The Inspiration
Stephen Kuusisto's Planet of the Blind
The Stephen Kuusisto's Planet of the Blind details his life as a blind man. His vision progressively gets worse and as a child his parents were in denial of his illness. Stephen covers his life in a memoir style with an emphasis on his blindness and how this impacted him especially as an adolescent and early adult. He faced adversity from childhood causing him to develop obesity and later anorexia but despite all this in addition to his blindness Stephen overcame. He graduated from the Iowa Writer's Workshop and later received a scholarship to study in Helsinki. Even this opportunity proved to challenge him as he Helsinki offered unwelcoming attitudes and a discouraging environment. Despite all the obstacles Stephen went on to write numerous books and poetry featured in the New York Times. He also went on to teach creative writing at the University of Iowa and acted as a public humanities scholar at the university’s Carver Institute of Macular Degeneration. Challenges Stephen faed and even continues to face as a blind man are exactly what ABLED is aiming to better. His story is one of success but often students with disabilities are not so lucky. They can face the same unsupportive family or peers that Stephen faced, but many never find a way out of the negativities emotions that accompany such scenarios. He felt unsupported and his parents were left uninformed but ABLED seeks to change this. It is the ABLED goal that these individuals find comfort and their peers become educated as more stories like Stephen's are shared.