This is Access Awareness Week, and Dr. Kenneth Jernigan is in Bermuda to give a series of addresses on the subject of blindness under the auspices of the Ministry of Community & Cultural Affairs. Born blind in 1926, Dr. Jernigan has enjoyed a varied and distinguished career. From early beginnings as a furniture builder and English teacher at the Tennesssee School for the Blind, he has gone on to garner a host of prestigious honours and awards for his work in connection with the blind, among them the Distinguished Service Award from his President in 1990.

He has served as a special consultant to a White House conference on the disabled, and also the Smithsonian Institution. He has authored more than a hundred articles and monographs on blindness and public affairs, and was editor of the Braille Monitor for 15 years. Director of the National Centre for the Blind since 1978, Dr. Jernigan lists gardening and his kittens as his favourite pastimes.

If there's one thing Dr. Kenneth Jernigan dislikes it's "cutesy, thoroughly yukkish'' names for physical imperfections. So don't ever call him "sight impaired,'' "visually challenged,'' or "hard of seeing.'' "I am a blind person. That is how people think of me, and that is what I am,'' he says very firmly.

In fact, there are many things which Dr. Jernigan does not like about society's concepts of, attitudes towards, and treatment of those who may be less than whole. To him blindness is simply a human characteristic, not a disability, and he notes that all characteristics have their limitations.

"There are times when being a man is a distinct disadvantage, for example.

Some people will say, `Well sure, but if you're blind you can't drive a car'.

"True, I can't drive a car, but neither can the President of the United States, because the Secret Service won't let him.

"As a man, I can't have a baby. At least half the population falls into that category. If I am blind I just have to find other ways to accomplish what I want to do.'' It is precisely this attitude which has taken Dr. Jernigan so far and so successfully along life's road.

Certainly, he doesn't want anyone feeling sorry for him, deferring to him, or treating him any differently to people who have all their abilities.

"We cannot hide, or pretend our blindness doesn't exist. We have got to make people understand that it is respectable to be blind,'' he stressed.

But surely Access Awareness Week is a time to reflect on some of the problems the blind encounter in life? "If you are going to talk about the problems of the blind, you have to start at a more basic level,'' he said. "The real question is: Is blindness a physical problem, or is it really an attitudal problem on the part of society and the blind person him or herself?'' Dr. Jernigan contends that most of the blind's problems are attitudinal -- their own, and society's. He admits that the issue of full integration into society is a complex one, for which there are no easy solutions.

"If you put it in general, individual terms, almost everybody says they favour `mainstreaming' and full integration, but most everybody doesn't believe that,'' he said.

There are employers, for example, who won't hire the blind because they believe it will cost them money, and blind people who believe they are unemployable because of their disability.

To the first Dr. Jernigan responded: "Any human characteristic costs society money.'' Citing his hotel room windows as an example, he said: "I don't open them because I prefer the air-conditioning, and I cannot see out of them, so they are of no use to me. But because there are people who want to open windows, and who want to enjoy the view, hotels put them in.

"Windows add to the cost of a building, its maintenance, and higher hotel rates, so even though I am blind, the cost of my room includes paying for windows for those who have the characteristic of sight.'' Born blind, Dr. Jernigan has spent a lifetime developing his capabilities and using them in a constructive way.

Today, he is a much-respected author, lecturer, and authority on blindness-related issues, and travels the world in the course of his work.

His curriculum vitae reveals an impressive career path which has taken him everywhere from the classroom to prestigious consultancies and commencement addresses. As a globetrotting public speaker, Dr. Jernigan's views on the positive approach to independent living and first class citizenship for the blind are much in demand.

Anyone who comes to hear him expecting messages of sympathy or false hope, however, will be disappointed.

A very positive thinker with a "can do'' approach to life, Dr. Jernigan is also a realist. He knows that solutions must be carefully worked out, and progress made in increments, not overnight -- and certainly not for political expediency.

"It doesn't matter how much money you put into trying to make blind people equal, you cannot do it in one step. You cannot do it immediately any more than you can make any other minority group equal in a single act or within a day. Change is a gradual process. Those who insist that it be otherwise are retarding the process, not helping it,'' he said.

Indeed, some may find his responses surprising, like the member of Congress who wanted Dr. Jernigan to testify before a committee planning to spend millions on making the Washington, DC subway accessible for the blind.

After asking a few pertinent questions, Dr. Jernigan told the Congressman the project would not be a good return on their investment. Instead, he suggested that it would be cheaper to invest the proposed sum, and use the interest to pay for taxis or limousines to be at the beck and call of the estimated number of blind people who would benefit from such a modification.

Which is not to suggest that he is unsympathetic to the difficulties of the blind, but he is also a pragmatist.

Noting that the blind are unemployed or seriously under-employed (it is 70 per cent in the US), he says part of the problem is the attitude of the blind themselves.

"A blind person might be trained from early childhood to believe he doesn't belong in the regular workplace. And if he has broken down that barrier at the outset of his career, the next would be thinking he should be content to remain on the first rung of the ladder,'' Dr. Jernigan said.

"If he successfully got past that barrier, there would always be others -- pressure against advancement, against doing a particular job, and a constant attitude of inappropriateness.

"Many blind people believe they are incapable of changing things, so after a while it becomes true.'' Then, too, there are those who are content to remain in their own little niche away from the mainstream work force, and still others who dissociate themselves with blind people knowing that society is not fully accepting of their blindness.

While such attitudes don't help the overall cause, they have to be accepted, Dr. Jernigan said.

Of course, employers have their own faults and prejudices, which must also be addressed if progress is to be made.

"I truly believe that blind people can compete equally with others. There are times when I failed to get what I wanted but it wasn't because of my blindness,'' Dr. Jernigan asserted.

In any case, he noted, "no two people compete in exactly the same way''.

"It doesn't make any difference whether you are blind or not blind, male or female, you have a unique blend of characteristics. The question is: does your blend of characteristics allow you to compete on terms equal with other people with their own blend of characteristics? "Life is competition. There are not enough things in the world to satisfy all the things you want. If we were satisfied in every way, we would create new wants because human beings are like that.

"It doesn't matter what kind of government you have, or what kind of society or grouping, there is always competition. Without it we die.'' On the matter of "rights'' for the blind, Dr. Jernigan was clear. "The individual has a right to decide certain things, society has the same right.

The question is: which things are going to be decided by whom? That is society's decision.'' He warned, however, that with rights came responsibility.

"It is responsible to have a disability. The general public should expect the disabled to carry their share of responsibility, and they will therefore have their share of rights. You cannot have rights without responsibilities, or responsibilities without rights.'' Dr. Jernigan will give a public address at St. Paul's Centennial Hall, Court Street tomorrow night. See Bermuda Calendar for details.