can position their dog there.

You as a passenger, it’s important that you know that you have to speak up and one of the things that you always want to figure out is where is that flight attendant call button. They are usually positioned in the overhead, the ceiling above you, right above your seat. It’s usually on either end of that row, if you find any of the lights or if you find the air flow. It generally comes to the back side of where you have the little fans, and you can feel a strip at the edge of that recessed area. And if you reach all the way to the left end or all the way to the right end, those buttons tend to be raised and those are your call buttons.

A few planes have got sort of those membrane style buttons that you push, so they may be a little trickier to find. As soon as you push a button and you hear a ding, you know you’ve turned on the passenger call light as they refer to it.



You are allowed to pre-board a flight, but you have to go and request it. And if you’re choosing to use assistance, it’s important that you go to the gate, you go up to the counter even with the person who is providing you assistance. Oftentimes they say, oh, well we’ll go let them know that you’re here. I always like to go and make sure that I’ve spoken to that person, get a little sense of their voice, make sure, I mean, use the excuse, oh, could you please check if my frequent flyer number is in, then I get them talking more, I get a chance to have a little bit of conversation with them, I’m going to be more memorable to that person. I also confirm if they’re the one that will be boarding the flight because sometimes, depending on how early you get to a gate, you may have one shift leaving that gate and then there will be another one coming on later, and that’s good information for you to have. “Oh, no, I won’t be boarding this flight, there’ll be somebody else coming to the gate are to do that.” Those are all good pieces of information from your standpoint, because that new person may not realize that you’re in the gate area. Maybe the other person got there late and they’re on their way out, etc., and it was not easy for them to locate the or share all the information in the gate area.



All right. So there’s a lot of different considerations. We’re going to actually get into seating on the airplane a little bit later in the presentation.

How you handle yourself is going to also control, I’m talking now to the passenger with a visual impairment. How you handle yourself is going to make a major difference of how you’re responded to, and I think a lot of us who have done some traveling realize that no matter how frustrating your travel experience has been, when you get to the gate being frustrated with that person is not going to get you anything. It’s only going to create more frustration. You may have to step back, get yourself calmed down; but the more friendly you are and understanding, especially if flights are late and that type of thing, the more understanding you are of the problems that gate agent is having, the more they’re going to be willing to work with you.

It was real interesting. I’ll just share one experience. A flight got cancelled and they sent us over to the Information Center. This gentleman was in front of me and he was just irate with them, “What do mean cancelled the flight? It’s a beautiful day out there! What’s wrong?! Can’t you guys keep your planes fixed…” all sorts of stuff like that. You could tell the gate was just doing what they had to do with this



individual and were very frustrated with his behavior toward them. When I stepped up to the counter I waited a few moments, made sure that they had a few moments, I said, “Just let me know when you’re ready to talk to me,” and they said, “Okay, thank you.” And the other gentleman, they couldn’t find a seat for. His flight was going to get delayed and it turned out we were obviously going to the same city. He ended up on a flight about 4 hours later. I was very polite, talked with the lady, tried to demonstrate understanding. I was out on the next flight which was only a 2-hour delay. Sometimes they have a little control as to how helpful they are, but the more understanding you are as a passenger, it tends to allow your process and allow you to maybe move up in the process. I think it’s those who work well are considerate of others, get the assistance first.

Some other things to realize as traveling with a cane or a dog, I know that we all know that if you’re doing carry-on luggage there are bag limitations, how many bags you can carry on and that type of thing. Realize that your dog guide nor cane or any other medical equipment are counted as part of your luggage. For instance, I travel with a dog guide, but I also generally use carry-on luggage and a computer bag. Well, right there I’ve got two pieces -- the carry-on roller bag, and the computer bag. That’s my two pieces, but I



also travel with a C-PAP machine because of sleep apnea. Well that is not counted, nor is my dog guide counted. So those are things to remember in case you might get challenged on that. Remind people that the dog isn’t counted and that type of thing.

In my next section, I’m looking at packing. And you may be thinking to yourself, well what’s that go to do with being an independent airport traveler? This is also designed lot of times for young people, and learning how to pack a suitcase is always an important experience. Some people subscribe to the theory of rolling their clothes, they say they can get more clothes in. I personally have found, and maybe I’ve never figured out or learned the correct way to roll, but it never seemed to save me that much space. The one thing that I have found allows me to get much more things into my bag is folding things as flat with as few folds as I can, so it just fills the entire dimensions of the suitcase. Therefore as flat as I can. In fact, my wife has also figured out that I could get twice as many clothes into her bag and have them look fairly nice when I got there, I became the primary packer for the family. In her terms, I’m “Space Management.” Everybody has their own thoughts as to which was is going to work best for packing and that type of thing.



I’m going to offer some suggestions about suitcases. When you choose suitcases, whether you’re going to have a roll aboard and that can either be you have to take it on the plane or it could be checked, whatever, or ones with rollers period. Some things to think about if you’re going to use carry-on bags. The largest you can carry is 22-inch bag, and most luggage shops understand that.

Some things to think about when you’re buying the bag itself, and that is the wheels. If you get a bag that has like roller barrel, ball bearing with almost like a roller blade type wheel, their rubber, they’re generally in the 2.5 to 3 inch diameter and the roller bearing they really roll very easily. But that 3-inch diameter helps when you’re pulling the bag behind you it won’t get caught in cracks. If you have real small wheels, they tend to get caught in the cracks. Whether they be the expansion joints in the airport or getting caught as your coming up the jet way and you’re pulling it up there.

