[Ohio-talk] meet our national rep for this year's state convention Anil Lewis

[richard]

Anil Lewis 

(Counselor, Advocate, and Father)

Anil Lewis was born in 1964 in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the third of four
children. Both his older brother and older sister became legally blind at an
early age from retinitis pigmentosa. Lewis was originally labeled educably
mentally retarded but eventually became the first member of his family to
graduate from college. He has excelled academically, received many awards,
participated as a leader in many extracurricular activities, and received
several college scholarships. Although he was finally diagnosed at age nine
with retinitis pigmentosa, his vision was fairly unaffected until age
twenty-five.  
Currently employed as the Executive Director of the National Federation of
the Blind Jernigan Institute, located in Baltimore, Maryland, he coordinates
Outreach, marketing, and fund raising activities for a national non-profit
organization. He leads a Dynamic team of individuals responsible for the
creation, development, implementation, and replication of innovative
projects and programs throughout a nationwide network of affiliates that
work to positively affect the education, employment, and quality of life of
all blind people.  
Previously as the Director of Advocacy and Policy for the NFB, Lewis was
responsible for a variety of public Policy and strategic programs.  Most
notably, he was the legislative lead of the NFB's efforts to repeal Section
14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, an obsolete provision that allows
employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum
wage.  As the Director of Strategic Communications for the NFB, Lewis
coordinated the public relations campaign for the NFB's Blind Driver
ChallengeT, an innovative research project to develop nonvisual access
technology that will make it possible for a blind person to safely and
independently operate an automobile. 
As a sighted man he fairly easily found respectable employment with wages
high above the minimum wage. Then in 1989, while pursuing his bachelor's of
business administration in computer information systems at Georgia State
University (GSU), he became blind from retinitis pigmentosa. "All of a
sudden doors that had been open to me slammed shut." At that point, although
he had always considered himself socially aware, he became personally
acquainted with actual social injustice and discrimination. "I am ashamed
that only personal experience brought this awakening and decision to take
action. But I am proud that I did take action and remain committed today to
making a difference in the lives of others."
Lewis received blindness skills training while completing his course
requirements for his degree at GSU. He quickly learned the alternative
skills of blindness, including Braille, activities of daily living,
assistive technology, and use of the long white cane. He capitalized on them
to graduate with his bachelor's degree from Georgia State in 1993.  "It was
a struggle to regain the life that blindness had appeared to take from me.
Almost everyone who had once respected me now pitied me, but I was
determined not to be redefined by my blindness." Armed with these new skills
and this new determination, he quickly became committed to ensuring that
others in similar situations could get appropriate training and unlimited
opportunities.
Lewis got a job as a Braille and assistive technology instructor. Within a
year he was given the greater responsibility of job development/placement
specialist, helping clients develop employment skills and get jobs. "I had
had no experience helping anyone other than myself get a job. I certainly
did not have expertise in job placement for blind people." It was during
this time that he first became aware of the National Federation of the
Blind. A friend referred him to the NFB when he had questions about Social
Security work incentives and needed information about tools and strategies
to help blind people obtain employment. As a result he attended his first
NFB convention in Chicago, Illinois, in 1995 and became aware of the
empowering philosophy and tremendous resource of the National Federation of
the Blind. The technical assistance materials produced by the NFB's Job
Opportunities for the Blind (JOB) program and the NFB's Social Security and
technical assistance information provided resources enabling him to
motivate, educate, and encourage other blind people to achieve successful
gainful employment. "My success as a job placement specialist was a direct
result of my ability to infuse NFB philosophy into the clients I worked
with." 
Lewis went on to develop and manage a job placement program for people with
disabilities as the manager of the Disability Employment Initiative with
Randstad Staffing, one of the largest employment staffing companies in the
world, during the Atlanta Olympic and Para-Olympic Games in 1996. From then
until early 2006 he was employed by the law offices of Martin and Jones as
the Georgia Client Assistance Program (CAP) counselor/advocate, representing
people with disabilities every day. He served as a disability consultant
working with companies in Georgia until 2010.
