The University of Iowa has a great news magazine for faculty and staff called "fyi" and this month features Steve and "Nira" in an article and "picture show"! This is very nicely done if you ask me.
~ Connie
Read article: Blind professor helps others see another side to disability
Photo feature: Steve and Nira’s first day of class
Audio slide show: Professor, Nira get acquainted with UI campus, each other
If you ever wonder about what it’s like to be blind or visually impaired I can attest that the story below is “legion”. Both blindness and low vision are poorly understood by the general public. I personally have been mocked by service employees in almost every kind of setting from airports to restaurants to hotels, bus stations, you name it. Our hats are off to Alice Camarillo. She is fighting for everyone on the Planet of the Blind.
S.K.
The following article is forwarded to you by the DBTAC-Great Lakes ADA Center
New York Daily News (New York, NY)
February 9, 2008
Fast food employees mocked a blind woman who needed help reading menu
BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Back in 1998 a book reviewer at The Boston Globe suggested that I am a shill for the guide dog schools. What he meant is that my first book of nonfiction is richly devoted to sharing the experience of training with my first guide dog “Corky”—a life changing event for me and the glue that holds together my book.
I didn’t mind being called a shill. I’ve been called worse.
Today as I was walking in the Iowa snow with my third dog from Guiding Eyes I remembered that old Steve Martin joke where he says to his audience “I want to thank each and every one of you” Then he proceeds to say over and over: “Thank you thank you thank you thank you” etc.
Occupied in this way it dawned on me that Guiding Eyes for the Blind is worthy of every thank you I could pronounce. Guide dogs are expensive creatures to breed, raise, train, and then pair with a blind person. Despite the fact that each dog and person team costs well over 40,000 dollars to create, Guiding Eyes absorbs all the costs through its non-profit program of charitable donations.
I am a comparatively lucky blind person. I have a good job and a wonderful wife and family. Yet I can assure you that if I had to pony up 40K for my street mobility would be very hard pressed indeed. This in turn gets me to my point. Some will doubtless think of me as being too sentimental. Thanking those who have helped you is perhaps, in the minds of some “too old fashioned” or “too caught up in the charity model of disability”.
I believe that as I walk safely and in most cases euphorically that I have a big team behind me. Donors, puppy raisers, puppy breeders, veterinarians, fund raisers, construction and buildings and grounds personnel, volunteers, guide dog trainers, orientation and mobility specialists, dietitians, nurses, folks who work in the kennels, and the blind men and women who have trained alongside me with their new dogs.
Today, walking in the snow I heard in memory the voice of Steve Martin thanking everybody.
S.K.
Here they are, Steve and "Nira" – stepping lively.
Once they’re home, I’ll be jogging behind just to keep up! ~ Connie
P.S. Thanks to Graham Buck, of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, for the photos.
Photo description: yellow Labrador, Nira, is in harness and guiding Steve down the sidewalk.
Here she is. "Nira". Steve’s ultimate blind date.
Photo description: Nira, a yellow Labrador, is in a down position. She and Steve are doing obedience. Although we can’t see Steve, we can see the leash he’s holding attached to Nira’s collar. She is looking up in his direction. It’s a great head shot, compliments of Graham Buck of Guiding Eyes for the Blind.
In 1998 I published a memoir entitled “Planet of the Blind” and much to my delight some good reviewers praised the book. The memoir received strong reviews in The New York Times and USA Today and suddenly I was invited to be a guest on National Public Radio’s superb program “Talk of the Nation”.
This was heady stuff for a guy who had been writing poetry for 18 years. In the poetry world you are very lucky if you have a hundred readers and let me tell you, 100 readers is pretty much beyond the wildest dreams of most of the talented and deserving poets I’ve met along the road.
Each time something good happened where the book was concerned my wife would say, jokingly, “Yeah, that’s great; just let me know when Oprah calls” We would chuckle about that.
The reason we’d laugh about Oprah is that “Planet of the Blind” is not the kind of book that haunts the bestseller lists. The book isn’t lurid; it’s not angry; it doesn’t even have much of a plot. In fact it’s such an odd book that it’s difficult to describe. It’s in part a history of blindness in America and part a “coming of age” story by a writer who largely grew up feeling ashamed of his blindness. The story isn’t particularly unusual and even worse from a sales standpoint; I have an addiction for big words.
Guess whose book was made into a film that won an award?! Yep! Keep reading!
Thank you to Day Al-Mohamed at Day in Washington for bringing this to our attention. Congratulations to Sven Werner of Luxemberg for winning the Pamela K. Walker Award. Our congratulations to ALL actually…
The following is taken from the Superfest 2007 Awards page:
Congratulations to this year’s award winners!
The following contains a list and descriptions of the
award-winners for SUPERFEST XXVII (2007).
To browse through photos from the award-winning films, click here.
Do people do that on the Planet of the Blind? You know – have sex?
Zephyr, the Arthritic Young Thing is hosting the next Disability Blog Carnival (July 26th) and she has chosen "let’s talk about sex, babee" as her theme.
Steve is currently in seclusion (working on a novel) in our little cabin on Rattlesnake Island in Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. His ability to e-mail is severely limited and so the best I can do for now is submit the following excerpt from his first memoir Planet of the Blind.
Years ago, as a college student in Geneva, NY, Steve looses his virginity to Bettina…(and no, I am not Bettina. This was before my time.) Be advised, this will undoubtedly change the PG rating this blog was recently given!
~ Connie
An excerpt from Planet of the Blind by Stephen Kuusisto (Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. 1998)….
Continue reading “Makin' Whoopee on the Planet of the Blind”
We celebrated July 4th at Picnic with the Pops this year where Steve was asked to speak on behalf of Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s Advisory Committee on Disabilities.
Photo: Silver trailer with large flat screen on top. Screen is so crowds can later watch orchestra members playing in detail. Sign says
Columbus Symphony
Junichi Hirokami, Music Director
ColumbusSymphony.com
PicnicWithThePops.com
Photo: Steve on stage talking into a microphone. Band shell behind him. His yellow Labrador, Vidal, is standing to his left.
Picnic with the Pops draws huge crowds. Photo: looking out into the crowd from just in front of the stage Steve is standing on. Folks are seated at round tables up front enjoying a picnic dinner. Behind them, most people are "roughing it" on blankets and lawn chairs.
This photo reveals what a beautiful evening it was. I caught this photo just as the sun was setting. The blues, purples, pinks and oranges are stunning. In the foreground folks are finishing their meals or wandering from table to table.
Photo on the right shows the concert has begun. Night has fallen, the stage is lit with bright lights and the orchestra is "doing it’s thing" while a huge American Flag hangs in the background.
I’m impressed my little Nikon camera was able to capture this photo of a firework as it exploded.
I think a lovely evening was had by all…
Happy 4th of July!
May our troops have a safe one. And may they come home soon.
~ Connie and Steve
The curious: You’re blind? Can you see anything? How do you (Insert your own question here) ?
Steve: I can see colors and shapes…a kaleidoscope…
I stumbled on this video offering a little insight. This is well done.
~ Connie
Planet of the Blind 