Dignity with a teddy bear?

Dignity with a teddy bear? (view larger image in Flickr).

The Techshare conference last week was interesting and fun, both for the presentations and for the "off piste" conversations at coffee breaks and in the bar.

My colleague Bim, attending Techshare for the first time as one of RNIB's Web Accessibility Consultants, was determined to look elegant and businesslike. Being Bim, she succeeded very well indeed.

Her efforts, however, were, on Friday morning, just slightly undermined by her guide dog, George. He just loves walking around with one of his stuffed toys in his mouth. And on Friday morning, he decided that he simply couldn't face another day of conference stuff without his favourite teddy bear, and, unbeknown to Bim, quietly picked it up on the way out of their hotel bedroom.

The first Bim knew of it was when, walking confidently through the hotel lobby, she heard a couple of girls whispering "Ooooh that's so cute — he's got his teddy bear with him!"

It didn't need much thought to figure that they probably weren't talking about any of the male conference delegates...