View From the Chair

As I usually do on Sunday mornings, last week I was watching the CBS Face the Nation television show as I sipped my coffee. Bob Schieffer's guest was Mayor Bloomberg of New York City and the Mayor was commenting on the recent sequester issue facing the federal government. Mayor Bloomberg believed that President Obama should meet with all members of Congress, in fact, he said that the President should meet with as many people he can, whether he's playing golf, having dinner, or lunch with members of both sides of the House and Senate. The Mayor concluded by saying that being “social” at work is key to advancing different types of issues, business or political, as well as one’s career. When people meet socially, he said, people get to know you better and have the opportunity to trust you more than they usually would if not for the opportunity. So, how “social” can you be with a disability? As I look back on my 37-year career with IBM, 32 of which I spent as a

On March 4, the Viscardi Center announced the recipients of a new international Award designed to identify and honor people living with disabilities for their work and influence on the global disability community of more than one billion people. T he winners were: • Laurie Ahern, President, Disability Rights International, Washington, D.C. • Rosangela Berman Bieler, Senior Advisor on Children with Disabilities, UNICEF, New York City • Tony Coelho, former U.S. Rep. from California, primary sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 • Lex Frieden, Professor, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Biomedical Informatics; Director of the Independent Living Research Utilization program at TIRR Memorial Hermann • Yoav Kraiem, Chairman, National Council for Community Relations – Mental Health, Israel • U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin, Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District • Kathleen Martinez, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor,