It’s been several years since both of us had our one-and-only guide dogs, in our teens and twenties, but that doesn’t mean it’s been so long that we can’t identify with another guide dog user around the impact of the end of a guide team partnership. Our guest this week made it on with us, even as he’d just recently experienced the loss of his German shepherd guide dog companion, a difficult loss for so many.

On Outlook this week we spoke with first-time guest Kyle Kiper, originally of Texas and now living near the Oklahoma/Arkansas border, about the big question guide dog handlers are often asked after they lose a dog guide: will you be going for another guide dog then?

On this episode we discuss all three of our positions on this question, along with a conversation spanning the array of other topics there are to speak to this particular guest about.

Kyle tells us about his family of mostly blind people and the retinitis pigmentosa diagnosis running throughout his life, his early career as a paramedic and how he had to pivot once the RP got in the way and how he moved into his next field which was rehabilitation counselor requiring his adventure going to school in England, and about his life with his wife as travel agents.

- 51 countries visited and all 7 continents.

We hear about the benefits of cruises for blind travelers from his lived experience perspective and about the obstacles he faced when biases about the kinds of jobs blind people can do presented themselves in his path.

Kiper is open to sharing so much of his life with us and our listeners, making this one an impactful one to begin to wrap up the year with.

RIP Uma and check out Outlook with Kyle Kiper and his own outlook on life.