Planet of the Blind

Thank you, Guiding Eyes

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.

TV Goes Down the Drain

The press coverage of the democratic presidential race has descended to one of those circles of hell wherein greedy appetites and exaggerated punishments exist side by side and without end. Did Barack Obama “snub” Hillary Clinton by turning his back on the New York senator as she sought to shake his hand at the State of the Union address on capitol hill? Who knows? What seems clear is that the Balkanization of identity politics has been a profitable story, particularly for the TV broadcasters, and that in turn, substantive issues are not discussed.

I continue to yearn for a dis-modern America where each of us is liberated from the symbolic and semiotic categorizations of the past. When individuals are reduced to symbolism there’s a very real chance that the hoary heads of discrimination and bigotry are doing most of the talking.

None of the reporters in the MSNBC or CNN crowds would easily admit to partaking in glib and discriminatory rhetoric. Yet the reduction of Barack Obama to a mere representation as “the black candidate” or the similar categorization of Senator Clinton according to her gender represents the most clay footed and witless symbolic obfuscation we’ve seen in this country since the reign of Lee Atwater.

I can’t say which I dislike more: the reduction of two fine candidates to racial or gendered inferiority or the money making feeding frenzy that this phony story has created in the media.

Continue reading “TV Goes Down the Drain”

We'll Be Seeing You

I do not customarily get my news from Joe Scarborough whose MSNBC show "Morning Joe" is largely devoid of substance but rank with middle brow party hack-isms from both sides of the aisle. Still, MSNBC has just reported that Senator John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth will speak today at 1 pm eastern time when they will announce their decision to withdraw from the presidential campaign trail. They will make their announcement in New Orleans, where they started their campaign over a year ago. As almost everyone knows, New Orleans remains in devastation three years after Katrina. My general sense is that of all the candidates running, John Edwards has the deepest conscience and the largest heart. Elizabeth Edwards and John have done more to remind this nation that severe and unacceptable inequality is a direct consequence of political policies that have rewarded the richest people in this nation while ignoring the plight of the poor and the middle class. Our hats are off to John and Elizabeth. In Finland where my childhood was spent, they say when people part: "Nakemiin" which means "Be seeing you." We are with the Edwards family and we thank them for pressing for human dignity on all fronts.

S.K.

The ADA Restoration Act: What We All Need to Know

News From the Front

The attack is on and the fight is fierce. The ADA Restoration Act is currently being debated in Washington and the proposed legislation which is designed to restore the employment protections that were crafted as part of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act is now under attack from groups that want to severely limit the kinds of work place accommodations that employees can and should receive in order to remain gainfully employed.

Because the hosts of this blog are advocates for the full employment of people with disabilities and because the high rate of unemployment among the blind and visually impaired remains at catastrophic levels we want to alert our readers to the fact that the Society for Human Resource Management (a “Management” oriented group) has issued a call to arms urging its membership to fight against this crucial disability oriented legislation. Their tactic? They tell their membership that if the ADA Restoration Act is adopted employers will have to make accommodations for people with minor headaches or disfiguring scars—that is, the SHRM has argued to its membership that under the proposed act, the definition of disability is so broad that “virtually every employee” will be disabled and will require some kind of accommodation. This is absolute nonsense and the sophistry and misrepresentation of both the ADA and the ADA Restoration Act that are utilized in the service of this disinformation is really shameful. But to paraphrase Lou Reed (who said “you can’t always trust your mother”)—“you can’t always trust human resource management”.

My friend and former colleague Scott Lissner (who is the superb ADA Coordinator for The Ohio State University) has written the following altogether cogent summary of the ADA Restoration Act and this is, in our view, the most accurate and succinct summary of the proposed legislation. Please read on.

Continue reading “The ADA Restoration Act: What We All Need to Know”

Disability Blog Carnival #30: What Professionals Need to Know

The 30th Disability Blog Carnival, the subject of which is "what professionals need to know" was pulled together by Kathryn on her blog Ryn Tale’s Book of Days.

