Read transcript here.

With influences like Stephen King and Lemony Snicket, Robert Kingett, who was born blind and with cerebral palsy, realized at a young age that writing was a fantastic way to express himself.  Initially setting out to start his writing career as a journalist, Robert built up a portfolio by writing about anything and everything from human interest stories to sports coverage. While he had a solid plan for how to get noticed by the big local Chicago newspapers, it didn’t take long for Robert to realize that newspapers did not value the stories he wanted to write about.

As he considered how to pivot, blogging became an obvious way for him to express his opinions and educate people about topics surrounding the disability and the LGBTQ communities, a crossroads in which he sits at the intersection of.

His blog was a hit, but not with the audience he expected it to resonate with, and that opened up a number of unexpected doors for Robert. Now, he works as a web accessibility consultant as well as an expert witness for lawyers in accessibility cases. Between these jobs and his work in the Audio Description industry, Robert has built up a safety net that allows him to spend time writing works of fiction. These works allow members of his intersecting communities to see themselves reflected in the characters and hopefully, the stories will allow Robert to one day join the ranks of his esteemed childhood influences.

View video version here. In this panel, I talk about Disability and writing with other domestic violence survivors.

Captioned and ASL version here.

Robert Kingett talks about Artificial Divide and says a few words to other Blind writers.

About the book.

Step into a world of rogue screen readers, Braille in fantasy worlds, a friend meeting an acquaintance after several years, and more.

This #OwnVoices anthology features fiction by Blind and visually impaired authors showing readers how they thrive, hurt, get revenge, outsmart bullies, or go on epic adventures. Artificial Divide is an own-voices story collection that captures the many layers of Blindness and, for once, puts visually impaired protagonists in the driver’s seat, letting us glimpse their lives.

When we think about it, we’re not really divided.

Stories by Eunice Cooper-Matchett, Anita Haas, Rebecca Blaevoet, Tessa Soderberg, Laurie Alice Eakes, Melissa Yuan-Innes, Jamieson Wolf, Ben Fulton, Felix Imonti, Niki White, and M. Leona Godin

Originally produced by the Pulse on  AMI Audio.

Robert Kingett is the co-editor of Artificial Divide, a new collection of fiction by blind authors. We talk about the book, and some of the barriers faced by blind authors in the publishing industry.. This is the November 6, 2021 episode.

In this interview, we talk about the Artificial Divide anthology as well as the publishing industry and process. The episode webpage is below.

https://writingworkswonders.com/2021/09/19/ep-28-writing-works-wonders/ 

In this interview, we talk about how I can be an audio description writer as a totally Blind person.

Episode webpage.

Robert Kingett! Writer! Author! Accessibility advocate! Editor of a new book out this week called "Artificial Divide"

Christina speaks with Robert Kingett, a blind journalist, who began writing to inmates who are serving life sentences and on death row. He thought they would be more accepting than any other sighted person in his life,  knowing they would read his words and be able to look past his disability more than most people could.

This was published in the now defunct Dialog magazine. In this essay, I tackle the trend that sighted people were doing regarding blindfolding themselves for fun, and explain how that isn't helping Blindness advocacy.