The rubber wheels, those nice that look like rollerblades, as you lay the bag down, just take it off, if you want to check this out when you’re looking to buy one, just that spinning the wheel. Get it where you can just spin that wheel as freely as possible. You won’t hear any metal noise and it will roll real



easy. But that rubber is very important because then when you’re rolling your bag through the airport you’re not going to hear it rolling like you may do some plastic wheels, and that can block some good auditory information for yourself. Your own suitcase can be causing you not to hear all the nice good sound cues and clues that would be beneficial to you to go through the airport on your own.

The handle -- it doesn’t matter whether it’s inside or external. What you want is to be able to have a couple of positions to pull it up. If you’re considering balancing, carrying two bags, a roll aboard and a computer bag; in the beginning I used to carry mine just stacked on top so that way I could hold both the suitcase handle and the computer bag handle. That was good, it rolled and it was nice, but between the suitcase and computer bag once I had everything filled up and I’d tilt it, I’d end up with around 35 pounds of pressure on my arm.

That may not sound like a lot until you’re walking a half mile, a mile, down a concourse or several concourses to get to your flight or your next flight. But if your bag has an attachment which will allow the second bag to clip and hang down from the top of the roller bag when it’s standing up, what it does is shift the weight balance and now the wheels become a



fulcrum and your handle is a lever. And all of a sudden I may only be pulling 5 pounds worth behind me of actual pressure. Experiment with that. It can make a big difference for you.

Some things you do need to do is you need to be able to identify your bag when you get back to the airport. Identifying that bag, it’s real important that everybody know the color. “Oh, yeah, what’s the color of your bag, sir?” “Black.” Well, practically everybody else’s suitcases are black. There are not many colors of suitcases. Recently, I’ve heard that they’re starting to get a number of more colorful suitcases. Some are coming out in camouflage, some are coming out in a floral pattern. So, there’s something a little more distinctive. But each person can make their own bag distinctive, either by doing something visual, especially if you’re low vision.

A friend of mine, I remember he used to travel a lot and he used fluorescent tape on the side of his bag, and in block letters did his initials. And then I adopted a different take on that. I used just masking tape, it more happened to be the color of my suitcase when I was checking bags, and it was good because the masking tape was a big 2-inch masking tape and I could feel the letters as it went around or I’d feel the masking tape and I could check out is that in big block



letters JS. Now, one of my techie friends got a little more creative and he went to Radio Shack and got a remote control doorbell. He put the remote control, the doorbell portion, in the suitcase, the part that rang, and then he kept on his carryon bag, he kept the little push button like the doorbell that you push at the house. So, when the suitcases started coming out he just stood there near the edge and he started pushing the button and listening for the doorbell to ring. I through that was a very creative way of doing it.

One of the other things I used to do, back many years ago I had a dog that was extremely motivated by food. So whenever I traveled, I always packed his dog food of course, but I would always make sure I had one extra bag when I went home so he could help me locate my bag. I’d squat down next to the turntable where the bags would come out on the baggage carousel and I’d be touching the bags as they’d go by. All of a sudden -- and in my other hand on him -- and he was laying down and then all of a sudden when he’d stand up or sit up, I’d be checking the bags a little closer because I figured mine was coming because he could still smell the dog food in that bag.

We’ve talked about some of the things leading up to traveling. Some of those things are planning how you



travel. Now what I want to look at is, let’s say you’re at the airport. If you’re planning to travel independently I strongly recommend that you do some pretravel. And realize that you’re going to learn your own home airport and then you can start expanding out as you travel to other airports. And sometimes you will only be traveling between two cities depending on the work you have, that type of thing.

Think about how you get to the airport. It could be friends dropping you off, it could be a taxicab, you could be taking a city bus, or even Access out to the airport, a para transit type system out there.

Some things you need to be aware of when you start taking transportation. Some transportation can pull up right next to the building. Other transportation, many airports have two lanes where private auto and taxis can pull up and drop off. But then if you’re traveling in a van like a super shuttle or something like that, they may have to stop on an island two lanes out. So, that’s an important question to find out where they’re dropping you off. Are you on an island or are you in that area next to the building. That’s an important question to ask.



There are several other questions that you might want to ask before you leave your driver, whether it be the bus driver or whoever. Some things could be, first of all, make sure you know where you’re being dropped off. Second, if you’re planning on checking your bags outside, make sure you know which direction the check-in stand is. You may want to ask if they’ve got ropes. It’s interesting, Southwest Airlines is the only one so far that has put out the crowd control ropes to try to feed the people to come in from both sides to the check stand. Others don’t have that, have not started using the ropes so far that I’ve seen, but Southwest Airlines for instance definitely will use that on a regular basis.

Some questions to ask, how crowded is the outside check line? Can you see indoors to see if the lines are long in there? Those kinds of things. So, those are questions that will help you.

Another question you might want to ask, and this one is the one that’s going to help you as you go into the airport and then when you come out of the airport. Many airports letter or number their doorways into the airport. So, if all of a sudden you realize, oh, I’m flying Continental Airlines and they’re door No. 3, I know when I get dropped at door No. 3, I’ve now



learned that the check-in is to the left of that about 50 feet from that door. That can be a great cue to you.

Interestingly enough, they will do the same thing, typically if they’re going to letter or number their doors on the departure level, they’re going to do it down there in baggage claim on the arrivals level as well. And now you get your bags, and then you can get outside and find where door No. 3 is outside and that’s when you call and tell somebody if they’re picking you up, that’s where I’m going to be. Use that as a good possibility.

It’s always interesting, I’ve gone and done this workshop a couple of different places, and I actually coordinate with Delta and we often are able to put tours through, take tours through the airport and actually out onto an airline and go through security and that type of thing. Of course, inevitably the airports that I do these workshops with, and I’ll do the pre-one first, then we’ll get out to the airport. Of course, that airport has no numbers or letters after I’ve offered that as a good way to figure it out.

