You can have your own tech company and make bucket loads of money and
still be hammered by the attitudes found in the public about blindness.
the story below is one sad example of this.

kelly





Blind father a hit in business but must fight to raise daughter alone
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Paul R. "Bob" Clark is one of those people who seem to
have the world by the tail. He earns $400,000 a year from two computer
technology companies he founded and has a car and driver at his disposal.

Still, Clark is trying to convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that he's
capable of raising his young daughter alone. Clark, 54, is also blind.
"There is no doubt the father is very successful in business," said
attorney Russell T. Clarke Jr., who is representing Clark's former wife in
a custody dispute that was brought before the appellate court on Thursday.

"However, being successful in business or personal endeavors does not
equate to the ability to care for a child," Clarke told the court.
The case pits the rights of children to be adequately cared for against the
rights of the physically disabled to be free from discrimination.
Clark, who has been blind since birth, is contesting a Marion County
Superior Court order that gives him full legal custody of his 3-year-old
daughter, but requires the presence of "another responsible adult" anytime
he is with the child.

Clark's ex-wife, Anne T. Madden, contends court-imposed supervision would
simply ensure the toddler's safety. Clark argues that the order waswritten
too broadly and intrudes on his ability to engage in such family activites
as taking walks with his daughter, playing with her at the park, bathing
her and tucking her into bed at night -- things a parent usually does alone
with a child.

Clark already employs a live-in nanny at a cost of $45,000 a year. Extra
help is not the point. He wants to be the one to determine his childcare
needs, not the court. After all, blind parents raise children unsupervised
all the time, he contends.

"The stereotyped assumption on which this portion of the order rests
strikes fear into the hearts of blind parents everywhere," Baltimore
attorney Andrew D. Freeman, representing the National Federation of the
Blind, told the court Thursday.

Nearly 70 percent of blind parents in America are unemployed and raise
children without close supervision, Freeman said. Clark argues that the
order violates state law because there's no evidence that the child is in
danger in his care.

But Madden's lawyers countered that all the mother wants is an extra set of
eyes around when the child is with Clark, who alternates physical custody
with Madden every other week.

The order can be relaxed as the child matures, Madden's lawyers argued.
They said court-imposed supervision is necessary because Clark -- who cared
for the toddler alone only on a few occasions during his 4-year marriage to
her mother -- hasn't proven he can handle the challenge safely.

Anyone with a small child knows they can move around quickly -- and get
into trouble even more quickly. Madden and Clark filed for divorce in June
1998.

Still, Clark's lawyers painted a picture of a man who has transcended his
blindness. He traveled around North America in his younger days,
accompanied only by a guide dog. He managed to land a wrestling scholarship
to Ball State University despite his blindness. These days, his chief
financial officer, his business attorney and the child's nanny each often
forget he can't see.

And when a court-appointed psychologist playing a game of chess with Clark
once placed a chess piece on the board incorrectly, he did what any chess
enthusiast would do under the circumstances:  He corrected her.

Friday January 21, 2000


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