Another Patterson article
RA’s Note: Here is another article from today’s Democrat and Chronicle about incoming Governor Paterson. It is a decent article, with a number of quotes from me. Note though, that I am a Systems Advocate, not a Systems Analyst, even if it does have a nice ring to it. 
Blind share hopes for Paterson’s role
Rene Latorre is legally blind, but she says her vision impairment is just another personal trait that has nothing to do with her successful career.
“It’s a characteristic like my hair color, my height. … To me, it’s no big deal,” said Latorre, director of advocacy for consumer concerns at the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. “I’ve achieved what I’ve achieved because I’m driven and I haven’t taken no for an answer.”
The same should go for New York Lt. Gov. David Paterson, Latorre said: His rise to the governor’s office might make him a role model for blind people, but it should just be a “sidebar.”
Paterson will be sworn in as governor at 1 p.m. Monday after Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation takes effect. Paterson will serve the remaining three years of Spitzer’s term.
“It seems like there’s so much focus on (Paterson’s) blindness …, but to me it’s ‘Is he a leader that is going to move the state forward?’” said Latorre, who lives in Brockport.
The National Federation of the Blind hopes Paterson’s tenure as governor will be a watershed.
“Despite the obvious successes of blind people in politics and other realms, the blind still face a situation where society has very low expectations for us and we are perceived as unable to do very much,” said spokesman Chris Danielsen. “Whenever a blind person reaches a high-profile position, it’s helpful to the rest of us and generates the idea that we are capable of doing anything we set our sights on, just as everybody else is.”
As an infant, Paterson was blinded by an infection. He has optic atrophy, a degeneration of the fibers of the optic nerve. He has no vision in his left eye and 20/400 vision in his right.
Paterson does not use a guide dog or a cane. His aides at work leave him long voice messages and record speeches so he can memorize them. He plays basketball, can recognize people from a few feet away and has run a marathon.
During a press conference on Thursday, Paterson said he’s “privileged, proud and flattered” to be a role model and gratified by “whatever extent my presence will impress upon employers or impress upon young people who are like me.”
Anita Cameron shares that hope. A systems analyst for the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester, she is legally blind and uses a wheelchair.
She longs for the day when “it won’t be a big deal for people to see someone with a disability at work and it won’t be amazing for people to see us out there doing all of the normal things other people do.”
Kim Klein of Rochester has been in the computer technology and programming business for almost 18 years. Born legally blind, his poor vision has progressively worsened over the years. But he has adapted, relying on a few tools and programs that translate written text to sound and continuing to do the same kind of work he did with better vision.
Klein, an adaptive technology administrator for ABVI, never fully learned to read Braille. He lost his sense of colors or shapes about eight years ago but can still sense some light differences, such as whether it is sunny or cloudy outside.
Not everyone has been as fortunate to have the tools that Klein has at his job site, said Cameron, 42, of Rochester.
Cameron, who has college degrees in biology and computer information systems, was unable to find work in her chosen fields after graduating, a problem she said many people with disabilities face.
So she now fights for more opportunities, access, education, transportation and affordable housing for people with disabilities, she said, adding that she hopes Paterson’s high profile will draw attention to the needs of disabled people.
“My disability, my own blindness is just an inconvenience,” she said. “So many people with disabilities have the same gifts I have but haven’t been able to work because the supports and services aren’t there.”
While there is some hope among disability advocates that these issues will become more prominent because of Paterson’s own disability, Klein said it will be a tough sell.
“I would expect that some accessibility issues will have more attention, but maybe not,” he said, since any statutory change would first have to pass the Legislature.