Now, some people like to be proactive, they like to get their boarding pass, that way they feel that saves them one step, because when they get dropped of they can go straight to Security. One of the things



you may want to check out if you’re fortunate enough that your airport does have the numbering, especially if you’re going to do a couple of dry runs to the airport. One of the things you want to check out is, okay door No. 3 is going to get me right by where I can check my bag, but if I’m not checking bags and I’ve got my boarding pass, oh, if I go in door No. 2 and go straight ahead, that puts me right in line right up to the Security checkpoint. And then you get to start to go through the rat maze of those crowd control ropes. So, that may make a difference as to if you’re going to print out your ticket ahead of time, you may go in a different door, so just be aware of that and it may save you a few steps, maybe save you some frustration of working your way through some of the crowd control ropes, that type of thing, or just a crowd in the airport itself.

Transportation Security Administration -- TSA. They’re the ones who control the checkpoints. The airports do not control the checkpoints -- TSA does. It’s always interesting in airports because you have a variety of entities that work in an airport, and you have at least no less than three different entities that control the airport, and there may be more depending on the airport. Those three entities are Transportation Security Administration, TSA, they handle the checkpoints and also security going out onto the



flights. The airport management itself, we always think of, oh, Delta owns that or Southwest owns that part of the airport and they don’t.

The airport management actually handles the physical aspects of the airport and they control that. They provide the space to the airlines to rent the counter space, the gate space, the areas for loading luggage and unloading luggage, so the airlines only rent space from the airport management company.

You’ve got those three entities, so it’s important to know as your traveling through the airport who you can get information from and who is the one responsible for that information.

So, we know TSA has the checkpoints and you showing your tickets and emptying your bags out with your 311 bag. 311 stands for -- it’s interesting -- they call it 311, but it’s backward because it really, your allowed one one-quart bag and any container in there can hold no more than 3.4 ounces. But they abbreviate it out to a 311. And that’s your shave cream, your perfumes, your toothpaste, all those types of items need to fit into that one single Ziploc quart bag.



That’s one piece. Now, we’re at the security gate. You’re going to have to show your ticket and your ID and most places now, most airports now, once you show it they typically tell you that you’re not going to show your ID anymore so you can put that away. Okay, good. You have to go through the crowd control ropes, and that’s more of a zig zag back and forth, back and forth. Sometimes if you’re getting assistance they are able to “jump” that line and they can take you right up to the podium. They have a separate little isle, it’s almost like an employee line as well. Sometimes employees use that, but they will take you to the person as they finish with whatever customer they’re working with then they’ll reach over and check your boarding passes because you’re going through with somebody giving assistance.

Then the person giving you assistance takes you to the end of the lines, you work your way. Now, the part that may be embarrassing to some folks is that many of those passengers assistance people will take you to the front, right up to the conveyor belt and grab you a couple of bins and then will stop the line and let you put your bins in. The bins are where you put your computer bag, your shoes, your coat, various things like that. Now, most places you’re going to need multiple bins because you cannot put any of your technology in the same bin with anything else. If you



have a laptop you have to take that out and it has to go into a bin by itself.

Then, also, one bin will have your shoes. If you’re wearing a coat, a cardigan sweater, anything that covers you over, definitely coats and sweaters, you’re definitely going to have take it off. If you’re wearing a hoodie, they may or may not require you to take it off. They are now, as of last September, requiring everybody to take their belts off, and for years you’ve been required to take your shoes off. I always recommend that you, whenever possible, wear loafers or shoes that you can easily get in and out of at the gate.

Oftentimes your technology, like a brown note, and Apex, many of your portable devices, a cellphone, that type of thing, you don’t have to take that out of your bag, especially if you have a little carryon bag. One of the things that I do once I get into the airport, if I’ve stopped out front and got a boarding pass or if I’ve printed mine ahead of time. When I get inside, I step off to the side from the door and I start emptying, I’m getting myself security prepared. I take my wallet out, I put that in my computer bag. I take my cellphone out, put that in my computer bag. If I have loose change, I tend to carry a Ziploc bag in there that I can throw all my change in there so it’s not all over



the bottom of my computer bag, that type of thing. These are all just personal techniques.

I have found up until last September I had a belt that I knew wouldn’t trigger, unless they had everything set extremely high settings for the magnetometer. Those are things that you can do to minimize the process as going through. Because if it’s in your computer bag and like you take out your laptop, I’ve been carrying, I know some of you will laugh at this -- I still use a Braille and speak -- in fact, Doug’s sitting there laughing, I know right now because he gives me hard time that I use a Braille and speak, but hey -- you know, I bought it, it still works, it meets my needs -- that’s a whole ‘nother workshop.

You’re now going to go through, there’s a, you have your conveyor belt, you have a long table leading up to it. One of the things you want to make sure of is there are a number of airports that there’s a gap between where you pack up your bins with your computer stuff and then there may be anywhere from one to four feet gap over to the conveyor belt. I’m not quite sure why they do that, but then you have to pick up the bin and put it across, and be careful you don’t just slide it right off the end. Plus, some airports have a 90° turn on the tables. They put tables one side next to an end and create a 90° turn. So, always try



to be trailing ahead with that lead finger, with one of your lead hands as you’re going along there pushing your luggage and your bins along so you don’t push it off on to the floor.

Some things to also understand. As you’re coming up to the arch; we’ll talk about dog tags first, and we’ll talk about both dog guides and canes going through.

One of the things that you need to remember about the Transportation Security Administration. Right after 9/11 and the establishment of TSA, they were extremely firm in many things that they did and some of you may have remembered traveling then. There were some very difficult processes. But the Seeing Eye became very involved with TSA trying to get them to understand we want our dogs examined. We do not want to give a terrorist -- we don’t want our dogs waved through and we want to be sure that their examined and we don’t give any excuse for a terrorist to use a “fake dog guide” as a way of getting hazardous material onto a flight.

