April 27, 2018
University Professor and Burton Blatt Institute’s Director of Interdisciplinary Programming Stephen Kuusisto interviewed on PBS News Hour and WABE in Atlanta
Syracuse University Professor and the Burton Blatt Institute’s Director of Interdisciplinary Programming Stephen Kuusisto’s recently released Book “Have Dog Will Travel Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey” elaborates on his enlightening experience of having a service dog. Kuusisto, 63, was born with a condition that left him legally blind which he describes as “having Vaseline smeared on a lens”. This condition convinced him to obtain a guide dog in his late 30s.
As a child Kuusisto was not encouraged to embrace his disability and was forced by family to keep his disability hidden. This has influenced his outlook as an advocate for disability rights. In his book, Kuusisto compares having a guide dog to his poetry. In a PBS News Hour interview on April, 20th, 2018 he mentions how a whole new world of possibilities opened for him after getting Corky his first guide dog. He describes going to Manhattan, riding the subway and feeling secure.
Kuusisto describes training with Corky as a deeply spiritual experience. As he wrote the book he saw how writing and traveling with a guide dog made him a more curious and outgoing person.
Kuusisto also recently interviewed on the NPR station in Atltanta, wabe.org
About the Burton Blatt Institute
BBI reaches around the globe in its efforts to advance the civic, economic, and social participation of people with disabilities, with offices in Syracuse, NY, New York City, Washington, D.C., Lexington, KY, and Atlanta, GA. BBI builds on the legacy of Burton Blatt, a pioneering disability rights scholar, to better the lives of people with disabilities. For more information about BBI, visit: https://bbi.syr.edu