{"id":30,"date":"2012-05-08T23:42:06","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T03:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denielliott.com\/?page_id=30"},"modified":"2026-08-26T12:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T16:51:31","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/a>
Photo by Kristine Paulsen Photography<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Welcome to my website.<\/p>\n

You will find pages of academic writings to explore. So please be tolerant while I gush a little about my new NON-ACADEMIC book, Catching Sight, how a guide dog helped me see myself<\/em>. The book was published by Beacon Press<\/a> and released in print, large print, and audiobook on June 16, 2026.<\/p>\n

The book is the story of Alberta, a yellow Labrador Retriever born at Guiding Eyes for the Blind<\/a> and how she grew to become my guide dog. It is the story of the long road I took from denial to acceptance of my visual impairment. I needed to do that before Alberta could change my life. Catching Sight<\/em> covers a variety of issues including disability and ableism, dog cognition, interspecies relationships, and, of course, ethics. I wrote the book in collaboration with my Guiding Eyes for the Blind instructor, Graham Buck. Graham now runs a private business that builds relationships between dogs and their people, Buck\u2019s Best Dogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Catching Sight<\/em> was recently named one of the 10 adult picks for Dog Days of Summer by Penguin Random House. It has won the 2026 Lieberg-Metz Media Award for how it has made a \u201cpositive difference in the lives of guide dog teams.\u201d Guide Dog Users Inc., an affiliate of American Council of the Blind, chooses the annual award recipient.<\/p>\n

\"Catching<\/a>I am enjoying the different foci reviewers and podcast hosts bring to the discussion with me about Catching Sight<\/em>. The book has broader appeal than I expected. Some journalists, like Duncan Strauss, host of WMNF Radio\u2019s Talking Animals show, focus on the intelligence of guide dogs and their special brand of partnership with humans<\/a>. \u00a0Others, like USF journalist Arielle Stevenson<\/a> and Black Hills Pioneer journalist Sierra Ferguson<\/a> track my journey to accept visual impairment as part of my identity. \u00a0Still others, like LitHub, that ran an excerpt from the book\u2019s second chapter<\/a>, presents my ethical dilemma of choosing between disclosure and deception. An up-to-date list of podcasts and publications relating to the book can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to my website. You will find pages of academic writings to explore. So please be tolerant while I gush a little about my new NON-ACADEMIC book, Catching Sight, how a guide dog helped me see myself. The book was published by Beacon Press and released in print, large print, and audiobook on June 16, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/elliott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}