They took that very seriously and that’s how some of these modifications have occurred over time. The piece you have to understand is that there’s a basic process that is used by the TSA and they have built in certain flexibilities. They want the Transportation



Security officers to cover all the bases. The thing is that they have some flexibility as to how they cover those bases. So I’m going to talk in generalities, but you can also help to shape how your treated in this process and how the process goes.

One thing you need to understand about, you know, hey, this is a bureaucracy. It’s never going to -- the one thing about TSA is you always know that something’s going to be different about your next experience.

When you travel with a dog guide you have three ways in which you and the dog guide may pass through. One is you can, first of all it is firm, firm TSA policy. They cannot ask you to remove any equipment off your dog. The harness the leash or the collar. Those three pieces. Anything you may have hanging off of the dog’s harness they can ask you to remove, or definitely ask to open it and look through it. But the harness, the leash and the collar they cannot ask you to remove that. That’s the one thing that is consistent across the board. Now, you have three ways in which your dog can go through. One is you can put your dog on a long leach and let him walk through first by himself. The key here is in all of these is getting them to understand that the dog and you -- the dog may set something off and you won’t. And so



then you want to make sure that it’s the dog getting checked and that you’re not having to go through the check process because it’s time consuming and they’re watching your behavior and if you get upset, trust me, the more upset you get the slower they get.

The other thing I’m sure we’re well aware is you don’t joke in any way shape or form with the TSA’s. Even if they sound like they’re in a happy mood or whatever, do not try and make jokes, especially anything that may even give a hint toward a bomb, towards hijacking, anything, there’s no joking with this group.

The second way that you can go through with your dog is just work your dog through normally. You and your dog go through the arch together. Both of you are going to be subjected to a wanding, a pat down in that process. We’ll talk about that one in just one moment.

The third was which most people adopt, but not all, and that is you put your dog at sit, make a long leach, however you do that with your process and tell you dog to stay or rest. And now, almost for the dog it’s almost an obedience exercise activity for him. Then I take my boarding pass and the boarding pass envelope and I’m talking to the TSO the whole time, “Hi, how are you today?” One of the things that does



is forces them to talk to you. Now I’ve got a sound cue as to where the arch is. Then I can say, “Okay, are you ready for me?” Even if I’m getting assistance I oftentimes ask the person who’s providing assistance for my wife and I especially, “Go ahead, you go through I’ll work with the TSO myself.” Anytime there’s a sighted person in the process, it is much more cumbersome whether it’s a friend or airport personnel, it becomes more cumbersome, it becomes way harder than it needs to be, and I’m sure many of you out there, if you’re a dog guide traveler, you’re shaking your head, yep, that’s exactly right.

I use my boarding pass like a miniature cane so that I can locate the arch itself. How wide it is, and that. Then I also use it, now that I’ve got my dog at sit, I always explain to the guy, “I’m going to put my dog at sit and then I’m going to step through and then call the dog through separate.” Right there, one of the things you’re doing is you’re taking a little bit of control, you’re demonstrating a level of knowledge to that individual and then they tend to be more accepting of the process, because it’s something they’re familiar with if they’ve paid any attention to their training, when you start saying I’m going to put the dog at sit, I’m going to step through and then call the dog through then you may check him. Now you’re



giving them information they’ve heard before and that makes them feel more comfortable.

I use a little mini cane of paper to touch both sides of the arch to get an idea of how wide it is and whether I’m centered or not. Then I also extend my arm into the arch and I say, “If you’ll please grab my hand or ticket and guide me through I’d appreciate it.” Still giving my dog Hagar rest, rest. And then I verify that I’m clear of the arch and I say, “Okay, Hagar, come.” And then they see that he beeps and that. And then usually what they do, they may call for an assist to come pat the dog down. Before you leave that person, oftentimes they cannot pat the dog down, they have to call somebody over. When they do call that person over, verify that, ask them please tell them who cleared without ringing the alarm. That way then they volunteer yes, it was the dog that alarmed, not him. They’re not going to pat me down, then. And again I save that little bit of time.

The other thing that changed last summer in terms of travel is that making of the long leash you have to maintain hold of that leash. There used to be a little grey there for a few years some of you guys who’ve traveled a lot, some say you can’t hold onto it some say you can, etc., well, now they want you to hold onto it, and the guy watching you come through the



arch is supposed to be watching what you do with your hands with that leash.

The next thing you want to do, is the guy’s going to, whether you’re using a cane or a dog, you, they should offer you an elbow. They’ve been taught this, but it’s been, you know, a one-shot deal. You may be the first blind guy they’ve worked with a dog, that type of thing. So, if they say come this way, just stop and say, “Okay, may I have your left elbow?” You specify, “May I take your left elbow,” because as dog guide users that’s typically that’s the free hand you have is your right, so therefore their left elbow. And don’t move until the guy comes over and is talking to you and gives you, at least touches your hand or you can get ‘hold of the elbow. That allows, again, you not to be moving around and inadvertently bump something that then they say, oh I’ve got to check you completely, that type of thing.

If you ring, hey -- you’ve got to go through with it. You’ve got to go through all the pat down.

The other piece that they’re now doing is once they move you out of the way and bring your dog over, they will wipe both of your hands with just a, it feels just like a cotton wipe. And what it is, they’re, it’s a test to check for explosive traces. Something to be



aware of, many of you ladies who use hand lotion, you may want to check and find out how much of your hand lotion has glycerin in it. And maybe that day you may want to wait until you get through security to put your hand lotion on because glycerin will give a positive. It’s a false positive that hand lotion, it gives a false positive, but it sure makes things, it will slow things down quite a bit.

