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Blind Physician Has Bright Hope for the Future

Aired July 26, 2000 - 6:26 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. President Bill Clinton marked the tenth anniversary Wednesday of the Americans with Disabilities Act by calling for increased government recruitment and hiring of the disabled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The federal government must lead by example. Our federal work force is the smallest in 40 years, but as we make new hires, we need to ensure that we are tapping the deepest pool of talent. Today, I'll sign an executive order calling on the federal government to hire 100,000 people with disabilities by the 15th anniversary of the ADA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: The landmark legislation bars job discrimination and requires equal access to public buildings and transportation, among other protections it provides the disabled.

At least one woman with a disability isn't relying only on the law to offer her special accommodation. Instead, she has overcome past tremendous obstacles to realize her dream.

CNN's Detroit bureau chief Ed Garsten has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED GARSTEN, CNN DETROIT BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Dr. Kristianna Matthews has never seen any of her patients. She can't see if they look pale, or pallid, or healthy, or if they have a rash. No, Dr. Matthews cannot see at all. She's been blind from birth. But she can feel...

DR. KRISTIANNA MATTHEWIS: Well, he doesn't have any edema here.

GARSTEN: ... and heal.

MATTHEWIS: Decrease the tegritol to 100 BID and increase your neurontin by 50 or 100.

GARSTEN: Dr. Matthews is in her final month of residency at Lansing's Sparrow Hospital, but her road to wearing the white coat and mantle of M.D. has been tortuous, frustrating, and downright maddening. It started with struggling to find a medical school that would accept her.

MATTHEWIS: I mailed out 60 applications and I got 51 of them back saying that they would not admit a blind person, hands down.

GARSTEN: Dr. Matthews takes notes in Braille and completes reports on a typewriter rather than longhand. She can examine a patient using traditional instruments, but requires the help of a medical assistant for visual assessments.

MATTHEWIS: Do I always get the same information the same way that other physicians do? No. Do I usually come out and have the same idea about what's going on as the other doctors? Sure.

GARSTEN: Her blindness simply never mattered to the director of residents at Sparrow, who accepted Matthewis without reservation.

DR. GEORGE SMITH, DIR. OF RESIDENTS, SPARROW HOSPITAL: She may not be seeing with her eyes, but she's seeing with her hands, her touch, and just her presence around patients. And I would submit that, that level of awareness is just as strong as somebody who can actually see things.

GARSTEN: Matthewis says she is still not accepted by all of her colleagues and is bracing herself once again for rejection as she completes her residency and looks for work. She has no expectations of being helped by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

MATTHEWIS: Doctors in general think they're immune from the law. And so, when you sort of talk about disability law, and wanting a job, and things like that, doctors really -- what people are telling me -- is they feel pretty strongly that they can convince a judge that a blind person shouldn't be allowed to have a job.

Can you squeeze my hand, Mr. Keen (ph)?

GARSTEN: But Kristianna Matthewiss has worked too hard for too many years to give up now, not when her goal is in sight.

Ed Garsten, CNN, Lansing, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: And we wish her the very best.

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