[nfb-talk] Washington Post Reports Passing of Blind Advocate

[David Andrews]

I was shocked too.  I had been talking to him, I 
am going to China for work, and in his usual 
style he was telling me who I should see, trying to fix me up with women etc.

Dave

At 08:15 AM 7/13/2009, you wrote:
>Hello David,
>
>Thanks so much for posting this terrific article about Harold.
>
>I was truly shocked by his death. I was glad I got to see him during a trip
>to D.C. in March.
>
>He was a good friend to many of us.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>
>
>Liz Campbell
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
>To: <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2009 8:44 PM
>Subject: [nfb-talk] Washington Post Reports Passing of Blind Advocate
>
>
>
> >
> > From the Washington Post:
> >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar 
> ticle/2009/07/11/AR2009071102578_pf.html
> >
> >
> >Advocate for Blind Helped Craft Disabilities Law
> >
> >By T. Rees Shapiro
> >Washington Post Staff Writer
> >Sunday, July 12, 2009
> >
> >Harold W. Snider, 61, a prominent advocate for the blind who helped craft
> >legislation that expanded the civil rights of Americans with disabilities
> >and
> >aided in the launching of an audible newspaper service, died June 26 at his
> >home in Rockville after a heart attack.
> >
> >While growing up in Jacksonville, Fla., Mr. Snider said he was forced out
> >of regular third-grade classes because he was blind. His parents sued the
> >Duval
> >County school system, and Mr. Snider became the first blind student in the
> >county to graduate from public school.
> >
> >The experience launched Mr. Snider's interest in advocacy, and in the
> >mid-1970s he reportedly became the first blind employee of the Smithsonian
> >Institution.
> >As a handicap program coordinator for the fledgling National Air and Space
> >Museum, he worked to make the facility a vivid experience for the
> >sight-impaired.
> >
> >
> >"You can't look at the spacecraft, so you touch it, or you hold a model of
> >it or a raised line picture of it," Mr. Snider told United Press
> >International
> >in 1976. "You can't see an airplane, so you hear its engine roar."
> >
> >In 1978, he started Access for the Handicapped, a District-based consulting
> >company for guidance on policy, technology and resources for people with
> >disabilities.
> >Through his company, he worked on projects for people with disabilities
> >around the world, including Zambia, Ecuador and South Korea.
> >
> >After Mr. Snider worked for the Republican National Committee on disability
> >issues, President George H.W. Bush appointed him in 1990 as deputy
> >executive
> >director of the National Council on Disability. In that role, he served as
> >a liaison among the council, the White House, Congress and the media.
> >
> >He also helped draft the sweeping Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990,
> >which broadened civil rights already protected in earlier legislation. The
> >act
> >guarantees protection of disabled people from discrimination in the public
> >and private sectors and regardless of whether agencies or businesses
> >receive
> >federal aid.
> >
> >After Mr. Snider left the council in 1992, he worked in conjunction with
> >the National Federation of the Blind to develop NFB-Newsline, a free
> >dial-to-listen
> >newspaper and magazine service that includes daily editions of The
> >Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall
> >Street Journal
> >among its more than 250 publications. It debuted in 1994 and claims more
> >than 50,000 users.
> >
> >In addition, Mr. Snider was a former chairman of Montgomery County's
> >Commission on People With Disabilities.
> >
> >Harold Wexler Snider, whose father was a dentist, was born Sept. 6, 1947,
> >in Jacksonville. He graduated in 1969 from Georgetown University's School
> >of Foreign
> >Service, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, but told
> >UPI that he was not allowed to take the Foreign Service examination because
> >of prejudice.
> >
> >In 1970, he received his master's degree in British imperial and
> >commonwealth history from the University of London and did postgraduate
> >work at the University
> >of Oxford.
> >
> >About this time, he married Gail Lovelace, a British woman who also was
> >blind. They divorced in 1994, the same year he married Linda Fossett. All
> >three
> >remained on good terms, with the two wives calling each other
> >"wives-in-law."
> >
> >Survivors include his second wife, of Rockville; two children from his
> >first marriage, David Snider of Alexandria and Ellen Underwood of Fairfax
> >County;
> >three stepchildren; his mother, Shirley Snider of Jacksonville; two
> >sisters; and three grandchildren.
> >
> >Mr. Snider collected antique phones and music boxes, played the accordion,
> >and spoke fluent French and Spanish. He was considered outspoken and
> >sometimes
> >called militant in his role as an advocate. But he also said he saw a value
> >in using humor to make sighted people feel comfortable around him.
> >
> >He said he was sometimes asked how blind people performed tasks such as
> >crossing the street, cutting a sandwich or, as the more curious would
> >ponder, having
> >sex.
> >
> >"I tell them I do it like everybody else," Mr. Snider told the New York
> >Times. "In the dark."
> >
> >© 2009 The Washington Post Company