This next part is a piece that for a lot of dog guide users is different. Pretty much many people don’t let people pet their dogs, so I emphasize to the guys, okay, you’re going to do a pat down, and if a guy’s real excited and he’s talking or the lady’s real talkative to the dog, I say, “Remember, it’s a pat down, not a pet down,” and sometimes you have to, if you’re dog one who responds to that, you may want to remember to keep giving them “steady” or “rest” or whatever your command is to assist your dog in staying calm.

My dog will always, if anybody gets down at face level to my dog, he’s going to be licking them, so I offer, I say, “Would you like me to hold his muzzle, because he’s going to lick you,” and it’s also another way to put people at ease if they’re not real comfortable with dogs.



Canes. Canes are a little grayer area for travel and going through the arch. The one way that you know that you’re safe is if you’re traveling with a straight cane or a collapsible cane, is to just put it on the X-ray machine and let it go through on the conveyor belt. Recent policy is that if you use a straight cane in particular, what they do is when they see that you have a straight cane they purposely let your cane go through first, retrieve it and then if they’re on the ball then they let you come through the arch so they can then hand you your cane immediately upon getting through the arch.

One of the more recent things that I’ve seen with the collapsible cane, people want to use a collapsible cane to go through the arch if they’re able to get through without bumping it, bumping the sides, and it still rings or if it doesn’t ring they’re going to separate the collapsible cane and look through each section to check out and see if there’s anything in that section. This is the one that’s probably the most flexible is probably the positive way to phrase this. Different airports are going to handle it different ways, but one of the most consistent ways to do this is, you know, putting it through on the conveyor belt if you’re using a collapsible cane, put it in the bin and go that way. Another side note, if you hear the conveyor belt, you can spot where the conveyor belt is, 9 times out of 10



the arch is parallel to that and it’s on your side of the table that you’ve been walking along. And it’s generally 3 to 5 feet away from where the conveyor belts are. Occasionally you’re going to find some that are a little more than that and sometimes there’s not, probably about, less than 10 airports that I’ve been through, the set up I gave you is not, is very much the exception. There’s about 10 airports where it’s a good 5 to 15 feet away and you actually have to turn and go almost perpendicular to the conveyor belt, but not often, as I say.

You’re through security, you’ve got your luggage back and you’re ready to go to your gate. This is the part of airports that is the most consistent because there’s only about three ways you can lay out an airport. You need long, long hallways to be able to pull those planes up, so you’re either going to have all the, you’ll have this long hallway that you walk and all the gates will be on one side. All your other amenities, your bathrooms, your restaurants your sandwich shops your coffee shops will be on the other side.

The second one is you have gates on both sides and all those amenities I just described on both sides. And it’s a long hallway.



The third way is a long hallway that may or may not have gates and amenities, but it will definitely have a large circle out at the end of gates. It’s just a large circle out there at the end. Those are some of the trickiest ones to navigate and to locate your specific gate. As you’re walking down the hallway, the concourse, there are expansion joints about every 70 to 75 yards. And that’s also about the length of a gate in most airports. So if you’re walking down a long hallway, the expansion joints you either catch that with you cane, or if you’re using a rolling suitcase you’ll catch it, that may be your way to figure out how far down the concourse you’ve gone. And that’s again, one of those things that if you’re going in and out of the same airport, you can start to figure those things out.You can get some sighted assistance and walk there. When I do get sighted assistance in a new airport, I always look at that as this is my opportunity to gain information from that person, so I may be asking, I will confirm what gate I come in at, if I get off in this new airport. I confirm the gate that I’m leaving from so I can start judging distances and figure out, okay, at gate 21 as I start walking down toward baggage claim and taxis, there is an expansion joint fairly quickly, so now when I come back and if I have to go back out of gate 21 I will have counted the expansion joints to that point and I can get back there when I return to



leave that new city. Some thoughts that way. It’s just standard orientation of mobility techniques.

A lot of people look at airports as being a very difficult environment, but because of those three fairly standard hallways, it makes it pretty easy until you start getting into these very large complexes like Continental Airport, George Bush International Airport in Houston. They have ones that angle off. Memphis is another airport where hallways will just angle off and it can be tricky unless you’re paying real close attention to realize that you’re coming up to a split. Because a lot of times you can go straight but then it’s an angle off so you may be maintaining your line of travel and not realize that there was a split back there. So that’s one of those things where you need to verify periodically.When you think about the hallways a lot of times now they’re designing such that if they’re going to have gates on both sides or even gates only on one side, they put the amenities all in a fairly large area, almost like a food court type environment like you have in shopping centers or malls. Oftentimes the floor texture changes as you go through that eating area. It may go from a nice smooth tile to more of an uneven textured tile. With a cane or a rolling suitcase you’re going to be able to pick that up fairly quickly if not through your feet.



So those floor changes are going to be helpful. Oftentimes as you leave the security area, and you turn down the long concourse, there may be a ramp or a double ramp where you go down and it levels out and then you go down another ramp. Oftentimes if you’ve got real long hallways, they’re going to have the moving sidewalk that’s usually in the middle going both directions. Not that I use it to walk on, but I use it as a good sound cue because also you’ll know that you’re going to have those is because you’re going to hear overhead, “Please stay to the right on the moving sidewalk. Please watch your step as you’re exiting the moving sidewalk.” These are all great cues for you to be able to judge those distances as well.