"I got the idea for this
carnival in thinking about the sensitivity and understanding or lack of
both by medical professionals regarding what a patient’s life is really
like. In my experience therapists, doctors, teachers, school
psychologists who have shown true empathy, a willingness to listen, and
respect for me and for Ellie have, sadly, been in the minority. I wish
more professionals would try to educate themselves about the people
they are trying to help."

Kathryn, we appreciate the work you put into this. Now, if only we could get the professionals to read it.

~ CK

Cross-posted on Blog [with]tv

Our Support Needed for the ADA Restoration Act

The Road to Freedom leads us, among other places, to this list of 5 Things we can all do RIGHT NOW to support

"the ‘ADA Restoration Act’ that would restore vital
civil right protections for children and adults with physical, mental,
cognitive and developmental disabilities."

For more information, visit the ADA Restoration Act 2007 blog where you’ll find this ****ACTION ALERT!****

HURRY!

~CK

Cross-posted on Blog [with]tv

[with]tv Recommends the Inclusion Daily Express

Good luck trying to find this much information anywhere else on the web.
~ C. Kuusisto

INCLUSION DAILY EXPRESS
International Disability Rights News Service

http://www.InclusionDaily.com
Your quick, once-a-day look at disability rights, self-determination
and the movement toward full community inclusion around the world.

Cross-posted on Blog [with]tv

These Boots are Made for Walkin'

My new guide dog "Nira" has been navigating the campus of the University of Iowa and she’s been sporting her red, velcro and nylon snow boots. Today’s guide dogs are trained to tolerate footwear since icy sidewalks are often covered with corrosive salts and chemicals that can harm feet. Obviously the sight of a big yellow Labrador in harness trotting along with her red booties is remarkable, particularly for college students who are delighted as Nira prances down the sidewalk like a circus pony. It has been below zero in Iowa all this week and the doggy boots have been valuable as we’ve marched along the banks of the frozen Iowa River. I hope to have some photos to share with you soon. Avanti!

S.K.

Why Some People Still Can't Find Work

A friend writes to ask why it remains so difficult for people with disabilities to find jobs and in particular why this is so hard for blind people in an age of technology and the ADA.

My friend is a scientist. He understands how things actually work.

Of course the problem for people with disabilities regarding employment has nothing to do with "how things work"—in reality the problem has to do with symbolism.

Here is what I wrote to my friend early this morning:

Dear (Name Withheld):

The answer to this question is relatively simple though like most easy things it’s also discouraging. Disability functions in general as a series of metaphors or "sign systems" as the French scholar Roland Barthes would put it. The study of signs in culture is known as "semiotics"—and without giving a treatise the crux of the biscuit is that everything we can see is culturally embedded with variegated meanings that are the product of history. This is true of everything from a "stop sign" to your mother’s wedding dress.

Disability has functioned historically in stark metaphorical terms: the blind for instance are identified in Greek mythology as being either monstrous or irrational figures or, prophetic souls who have been given a compensatory gift from the gods. In the ancient world criminals were routinely "blinded" to serve as constant reminders of criminality as they begged in the streets. Accordingly there is a several thousand year period in western cultural history when blindness has been semiotically designated as an exemplary and unhappy figuration. Drama, fairy tales, kid’s books, movies, all reinforce this signifying process. I wrote a little bit about this in my book "Planet of the Blind". The writer Georgina Kleege has addressed this subject in her book "Sight Unseen" and now in her new book of imaginary letters to Helen Keller.

These pejorative ideas about blindness were so pervasive that it was believed impossible to teach the blind to read until the early 19^thcentury.

Again, as I say, these old fashioned notions are not sensible but they exist in what Carl Jung would call the "cultural or universal unconscious" of civilization.

Changing this kind of thing is obviously not so much a matter of technology but really a matter of public education.

I am typing right now without the benefit of sufficient coffee so I hope this makes sense?

Steve K

As I think about these matters I’m often reminded of the up side of symbolic or figurative dynamism in culture. When human beings understand how symbols can assist their social and political goals then transformation can happen very quickly within society. Rosa Parks comes to mind. James Meredith.

We need more competent disabled people in our nation’s television and movies. We needed this about two decades ago.

I hereby volunteer to be a TV detective. Along with my amazing dog I will have Confucian poetry and logo-rhythmic dancing in my arsenal.