The excerpt below is courtesy of Inclusion Daily Express:
Obama Nominates Kathy Martinez To Employment Post
(Diversity, Inc.)
March 26, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt] Internationally recognized disability-rights leader Kathy Martinez was nominated for assistant secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) by President Barack Obama on March 20.
Martinez, who has been blind since birth, specializes in employment, asset building, independent living, international development, and diversity and gender issues from her work as executive director of the World Institute on Disability (WID). Her impressive résumé includes Proyecto Visión, WID’s National Technical Assistance Center to increase employment opportunities for Latinos with disabilities in the United States, and Access to Assets, an asset-building project to help reduce poverty among people with disabilities.
“As a Latina who is blind, I have first-person experience with the low expectations and assumptions of the majority culture,” Martinez says. “I have seen many disabled Latinos live down to these diminished expectations. They become overwhelmed by isolation, are disconnected from the service-delivery system and don’t have disabled Latino professionals to look up to or network with. Unfortunately, even those who do access resources often are not receiving appropriate service.”
Entire article:
Obama Nominates ODEP Asst. Secretary Kathy Martinez
http://www.diversityinc.com/public/5565print.cfm
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 