One of the great things about food courts is that they oftentimes have bathrooms adjacent to those. And the other thing that makes it easier in an airport is, as crazy as it seems, they don’t put doors on the men’s and women’s bathrooms. They just use a wall arrangement to block view into the bathroom. But you can definitely hear those sounds of “Whoosh!” the flushing of toilets and that type of thing. Interesting, my third dog, Dixon, who was very food oriented, one time I was coming off of a plane and it was past his dinnertime and I ended up got into the bathroom



found a wheelchair stall where I could get the suitcase and the dog in there, and I took care of my business and then I went and fed him there in the stall. Unknowingly, I taught my dog to then start showing me wheelchair stalls in bathrooms because I was able to do it enough that he got just enough intermittent reinforcement of food in the wheelchair stall that he wanted to show me every wheelchair stall.

This was pretty neat so I adopted this for my next dog and he was okay about it. He wasn’t as food motivated as Dixon was, but my second dog after that, Flanagan, took this to a new level because he started stopping, I was walking down the hallway in an airport and we’d already been to the bathroom and I’d already given him his biscuit, a little water, that type of thing because I was getting ready to leave the airport. And as we’re walking down, he kind of stops and I’m listening and okay, are we getting into a crowd here, is there a line, and then all of a sudden I hear “Whoosh!” Well, he’s shown me the next bathroom. He thought well, if I got water and treats at that last bathroom I might get some more here, so he just started then showing me bathrooms because he figured bathrooms meant water or food. So those are just some things you can work on and get that added cue of extra level of your dog.



We’re now to the gate. Gate areas oftentimes have TVs now in them and so that’s also a way to count gates. Once you’re familiar with your airport between the expansion joints, TVs on and then you can pretty well isolate your gates. But sometimes, you know, you get a little disoriented, it may be a more crowded day than another, so it’s also important how you ask your questions when you start to solicit information.

I have worked real hard on this one, and you figure out, you ask questions to be sure that you get the information and the type of answer you want. If I say, “Is this gate No. 9?” the answer’s going to be yes or no. And I don’t know if the guy is, somebody’s just all of a sudden looked up and realized I was talking to them because they’re reading their newspaper or they’re talking on their own cellphone, and they go, “Yes.” Well, I think I just go my answer of yes that this is gate No. 9. Well, no, he was just saying yes to me like oh, do you have a question? He never heard the question.

So if you rearrange the question and you say, “Oh, what gate number is this?” And I thought that would take care of it until I was traveling in New Jersey. Because then they go, “What gate you looking for?” Well, shoot, I asked the question first. So, that’s going to be more likely to get you the accurate



information because yes or no doesn’t fit with that question.

Some other ways to know where the gates are. Sometimes you can hear printers. They still use dot matrix style printers in the airports. Another thing may be -- this one is not as valid as it used to be, but you might be able to hear a phone ring at the counter and sometimes with all the cellphones that may be a little distracting, because whenever -- remember at the beginning I said you always want to go to the counter and introduce yourself. You don’t want, if you’re getting assistance, you don’t want that person to decide what information gets shared. Plus if somebody is at, when I go up there and I ask, you know, “Are you going to be the one boarding the flight,” and they tell me no, then I know I need to find a seat real close to either the gate, the jet way door, or to the podium where they actually scan your boarding passes to let you out onto the plane. Because, just because you’ve asked for preboard, especially if staff changes from when you got there to when the plane is boarding, they may not come and talk to you. Because a lot of places, a lot of airlines now do not announce preboard because they don’t want to draw any unnecessary to a person with a disability.



So they may step over and say if you’d like to preboard now, or they just make a general statement of, “Any of you needing a little extra time may come up now,” that type of thing. But not all of them do it, so you need to be paying attention to the time when you’re flight is supposed to be departing, listening for, have you heard anybody come through with a rolling suitcase going through the threshold of the jet way. You usually get that little whrrrrrrrrr click of the suitcases rolling off the jet way into the gate area, those kinds of good cues. Realize that you have to be proactive in this process. If it sounds like people are starting to move around a lot, you haven’t heard any announcements or something, make sure you know where that counter is and step over and isolate a voice and get some questions answered.

Seating on the plane. As part of that private briefing we talked about, you choose to do the preboard, remember you cannot be required to sit in a specific seat or row because of your disability or if you’re traveling with a dog guide. The way the Air Carrier Access Act reads is “A person with a disability is able to sit in any available seat on the plane with the except of the exit row.” The exit row is the only place you’re not able to sit on the plane. So when you’re making your reservations, you decide do I like a [volcad] window because I have dog guide or do I



want [nonvolcad] window because I have a dog guide and choose to slide him under the seat in front of me, those kinds of things.

You may sometimes find a flight attendant who assumes they know what you want and it’s important that you stay firm. If you’re on an airline where you got to pick your own seat number and row with a travel agent or with air reservationist, then be sure to share that -- you may get somebody saying you really shouldn’t be sitting there, you need to be sitting up here in the bulkhead because of your dog guide. And just be polite, say, no, I selected the seat I wanted.

Now there are a few airliner models in which they don’t have a wall between first and second and they just have a curtain. Now the advantage to that one is now there’s no wall, the dog is actually sliding up underneath the first class seats. So, my dog gets to ride first class; I may not be able to, but, you know, then in that situation in that particular design of a bulkhead, that may give your dog more room and you, too. Those are some things to think about so you may want to ask some of those kinds of questions.

You always want to know where the exit row is. Even if you’re ahead of the exit row, because remember when you’re flying on a plane, your nearest exit may



even be behind you so please be aware of that, etc. The one that I get is the flight attendants where I say, “Okay, let’s see, I’m in row 6. How many rows is it back to the exit row?” I want that as kind of my alternate exit. She says, “Oh, I guess it’s 8 or 9 rows back.” I say, “Would you mind counting, because if I’ve got to use it, I want to know is it really 8 or is it 9? And are you starting to count with my seat or not?”

