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About a year ago, Stephen Kuusisto said “hello” to a professor in an elevator in a Syracuse University building. The professor didn’t acknowledge Kuusisto’s greeting.
Kuusisto, who is blind, said “hello” a second time, and the professor still didn’t respond. But when some students stepped onto the elevator, the professor went on to talk to them. Kuusisto confronted the professor outside the elevator, where the professor said they didn’t have to talk to people they didn’t want to.
“From my perspective, that was outright ableism,” said Kuusisto, director of interdisciplinary programs and outreach at the Burton Blatt Institute.