[nfbwatlk] A Blind Leader Adjusts, and So Does New York

[Alco Canfield]

Maybe he could put a taser on his cane.  (GRIN) 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces+amcanfield=comcast.net at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces+amcanfield=comcast.net at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Prows, Bennett (HHS/OCR)
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 6:58 AM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] A Blind Leader Adjusts, and So Does New York

Interesting.  Wonder how many less body guards and aides he could have if he
was able to use alternative techniques and skills of blindness.
Special treatment all the way.  But then again, governors probably all get
special treatment, so why shouldn't he.

Now, I wonder how many of those things he does that are considered
stereotypical blindness things are really done for the reasons listed in the
article, or something else.  For example, he sprinkles the salt in his hand.
Some folks know which shaker is which just by picking them up.  A salt
shaker is always heavier, even if there isn't as much salt in it.  (My
grandmother gets credit for teaching me that.)  But, sometimes I sprinkle
the salt to see how fast it flows from the shaker.
That's the real reason.  

The way reporters are recognized in a press briefing could be modified so he
could have more independence, but who cares.  He gets the job done.  I had a
blind law professor who used another person to recognize students when they
raised their hands.  I always thought that was a bit awkward, as he could
have asked the students to just call out their names as we do in Federation
meetings.  It works fine.  Nevertheless, this professor got along fine the
way he did it.

Anyway, I just wonder, how many less special or different things this
governor would need if he was versed in alternative techniques, etc.

Take nothing away from him though.  He's governor of one of the largest
states.


Bennett Prows
-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces+bjprows=comcast.net at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces+bjprows=comcast.net at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 8:42 PM
To: nfbw
Subject: [nfbwatlk] A Blind Leader Adjusts, and So Does New York

April 21, 2008
A Blind Leader Adjusts, and So Does New York By JEREMY W. PETERS ALBANY - It
is a phone number that just a handful of the governor's senior aides know.

At the end of each day they call in and record briefings, laying out what he
needs to know about the following day. 

They recite his schedule, read talking points and explain the intricacies of
issues likely to come up. They read memos from staff members and relate
biographical details about the people he is likely to meet.

Lots of governors rely on thick briefing books and helpful e-mail notes from
their staffs. New York's governor, David A. Paterson, who is legally blind,
has his ears and what his aides call his Batphone.

Usually at night, in the Executive Mansion or at his family's home in
Harlem, the governor listens to the recordings on the designated phone line.
They run up to five minutes each and can pile up quickly, taking hours to
absorb.

"Last night I had 43 messages, all of them five minutes in length," Mr.
Paterson said in an interview. "That would be 215 minutes worth of material
- over three hours." 

He stayed up that night from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. listening to the recordings,
which covered everything from his prepared remarks for a press conference on
energy to articles on economic growth in The Economist. But that was only
enough time to get through half of them. 

To the general public, the transition to a governor who is legally blind has
been almost imperceptible because Mr. Paterson, 53, acts in many ways like a
person with 20-20 vision.

He does not walk with a cane or read Braille. He threw out the first pitch
at a Mets game at Shea Stadium last week. And when he is in the Capitol's
familiar stone and marble corridors, where he has worked for two decades, he
walks at a brisk pace, slowing down only when an aide alerts him to someone
approaching. 

But behind the scenes, Albany is a different place since Mr. Paterson was
sworn in last month. With a blind man in charge - the governor can see
nothing out of his left eye and only color and large objects out of his
right - everything from speech preparation to the instructions for the staff
at the governor's mansion has been custom-fitted to Mr.
Paterson's needs.

"Now that he's governor, it's a whole new ball game," said Assemblyman Keith
L. T. Wright of Harlem, who has known Mr. Paterson since they were boys.

Since he cannot read from a prompter, the governor tries to commit his
speeches to memory, by listening several times to an aide's recording of the
speech. Delivering an address just from memory can be nerve-racking.

"It's like a high wire," he said. "You trip, there's no net."

He travels with a phalanx of assistants, typically a half-dozen, including
aides and bodyguards, who act as a buffer zone around him in large public
settings, from hotel ballrooms to school classrooms. The bodyguards gently
steer him, often with a hand on his back or arm, toward an exit or into a
waiting vehicle.

At news conferences in the Capitol's ceremonial Red Room, it is not the
governor but his press secretary, standing just to the side of the lectern,
who calls on reporters, reminding them to state their names and affiliations
before asking a question.

Glad-handing a crowd poses a challenge for Mr. Paterson because he cannot
fully make out people as they approach him. So when his aides spot someone
they recognize coming toward him, they tell him who it is.
He instructs the aides not to whisper, but to speak in their normal tone of
voice, because he wants the exchanges to appear as ordinary as possible.

Mr. Paterson, a Harlem Democrat who has been blind since infancy, has been
making adjustments to his surroundings throughout his life. But, with the
added demands of the job of governor and the relentlessness of his new
schedule, staying on top of his work now takes a lot more time.
He said much of his day can feel like a big game of catch-up. "I'm always
trying to get back that time that I'm losing," he said.

Given the volume of material he must take in, he tries to find ways to do
things faster. He listens to very long articles or books on a special tape
recorder for the blind that plays at speeds so fast, it is difficult for
others to comprehend. "You get used to listening to that Alvin and the
Chipmunks voice," he said.

At the Executive Mansion, staff members have been trying to keep up with the
needs of their new boss. They were instructed shortly after he moved in last
month to watch the level of his drink during receptions and offer him a
refill if it looked too low. He was still learning the layout of the house
and could not find the bar easily.

Mr. Paterson has told the staff not to move any of the furniture in the
40-plus-room home on his account, and has said that he will learn where
everything is. 

He is used to adapting, in big and small ways. When he wants more salt on
his food, he takes the shaker and sprinkles its contents into his hand first
so he can feel whether he actually has the salt, and not the pepper, which
is less chunky to the touch. When he jogs through his former neighborhood in
Guilderland, near Albany, he runs the same route each time. He purposely
avoids Route 146 because of the gullies that run along the side of the road.

"The secret is how to adjust," he said. "I ask myself how am I going to fit
into this world, and how am I going to do it without killing myself." 

As a baby, he suffered from a condition known as optic atrophy, which
damages the optic nerve. His parents decided not to send him to school in
New York City, where teachers could not promise that he would be able to
interact with students who were not blind. So they sent him to school on
Long Island, where he received special attention but also learned with
students who were not disabled.

The minimal sight in his right eye - in which his vision is 20/400 - affords
him a limited ability to read. If he holds a book very close to his eye, he
can make out the words. And he said he will occasionally write himself
reminder notes. But reading is so straining that it tires him after only a
few minutes.

His reliance on his hearing has helped him sharpen a talent useful in
politics: an ability to focus on people in a way that makes them feel that
they were truly heard. His attentiveness to people's voices has other
political benefits, too.

"He can pick up a phony faster than somebody who has sight," said
Assemblyman Wright.

He also uses humor to poke fun at his disability, offering anecdotes about
how he once showed up at a press conference wearing two different-colored
shoes, or how as a young man he would occasionally miscount the number of
subway stops on his way home and get off at 145th Street instead of 135th
Street. "Back in the '80s, you didn't want to go there at night," he said,
laughing. 

Although Mr. Paterson often says he does not want people to go out of their
way for him, he says society should recognize that he and other blind people
cannot do everything on their own.

As one of his first acts as governor, he added instructions to his official
state Web site on how to enlarge the type on the screen.

"It's just being more sensitive to people who feel that government and
institutions ignore them," he said.


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