But if she just says to me, “Oh, you’re in row 6 and the over the wing exit is in row 25,” then I have one more question I need to ask her. If any of you are superstitious, you may already realize - is there a row 13 on this aircraft? Some airlines do not have a row 13. So, if she’s just telling me 6 and 25, oh, okay, that’s 19. Well, without row 13, it actually becomes 18 rows back. So, those are some issues you want to think about and just a couple of verification questions as you get on the plane.

The other thing I’ve found also is should there ever be an emergency if you sit and think about what you would do, what your first choice would be, your second would be, and this works well with any emergency. If you’ve already thought about what you’re going to do should “X” happen, the odds are your mind is more likely to go to that plan than panic. Just kind of think through what your steps would be.



I’ve got to undo my seatbelt, I’ve got to stand up, get the dog’s leash, go right and go right again, because that front exit is blocked. I need to go over the wing, but some of those thought process. So, just something to think about.

Your exiting the plane and the airport. Couple of ways to do that. Because you’ve requested assistance and you’ve asked for somebody to be there to meet you, do not assume that they’re going to be standing out there waiting for you. They may be assisting several passengers. You’ve specified you don’t want a wheelchair, they may still be there with a wheelchair to push somebody else in the wheelchair who had requested one and then they’ll still take you, whether you do sighted guide or whether you are using your dog guide. So they may be covering two people because they’re shorthanded or they have a lot of people coming off of that flight and they’re trying to expedite everybody.

The other thing you can do if you’ve developed a conversation with one of your seat mates, find out if they live here, they’re going to be going down to baggage claim and then out to taxis, you may just want to keep a conversation going or just ask them, do you mind if I tag along, follow along with you down to those two areas or to that area, to the cab or



whatever. Those are some options. If it’s your home airport, now we go back into, okay I came in to gate -- I left here on gate 21, find out, oh, I’m leaving here, coming back in on gate 22 which in my airport it’s across the hallway so now I know I have to turn to my left to get back to the main terminal. You can always verify, and then you know it’s four expansion joints back. Those kinds of things, you can make those things work for yourself.

Miscellaneous. This is two areas, one is tipping. Typically if you’re going to check a bag it’s around $2.00 a bag at this point. If you’re getting passenger assistance, a lot of it depends on how good was it. Did this person do what I asked? Did they provide me the information I needed? I tend to tip a little better if they do that. If it’s both my wife and me, you’re going to see a little more tipping because they’re guiding two people even though my dog’s guiding me and they’re trying to keep track of both passengers. And so I look at those things.

Now there’s a whole issue of lack of food on the flights. And you know that you can’t take food through security and you’ve got to purchase it after the fact. Whether you’re getting coffee, whether you’re getting water, food, if you’re going into a carryout restaurant but you’ve got time to sit, one of



the things I’m going to encourage you to do is still get it as though it’s take out. Because now a bag is a whole lot easier with your suitcase and either your dog or your cane, and I would encourage you if you’re going to get a liquid, think about getting one with a twist off cap, whether it be a soft drink or water, that type of thing. Coffee’s a little trickier. Those are not twist off. They’re just a cap and they may or may not sit real well especially if the cup is Styrofoam with those plastic lids.

You can always slip the bag over your wrist and kind of hold it along with the pull on your suitcase. Those kinds of things, and then maybe be able to still work the coffee in. It’s a little trickier, though. So those are some things to think about that way.

I’ve been talking real good, I hope people have made notes about what else they want to find out about, so I’m going to turn this back over to Doug to do the moderation.

Douglas WalkerAll right, thanks Jay. That’s some fantastic information there. Some great stuff that has popped in the text chat area. We only have about 10 minutes left in the seminar, so what I’m going to do now, before going through the questions that were posted



in the text chat area is open it up for questions from the room, so if you have any questions out there, now is the time.

HollyYes. This is not actually a question, it’s a couple of things that I thought of that he did not mention. This is Holly from College Park. If you have a guide dog, be sure to carry your guide dog’s meal, at least one meal, in your carryon bag in case your bags get lost. If you check your bag, sometimes they do happen to get lost, so it’s always a good idea to carry at least one, or even better, two meals for your dog in your bag so they don’t go hungry. And the other thing, because I’m a girl and I love jewelry for ladies, be sure you take all of your jewelry off except for your wedding band when you go through the security, otherwise it will ding. Thank you.

FemaleYou mentioned about giving more or less of a tip depending on how much service they gave. What would be an average tip for getting you to your gate?

Douglas WalkerAll right, so I don’t know if Jay’s having the same difficulties that I have getting back into the room, but we do have a couple of comments from Cecilia that



were really great while he’s getting things going back on his end. She actually was 2:00 a.m. her time when she came in at 10:00 a.m. out time here, so she’s really interested in this. But she mentioned that she was on an island, and so if you’re island traveling or some international places, you might actually have to deboard the plane or get back on the plane by using stairs or steps to get back on the plane. And so she also mentioned maybe cobblestone areas. She prefers using a backpack instead of a roll-on carryon type of luggage. She’ll use a backpack to get on and off the plane, so, that’s just a good tip from her to be able to use. Jay, I’m going to hand it back over to you.

Jay StiteleyThank you. Holly, who made the comment from College Park about making sure you have the dog food, you have a couple of packages of dog food for several meals -- excellent suggestion. You must wear an awful lot of bling if the magnetometer’s going to catch you, so.

For the tip, if you’re doing this basically just from counter to gate area, $3.00, but if you’re stopping, they’re going to stop, you know, show you where the bathroom is, and then maybe stop and get some food, and that, because I’m tying that person up. They’re



oftentimes minimum wage, they are contracted by the airline, they’re not airline employees in I’d say 95% of situations, then I may go $5.00 or if it’s a long walk and there’s been a lot of complications I may go as high as $8.00 especially if my wife and I are together. Hopefully that’s helpful.

