May 16, 2008 

EDUCATION 
Opening others’ eyes 
Blind professor helping UI students, doctors see disabilities in a new light

By Diane Heldt
The Gazette

IOWA CITY — Blindness is thought by many to be a great calamity, still viewed in 19th-century Dickensian terms, says University of Iowa professor Steve Kuusisto.

  But the reality, says Kuusisto, who has been blind since birth, is that his talking computer, his guide dog and public transportation allow him to do most anything sighted people can.

  “It’s not an obstacle to having a good job and a full life,” he said. “Nobody has to have a second-class life. Really, the sky’s the limit.” That philosophy, the 53-year-old Kuusisto said, fuels a new vision of disability that is emerging. That vision moves away from viewing people with disabilities as “defective,” he said, to finding ways for technology and society to help them lead the richest, fullest lives.

  It’s a vision Kuusisto (pronounced COO-sis-toe) brought to the UI last fall when he joined the faculty as an English professor with a joint appointment in the Carver College of Medicine.

  At the medical college he is a “humanizing agent” who helps educate doctors about disability issues. UI officials hope Kuusisto bridges the goals of disability advocates and health professionals.

  “I’m probably the firstever poet named to a faculty of ophthalmology,” Kuusisto says with a smile. 

 

A graduate of the UI Writers’ Workshop and a best-selling author who has appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, Kuusisto was recruited from Ohio State University, where he helped develop a disability studies program spanning academic departments.

  Part of his UI job is finding ways to better integrate thinking about disabilities into the curriculum.

  In addition to teaching creative non-fiction, memoir and essay writing and meeting weekly with UI ophthalmologists, medical students and scientists, Kuusisto spearheads the new disability studies program, the first of its kind among Iowa’s statefunded universities.

  It’s an interdisciplinary look at how cultural and historical forces shape the public’s view of disability.

  Kuusisto isn’t sure yet what form it will take. It could be a program with an academic major and minor, or it could be more informal.

  He envisions courses about disability in public policy, in medical ethics and in literature, among other topics. This summer Kuusisto will teach the first class, about disability in film. He jokes that students will be surprised to find a blind professor teaching a course about movies.

  Gillian Grady, 21, a senior from Wynnewood, Pa., said Kuusisto’s creative non-fiction writing class this spring made her more aware of phrasing in her writing.

  “I read everything out loud because I knew that’s how he would hear it,” she said. “That really changes things.” Jessica Fritts, 22, a senior from Cedar Rapids, said Kuusisto has a good sense of humor and puts students at ease. In class, Fritts and Grady said, students must interact more because Kuusisto can’t see their faces. “You have to engage vocally, you can’t just nod along,” Grady said.

  Kuusisto said he addresses his blindness with students immediately, though he jokes that walking in with his guide dog, a yellow Lab named Nira, is a tipoff. “I tell them one of the best strategies for talking to a blind professor is never raising your hand,” he said.

  “It leads to an informal, open class discussion atmosphere.” Software turns Kuusisto’s laptop into a talking computer that reads e-mail and student assignments. Typing is easy, he said, because the computer reads back what he writes.

  Blindness shapes his teaching and writing, giving him interesting stories he tells from the perspective of “sightseeing by ear,” Kuusisto said.

  He also serves as an example that resources, technology and opportunities exist for people with disabilities and, specifically, for the blind.

  That’s important because, Kuusisto said, about 70 percent of blind people remain unemployed regardless of education level. “Blindness is a disability that demands that you find intelligent, useful accommodations at all times, but it’s not a life-limiting disability,” he said.

¦ Contact the writer: (319) 339-3158 or diane.heldt@gazcomm.com