Using mobile technology, a blind law student levels the playing field
by Julie Sinclair Eakin, Staff Editor
"There's a myth about blind people that they have better hearing and a more acute sense of touch," says Robert Antunez. "Actually it's just something you develop when you need it. Being blind means you focus on different things."
Since losing his sight at age 13, Antunez-by his own example-has unconsciously focused on dispelling other misconceptions, namely that handicapped persons cannot compete equally in school and the workplace. As a full-time, first-year law student at the University of West Los Angeles (UWLA) who maintained a 3.5 grade point average throughout his undergraduate years at UCLA, Antunez' distinctions go a long way in supporting his view.
The only blind student in three different high schools he attended in Los Angeles, he won honors both athletically (for his participation on the wrestling team) and scholastically. "They did me a great service back then, trying to integrate me fully into the rest of the school community," he says. Indeed, it was this experience of success during those years directly after losing his sight that gave Antunez the drive to pursue his current goal of becoming a lawyer.
He is quick to point out, however, that he has had a lot of help along the way: The 33-year-old relies on his wife Lilia, whom he has known since the seventh grade, for inspiration and guidance. Although declared legally blind herself, Lilia is partially sighted, and apart from not being able to drive, she's very independent. These days, Antunez has all but given up using a white cane in favor of resting his arm around her shoulder as they walk together. "She's been there throughout everything," he explains. "She's been my eyes for 20 years. She cooks and irons for me and does anything I need that will allow me to study."
A less romantic attachment, but one that is not to be underestimated according to him, is Antunez's reliance on an augmented laptop computer for note taking. "Without it, it would be impossible for me to be in school," he says.
UCLA's Disabilities and Computers department furnished him with the Toshiba 1000SE equipped with a voice synthesizer during his tenure there. Antunez holds boundless gratitude for Director Danny Hilton-Chalfen and his assistant Guido Grimaldi, who trained Antunez to use the equipment, thereby providing invaluable support for the political science major he earned as a Bruin. "The computer has greatly boosted my confidence in my abilities," he explains.
While at UCLA, Antunez typed his notes during class using WordPerfect, and later studied by listening to "Flipper," an automated voice program that played them back. He was able to adjust the keys to control the voice, making it higher or lower, speeding it up or slowing it down.
Antunez had used a Braille-writer since his high school years. But with that machine, which is much like a typewriter but features only the six keys necessary to form letter combinations in Braille, the process of transcribing notes and reading them back was too slow.
"I didn't have the right technology a few years ago, but now I'm practically at the same level with everyone else," he explains in praise of his upgrade. "The computer has really liberated me. I can write my own papers and print them out. I feel completely equal and I can't tell you how good that feels."
Antunez is eagerly anticipating the arrival of his borrowed computer's replacement, another Toshiba laptop purchased by the state's Rehabilitation Department-and one he'll be able to keep. In the meantime, he relies on a classmate's notes and a reader provided by the university. His law texts are recorded by Recordings for the Blind, an organization of largely retired volunteers with an expertise in the subjects they read. He uses a special recorder with various tones announcing page and chapter endings to locate and review reading assignments.
While he just entered law school last January, Antunez is already secure with his decision. "This place really accommodates me and I'm getting the attention I need to succeed," the father of four explains. He justifies a three-hour bus ride across town in each direction because the law program at UWLA is designed for people like him, adults with families and jobs (to make a living, Antunez plays keyboards in a Latin band at local nightclubs). The university provides morning and evening classes and allows its small student body-there are just 35 persons in his class-more time to receive their degree. Antunez is the first blind student there, and he believes the professors and administration have gone to great lengths for him: As an example, he cites a 100-page orientation handout that the dean himself read and recorded for Antunez as the consummate welcome gesture.
"I want to start as a public defender because I really want to help people," says Antunez about his plans upon graduation. "I've always been on the receiving end and I'd like to help others more than I do." Antunez, who is Mexican-American, believes that being bilingual is one of his strongest assets; he thinks his blindness, which he feels allows him to be more impartial than most people, may also serve him well in his career. "I base everything on what someone says and how they say it, not what they look like or how they dress," he says. "I think people feel more comfortable talking to me because I'm not looking at them and they know it's what they think and feel that's important to me. I think I can get to know a client for who they are and not be convinced by some other standard."
His unique perspective is especially refreshing within a profession that suffers from a reputation for insensitivity. Eventually, Antunez would like to pursue the idea of becoming a judge or possibly returning to his alma mater to teach law. "It was so hard to leave UCLA because I knew it inside out," he says.
Whether Antunez will have a hand in changing public opinion about the legal profession remains to be seen. But it's clear that many of us would do well to follow his lead and focus on the things that matter by looking at our lives "from the inside out" more often.
Copyright, 1994 by Cowles Business Media and all rights are reserved.
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