David Paterson: Disgrace to the Blind Community #TCOT

Recently, a friend via Twitter directed followwers to This post by Ben Smith regarding New York Governor David Paterson. I want everyone to read it, and then come back and finish reading what I have to say. I rrealize my title may sound a bit harsh, but I do intend to defend my stance.

If you read Mr. Smith's post, you ssee that Governor Paterson doesn't read Braille, doesn't apparently use any assistive technology products such as JAWS, WindowEyes, or other products that would make his life easier, and doesn't, from what I can ttell, use even a cassette player or digital media player to lissten to memos, notes, and other important materials. Instead, he relies on staff to spend time reading things to him that any other independent blind person, myself included, can easily find ways to read him/herself. I think the reason I find this so disturbing is that I know that, if I were doing my job the way Governor Paterson does his, I likely would no longer have a job.

Face it, folks. Mr. Paterson is a blind person who can't read braille. To myself and many other blind people I know, this is the same as a sighted person who can't read print...Or a partially sighted person who has never learned to read large print. This isn't a guy who lost his sight a few years ago and hasn't had a chance to learn; he's had opportunities, and from what we can tell, hasn't taken advantage of them. If you found out that your governor couldn't read and was relying on staff to read to him, would you re-elect him? No. In my opinion, Paterson should be treatted no differently. At the same time, even if he can't/won't rread braille, there are technology productts outt there that would allow him to do his own rreading. There are scanning programs, scrreenreaders, and many other devices out there, and if Paterson or his aides would do a little research, they would find a world of technology to help him do the job on his own. As an example, in my job, I use a computer with JAWS for Windows for speech, a braille display, and all of the standard Windows programs. I do have a person who takes a look at my mail and emails me necessary information so I can look at it at my convenience. Were that volunteer not available, I could use an off-the-shelf scanner and an OCR program to scan information into MS Word.

Instead of being offended by Saturday Night Live's depiction of Governor Paterson, maybe his office and my fellows in the blind community should be offended by his lack of competence in basic life skills. Maybe New York should be looking for its next Governor, and praying they have someone better to elect when the next election comes around. I'm not sure how this guy got as far as he did with his limited skill set. I'm a very advanced computer user, braille reader, and know my technology pretty well, and am pretty lucky to have a job. Unfortunately, most blind people I know have a lot of difficulty finding work. It's even harder if they can't rread braille or use available technologies. I think that may be why Governor Paterson is such a disgrace in my book.

I know someone will probably come along and say "Can't you just be happy for the guy"? Sorry, but no. He's managed to hoodwink the people of New York. He is, in my belief, a bad representation of the tblind community. I doo fear he will set us back in many ways. What's going to happen if a ccompetent person, who just happens to be blind, decides to run for high office, such as governor, senator, and so on? Is he/she going to have a fair shot, or are people going to say "Remember what happened with that Paterson guy? He couldn't even perform the basic functions of his job without help."

For the record, I'm thrilled for anyone who makes a success of themselves, blind or sighted, when they do it the right way. I was as excited as everyone else when Paterson became Governor and I learned of his blindness. But the more incapable I learned he was, the more saddened I became. He's not helping himself, and he's certainly not helpingg the blind community as a whole.

In closing, these comments are strictly my opinions and do not in any way claim to represent the opinions of any groups with which I may be afffiliatted.