Blind People

For Philadelphia's captains of hospitality, it might be the biggest challenge since last summer's Republican National Convention: making the city homey for one week, starting tomorrow, for more than 3,500 blind people. There's educating Center City police officers, and anyone else in the area, about how to help people who are blind cross the street. (Don't grab anyone's arm; they will ask and reach for yours.) There's informing cab drivers that state and federal laws require them to carry guide dogs.

For a man who was totally blind, Ercole J. Oristaglio lived a life filled with uncanny vision. "Blindness is in the eyes and not in the spirit," Oristaglio used to say. "You can accomplish anything that you set out to do. " Oristaglio, a retired social worker and former machine operator, employment counselor and deli owner who played golf, bowled, organized sporting events and advocated for the visually handicapped, died at Nazareth Hospital...

Lawsuit over the blind and accessibility of ATMs I would like to commend you on your coverage (Inquirer, June 4) of the lawsuit brought against Mellon Bank and PNC Bank by the National Federation of the Blind. This is an issue of great importance to blind people everywhere in this country. I have written several articles on the topic of ATM accessibility and would like to clarify a few points: Braille keypads do not make ATMs accessible to blind people because they cannot read the text display screen for entering the required information.

When James Realey was growing up in West Philadelphia during the Depression, his neighbors would not leave him alone. Times were tight, and Realey, as everybody knew, could repair just about anything. He fixed vacuum cleaners, tightened leaky faucets, and rewired lamps. "It just fell to my nature to be technically involved," Realey said. For the last 50 years, Realey has not kept his talents to himself. The retired phone company technician has helped the blind experience the thrill of cracking a line drive by building beeping softballs they can track and hit. And he has repaired some 400 "talking books" for the Library of the Blind and Handicapped in Trenton.

David Bitting's 20/450 vision, which distorts everything in his line of sight into a blurry muddle, would seem to render him incapable of performing even the simplest tasks found in many job descriptions. But through his participation in a job-readiness program offered by the Montgomery County Association for the Blind, Bitting has found that the biggest obstacles facing visually impaired job hunters are misconceptions among employers about what their limitations are and how easy it is to compensate for most of them.

Belting out songs from behind a piano, Michael Corman entertained diners at the Caribbean Crab restaurant in Oaklyn Saturday night. The crowd enjoyed the saloon crooner's rendition of Billy Joel's "Piano Man. " Yet the applause was a dubious honor, for Corman has the time to sing professionally because he cannot land a job in his chosen field. Corman, 35 and blind, passed the bar exam in Pennsylvania in 1991 and in New Jersey in 1992. He speaks four languages in addition to English and spent all of 1993 clerking for Judge Francis J. Orlando Jr. in Camden County Superior Court.

If you're blind, the second grader asked stage performer Renaldo, how come you wear sunglasses? It's a question that might have seemed rude to an adult listener. But Renaldo welcomed it and answered without hesitation. "I can't see faces or read printed material, but I can see shadows," Renaldo answered. "The dark glasses help me to see the shadows better," he said. Renaldo can answer the most difficult questions without having his feelings hurt because he is a puppet member of the Kids on the Block, a musical show designed to teach children about diversity.

Some struggles hide in the darkness of our bedrooms, the soundproofing of doctors' offices. We don't admit the pain to others, even when the world flings jokes at our troubles. Viagra has become such a joke. But my friend does not laugh. She met her future husband when both were just north of 50. She loved him in a way she had never imagined. This wasn't the genitocentric ardor of youth. She'd felt that before, only to discover that sexual compatibility rarely comes with emotional communication.

With the sweat from a four-lap race drying in her blond curls, Elizabeth Bottner snickered when she recalled how her first-grade gym teacher "stuck" her on the bleachers for an entire school year. "I was bored," the blue-eyed 13-year-old said, her fingers fidgeting with the handle of her red-tipped white cane. "They didn't know what to do with me because I'm not able to see. " Elizabeth's tale echoed those told by many of the athletes at the 11th annual Mae Davidow Northeast Games for the Blind, held over the weekend at Cabrini College and the track at Conestoga High School.

Yikes. Not only was Steven Spielberg being stalked, but the ex-con tailing him had gruesome plans to sexually assault the famous filmmaker, according to court documents just released in Los Angeles. In a transcript of grand jury proceedings held in October, a prosecutor said Jonathan Norman had admitted "this obsession with raping" the filmmaker. Norman, arrested July 11 near Spielberg's Los Angeles home, was allegedly toting a bag containing handcuffs, knives and duct tape.