The Oregon Commission for the Blind has just hired a new executive director who is not blind, and many of those who are blind are not pleased.
Board member Carla McQuillan, who also is president of the National Federation of the Blind in Oregon,
raised the specter of Washington, D.C.’s Gallaudet University, where deaf students shut down the campus in 1988 protests when a hearing person was picked over a deaf candidate for university president.
“I am concerned for the ability of the agency to survive what I believe is going to occur when the blindness community speaks their mind about what just occurred,” McQuillan said.
The obstacle to the blind leading the blind in Oregon is a pesky anti-discrimination statute. “State law bars the board from considering blindness as a criteria in the hiring,” explained Duke Shepard, Gov. John Kitzhaber’s labor and human services adviser. “That protects blind people from discrimination but also prevents the use of blindness for affirmative action purposes.”
If you thought that all civil rights laws worked in a similar fashion, you’ve obviously been out of touch with American liberalism for at least a generation.
The Executive Director posting didn’t list having “inside” experience at the Oregon Commission for the Blind as a criteria; however, according to an email received by Ms. Jodi Roth, OCB Chairperson, that appears to be the main hiring reason that Dacia Johnson was selected over a clearly more qualified individual with significantly more experience, knowledge,awards/honors, etc. Clearly, the hiring of Ms. Johnson, who is part of the upper managment team (second in command) in an agency that has historically bad audits, gives new meaning to “inside job!”