When is the last time you’ve read an honest, funny book about living with disabilities? To the Left of Inspiration: Adventures in Living with Disabilities is just such a book. Fifty-four million Americans have chronic illnesses or disabilities requiring them to make accommodations in the ways they live their lives. You may have students, customers, and clients with disabilities and want to interact with them knowledgeably and sensitively. Or perhaps you are adjusting to a new illness or disability and have accepted that it’s a whole new world you are entering. You’ll learn from a woman blind from birth about activities of daily life, like talking to children about disabilities, traveling, going to church, and working. Kathie’s life experiences highlight the warmth and humor in everyone’s struggles to be humane with each other, whether we are temporarily able-bodied or disabled. Disabilities can be more than adjusted to; they can be mined for pearls and Kathie shares some of hers with you. Kathie is a guide, familiar with the territory, who will walk beside you as you negotiate your new world. You won’t learn how to overcome your disability, but you will laugh in recognition and hope as you read To the Left of Inspiration. Come along with Kathie and her Seeing EyeT dog on their adventures; your life will be enriched. Katherine Schneider has been blind since her premature birth in 1949 and has had fibromyalgia for over ten years. She was the first blind student to graduate from the Kalamazoo, Michigan public school system in 1967 and was a valedictorian as well as a National Merit scholar. Three years later she graduated with honors from Michigan State University with a BS in psychology. After receiving her PhD in clinical psychology from Purdue University, she has worked at four universities: three of them public and one private. She has taught psychology courses from freshman psychology to the graduate level and has counseled, supervised, and administered university counseling services. Kathie has presented papers at national professional meetings and authored articles and book chapters on such topics as counseling people with disabilities and religion and visual impairment. She has won awards for her professional work from the Courage Center, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and the University of Wisconsin System Regents, among others. Katherine has recently retired and is enjoying serving on seven state and local boards (at least she’s never bored), reading novels, and trying to live the Red Hat® philosophy. She is proud to have been a Seeing EyeT dog user for the past thirty years.
