TikToker Paul Shares the Reality of Living with Blindness — and Why Fake Service Dog Vests Are So Dangerous

• Paul — of the TikTok duo ‘Matthew and Paul’ — was just eight years old when he knew something was wrong with his eyesight
• He went viral in April after he shared that he was refused entry to a restaurant by staff who didn’t believe his dog, Mr Maple, was a guide dog – part of a disturbing trend fueled by fake “support dog” vests bought online
• She hopes to “educate everyone to understand that the spectrum of disability is far beyond what most people assume.”

TikToker Paul — of the wildly popular duo Matthew and Paul — remembers the exact moment he knew something was wrong with his eyes.

“I went camping when I was a kid in Eastern Washington,” he says, adding that he was about eight years old at the time. “Everyone was pointing at the constellations in the sky and I looked up and I just couldn’t see anything. And my brother was showing the Big Dipper, and I felt FOMO, so in my own frustration I pretended to see.”

He tells PEOPLE that it wasn’t until he was 16 and trying to learn to drive that “we knew there was definitely something wrong with my eyes.”

The diagnosis: retinitis pigmentosa, which, according to the National Eye Institute, causes “cells in the retina [to] they break down slowly over time, causing vision loss.”

Legally blind TikToker Paul with his service dog Mr. Javor.

Courtesy of Matthew and Paul

Now the Seattle resident, along with her husband Matthew, take to their TikTok account to share how Paul manages life and his career as a graphic designer — all while dealing with a degenerative eye disease.

Last April, Paul said that he and his guide dog, Mr. Maple, were denied access to a local restaurant by an employee who did not believe that Paul was really blind – or that Mr. Maple was indeed a legitimate guide dog, despite his harness indicating that he was. is.

The post immediately went viral, with 2.2 million likes and more than 13 million views.

But what happened to Paul is part of a growing trend, Chris Diefenthaler, executive director of Assistance Dogs International, tells PEOPLE.

“Handlers who have trained guide dogs are still denied access,” she says, adding that along with restaurants, shared rides often “just go by and don’t stop.”

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Both Diefenthaler and Paul tell PEOPLE that the reason service dogs are often viewed with skepticism is the proliferation of fake “guide dog” vests, which can be easily purchased online.

In fact, Paul was initially banned from the restaurant because the staff had dealt with an unruly “service dog” the day before.

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“It’s not coming from a malicious place. People love their animals,” says Paul. “They want to take them everywhere, don’t they? But now that I’m on the other side of it, I realize how it affects the lives of people who really need these dogs. Many of them are life savers.”

He continued: “Maple saved my life. He stopped me in cars breaking traffic laws in the city center. He blocked me.”

Legally blind TikToker Paul with his service dog Mr. Javor.

Courtesy of Matthew and Paul

There are two types of service dogs, Diefenthaler tells PEOPLE.

“The term assistance dog is more of a generic term that covers hearing guide dogs and service dogs. And guide dogs are specific for visually impaired or blind people,” she says.

“Service dogs are a much broader category and actually encompass multiple types of disabilities, many of which are invisible disabilities,” she says. For example, some dogs can warn their owner that they are about to have a seizure.

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“Diabetic service dogs detect low blood sugar,” says Diefenthaler, and “can alert their person that they have or will have a low blood trigger—so they can take appropriate action.”

“Everything would be considered an invisible disability,” she says.

During their meeting at the restaurant, Paul recalls being told, “You don’t look like you’re blind.” ”

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“I tried to explain to him [that] I have a vision point in the center of my eye,” says Paul. “And what we do online every day is educate people about the spectrum of blindness.”

Most people who are legally blind retain some sight, Very good health reports.

Paul hopes “that my platform and these cases and more videos like this can start to dispel those stereotypes and educate everyone to understand that the spectrum of disabilities is far beyond what most people assume they are.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education