Blind professor helps others see another side of disabilities


	Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Earlier in his career as a writer and college professor, Steve Kuusisto lost his job in a round of budget cuts. Blind since birth, Kuusisto contacted an agency that served people with impaired vision to ask for help transitioning to a new academic position.

Their advice to him: “There’s a factory down the road that makes plastic lemons. They hire blind people.”

Kuusisto managed to avoid the plastic lemon factory and shape an impressive career as an author, educator, and advocate for people with disabilities, a path that recently led him to The University of Iowa. He shares the story to illustrate a point: sometimes even those working to help people with disabilities consign the disabled person to a second-class, defective status.

That thinking is something Kuusisto is working to change.

Photo feature: Kuusisto and new guide dog Nira's first day of class

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Audio slide show: Kuusisto, Nira get acquainted with UI campus, each other

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Diversity festival bridges cultures

When he moved to Iowa City to begin postdoctoral work in 1999, Bahri Karacay wondered at times whether the Turkish music of his childhood would have a place in the middle of the Heartland.

As it turned out, Karacay found musical collaborators at The University of Iowa. His band, Turkana, will be among the participants of this year's Celebrating Cultural Diversity Festival, which will be held Sunday, Feb. 24, from noon to 5 p.m. in the University of Iowa Field House.

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