Shame and Denial About Blindness

“Books and Coffee” is an annual event that invites speakers to discuss books with students. This year, English professor Maren Linett – director of the critical disability studies program at Purdue – talked about, “Have Dog, Will Travel,” by Stephen Kuusisto.

The memoir is about Kuusisto’s life and him coming to terms to terms with living with blindness—in a less than accommodating society.

Professor Linett says that “For Kuusisto, the most disabling feature of his childhood was not his blindness, but his family’s denial of and shame about his blindness.” She adds that “This kind of disabling environment is what keeps people expending enormous psychological and physical effort to pass for ‘normal.’”

Please contact SDCB if you or someone you know is experiencing blindness.

“Living with a disability in a world that stigmatizes being disabled”