[Nfbf-l] ODEP Assistant Secretary

[A. Ogden]

Thought you'd find the following interesting...please forgive in advance if
you already have this information...

Obama Nominates ODEP Asst. Secretary Kathy Martinez


March 23, 2009 

 

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 ré sumé 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. 

 

She was also responsible for leading the team that produced the acclaimed
international webzine Disability World ( <http://www.disabilityworld.org/>
www.disabilityworld.org <http://www.disabilityworld.org/> ) in both English
and Spanish.

 

"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."