Customer Reviews

To the Left of Inspiration: Adventures in Living with Disabilities

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Respected psychologist Katherine Schneider, Senior Psychologist Emerita of the University of Wisconsin Counseling Service, who happens to be blind, has quite a story to tell. Make that stories. She offers us her arm and leads us behind the scenes through one revealing episode after another. This book should be in the curriculum of every university that educates psychotherapists and in the library of everyone interested in the human experience. Don't cheat yourself of the fascinating experience of reading this book.

In the late 1980's I regularly played Scrabble with the author and two other friends. We used Kathie's Braille imprinted Scrabble tiles and protected our snacks from her guide dog, Sugar's, sneak attacks. Most importantly, Kathie showed us, her sighted friends, what it was like to be blind and what, if any, help she needed.

This book, which was in its embryonic stages then, is the distillation of Kathie's experiences of living with blindness. Her wonderful sense of humor and knack for seeing (yes, seeing) the underlying reality of others' reactions to disabilities is enlightening for all of us. This book is a must read.

I would recommend this book to everyone whether they are living with a disability or not. In our lifetime, we will meet someone who lives with a disability, our parents will grow older and their abilities will decline or we may have to deal with a temporary disability as I did when I fell and broke my hip. I am also better able to understand and help my father who is slowly losing his sight to macular degeneration.

Insightful and light-hearted as well as educational -- I learned so much from reading Dr. Schneider's book. Her words are heart warming and it was a pleasure to read about all she has accomplished in her life and how she managed to do it so well. A very inspiring book written by a very inspiring lady.