Male ParticipantI have traveled to Romania, Austria and Germany with my dog, but in the United States and going abroad, how many cups of dog food can you carry in your carryon? When it comes to dog food, how many cups can you put in the bag?

HollyI’ve carried two weeks’ worth. I don’t know what the official thing is, but I carry a backpack and I carry a carryon, so, I put all my dog’s food in my backpack. And I wanted to say before I get off here, and I will promise I won’t talk again, you can tell that Delta has a blind person on their advisory board, because I travel a lot and Delta overall has given me the best service of any airline.

Jay StiteleyI’m sure Delta Airlines will be happy to hear that. Thank you. Going back to your question sir, what I think more the issue you want to think about Holly



was accurate, you know, it’s whatever amount you want to put in there. What’s going to control that, sir, is I know for instance here in the U.S. going to Canada, sometimes you get questioned about brining dog food into Canada. On other occasions I’ve mailed it in, when I know I’m going to be there for a period of time. She said I can get that fourteen meals worth, typically fourteen meals worth in my suitcase, but a lot of times you may have to check with your respective country to see what they’re guidelines are. They may not allow you to bring in dog food. You may have to either have it shipped in or buy local once you get there. They may allow you to get in one or two meals worth, but you do definitely have to check with their Department of Agriculture to see what their restrictions are that way.

HildaJay, it’s Hilda. I’ve been living here in Niagara Falls, Ontario, now. We were in class together. I got Denver when you got Hagar. Anyways, we go across the border because dog food’s cheaper. And they only want to know what the contents are. The main ingredient and we always use the Iams, it’s the chicken. We don’t have a problem bringing it across the border at all, so that’s maybe of getting the label of what’s in the dog food would help with that, bringing it to Canada.



Jay StiteleyVery good, and I wasn’t picking on Canada, it’s just the one country I’ve traveled into with my dog that I’m at the airport saying as you go through Customs at the airport, sometimes they’re a little pickier and that type of thing, but good information. It’s good to have that information ready for them as well, Hilda, thank you.

Douglas WalkerHey, Jay, this is Douglas and you know, unfortunately we’ve hit the end of our time limit here. Would you mind me giving out or you giving out maybe your email address to answer some of these questions as we have tons of questions up here. I don’t know if you want to do that, or if you have a different way that you’d like to approach that, but we still have a lot of questions that are coming your way.

Jay StiteleyI apologize, I talked too long, guys, sorry. I would be more than happy to share my email address. I’m just going to ask you to be a little patient, I may not get to it immediately. If you’re thinking of taking a trip real soon and you need the information, please mark in the subject line “travel urgent.” I’ll give you my home email -- it’s shorter. [email protected].


mailto:[email protected]


MaleI hope you don’t mind I’ll tell you real fast. Sendero Group on their website also have a 15-page tips and tricks traveling with a cane and guide dog and they got a bunch of people together and wrote that up so I would suggest go there and look at that, too, as well. Good information.

Douglas WalkerAll right, fantastic. Jay, this has just been incredible. I mean, the amount of information that you’ve given us today is so valuable because we have so many business people and so many travelers that have shown up here today, so appreciate you all so much for coming.

We do value your feedback so we would hope that you would stick around for the survey at the very end of this.

This seminar, like all seminars at Hadley, will be archived on the Hadley website and will be available there 24 / 7. So if you missed something or want to go back and catch up on something or want to share this with someone else, this is a great way. You can always go to the Hadley website and see these. We



also have tons of other seminars there, too, archived. So, you go check out those as well.

This seminar will be archived on the Hadley website under Past Seminars at www.hadley.edu and now podcast notifications are also available there. Information on podcasts are available by going to Hadley’s Past Seminars page.

You might be also interested in taking some Hadley courses. I would love to have you in any of my courses. I teach Word Processing, Internet Basics, Screen Readers Web Browsing, Screen Readers Formatting Word Documents. I also teach a Using Excel course. I’d love to have you in any of my classes.

We value your feedback. Please let us know what you thought about today’s seminar. And also suggest future seminar topics by sending us an email to [email protected].

Now I would like to hand the microphone back over to Jay for any final comments.

Jay StiteleyWell, thank you all very much for your participation. Again, I apologize for not being able to get all of


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.hadley.edu/


everyone’s questions right off the bat there. One other thing, when you go to the, if you choose to go to the podcast or the archives, there is a handout list that in some areas goes into more detail than I did. Covers some extra things that I did not touch on and that, so if you’re there. Also if any of your professionals are out there, there’s also a quiz so that you can get CEU credits. A little 20 question quiz for your to respond to. I’ve always enjoyed traveling. I’ve always enjoyed meeting new people and the things I’ve shared, I’ve tried to refine over the years and the one thing I can share with you, and this goes into a lot of different areas and that is, if you get upset as you travel or as you do anything, it causes emotions, once that gets into play, if you get upset, angry, frustrated, you’re not longer dealing in facts, you’re dealing in emotions and it rarely ever ends well when you get upset. So, the more you can stay calm, even if you’re frustrated, the more information you’re going to get and also you’re going to get through the process that much quicker and get what you need from those people that may be frustrating you.

I’m going to turn this back over to Doug. I think he may be ready at this point.

Douglas Walker



All right, again, this is Douglas Walker and I would like to thank Jay Stiteley for being with us today. Jay, always just a wealth of information. Thank you, thank you so much for all these tips and tricks. Really incredible, really great.

I’d also like to thank all of you for attending today’s seminar. I see a lot of my students in the room and I appreciate you guys being here and everybody. I’ll see you next time and take care.