He became president of the Atlanta Metropolitan Chapter of the NFB of
Georgia in 2000 and was elected president of the NFB of Georgia in 2002. In
that year he also received the Kenneth Jernigan Memorial Scholarship, the
NFB's most prestigious award presented to a blind student, which he used to
obtain his master's degree in public administration with emphasis in policy
analysis and program evaluation from GSU in 2003. That year he was also
elected as a member of the National Federation of the Blind board of
directors. He received an Outstanding Alumnus award from GSU in 1997 and was
also a 2003 GSU Torch Bearer of Peace Award recipient.  In 2004, the
American Bar Association presented Lewis with their Paul G. Hearn Advocacy
Award.  In 2006 Lewis was named alumnus of the year by Leadership DeKalb, a
community leadership development organization in DeKalb County, Georgia.
Lewis is also a graduate of the Leadership Georgia program, class of 2008,
and the Greater Baltimore LEADERship program Class of 2015.
Lewis has dedicated his leadership skills to the development and growth of
disability rights organizations that promote independence and improved
quality of life. He was appointed by the governor as a board member and
served as president of the Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC) of
Georgia, an organization promoting independent living for those with severe
disabilities. He also served as the founding chairman of the board of
directors of the Disability Law and Policy Center (DLPC) of Georgia, which
used a variety of methods to influence and enforce disability policy. Lewis
was appointed by the Governor of Maryland and currently serves on the
Maryland Statewide Rehabilitation Council, which takes an active and visible
role in how Maryland's public vocational rehabilitation program is
administered. As a newly appointed board member of the American Association
of People with Disabilities, Lewis helps promote equal opportunity, economic
power, independent living, and political participation for people with
disabilities. He has also been appointed by President Obama as a member of
the Committee for Purchase from People who are Blind or Severely Disabled,
known as The U. S. AbilityOne Commission, which administers the AbilityOne
Program, a unique employment program sponsored by the Federal Government
serving the needs of people who are blind or have other significant
disabilities. 
All of these organizations recognize that people with disabilities are
integral, necessary members of society and reflect the world's normal
diversity. Further, each works to ensure that the policies and programs
developed for people with disabilities are created and implemented by people
with disabilities. By helping to develop and strengthen such institutions to
serve as a cornerstone in protecting the rights of people with disabilities,
he hopes to secure the commitment and support of others. He also hopes to
reduce the barriers people with disabilities face by encouraging the
implementation of public policy securing the rights and promoting the
responsible participation of the disabled as productive citizens.
Lewis volunteers as a teacher and mentor for blind kids, working with
promising blind students who, because of limited resources and lack of
trained professionals to teach them, are inappropriately encouraged to
pursue special education diplomas. He wants blind students to set higher
goals for themselves and to receive the training and tools they need to
acquire the skills to reach their full potential.
Speaking of his personal life, Anil Lewis says that his proudest
accomplishment is his bright, ambitious son Amari, born in 1997. Balancing
his many civic responsibilities with his personal life as a father is
undoubtedly his greatest challenge. His greatest success, he thinks, has
been overcoming the temptation to subside into becoming an unmotivated,
self-pitying person with a disability. He thinks his greatest contribution
so far has been to encourage other people with disabilities to believe in
themselves and to understand that they can make a difference.
Lewis says that lack of awareness of individuals with traits outside
society's accepted norms promotes extreme ignorance, which in turn results
in unjustified fear, negative stereotypes, and discrimination. In an effort
to combat that ignorance, he aggressively recruits, refers, and supports
other like-minded people to become active in the National Federation of the
Blind and other organizations in the disability rights movement. He hopes to
promote social change by fostering the active participation of more people
with disabilities in every facet of society, thereby replacing ignorance
with understanding, fear with awareness, and negative stereotypes with
mutual understanding. In the process he believes that we will eliminate
discrimination against people with disabilities. "With a working knowledge
of most disability law and policy and extended experience in advocating for
the rights of others, I am committed to improving the quality of life for
all people with disabilities by working to remove the barriers of ignorance
while creating equal opportunities for all. My personal mission is simple: I
want to make a positive difference in the lives of others."