Before I answer this question, I would like to first thank all the commentators for their interest in my disability and their questions about the obstacles I have faced.
I lost my vision gradually throughout my childhood so that, while I could still read large print when I was ten or eleven, I could not when I was thirteen. Using a cane became necessary in my junior year of high school.
By the time I went to college (Brandeis) and grad school (Harvard) I was totally blind.
I started at Brandeis in 1968. These were the pre-personal computer dark ages. For all people, the personal computer has radically changed their lives; for blind folks, this change is downright revolutionary.
I've heard it said that the ideal political candidate is the individual who neither wants nor needs to hold public office. Instead, the ideal candidate is the individual who serves simply because he or she feels a civic and moral responsibility to do so.
This individual is Dennis Shulman, a Democrat running for New Jersey's fifth congressional district seat in the United States House of Representatives.
So, who exactly is this ideal candidate? As a longtime student in Dennis's classes and congregant at his services, I believe I'm in a unique position to answer this question.
