New York State now boasts the first legally blind governor in U.S. History. By the way, he is black and a strong supporter of gay rights, so, "Thanks, Kristen" you've done us all a service!

I find myself thrilled by this, like a child with proof that there is a Santa Claus. A black, legally disabled supporter of gay rights is running one of the most powerful and important states in the country, if not the world. This seems like progress, even if we were dragged forth on our hands and knees.

That said, it did make me think about the whole "disabled" thing. What does that mean anyway? David Paterson could not be more "abled" if he tried. While not dismissing the hardship of not being able to see, this is clear evidence that if any of us are using the label of "disabled" to question the intellectual, emotional, and professional capabilities of people, we ought to look long and hard at reality.

But that's a philosophical question, one I can't completely tackle here. What I was curious about was the definition of legal blindness, and other disabilities for that matter. And what does that definition "buy" us as a society.

Thanks to Slate.com, I very quickly gathered amusing insight into the functional perimeters of legal blindness:

"Your vision is 20/200 or worse in your best eye, even with corrective lenses or surgery... ...the blind person must suffer that impairment for at least 12 continuous months. The government also won't recognize any disability that resulted from the commission of a felony or the ensuing prison term. So if Spitzer ends up in the slammer for, say, illegal structuring and then has his eyes gouged out in a prison fight, he may not meet the federal definition for legal blindness."

That strikes me as a tad ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as this, which also comes from slate.com:

"A blind person may also be left off the government rolls if the source of his impairment was central as opposed to peripheral. That is to say, someone who was rendered virtually blind as a result of brain damage-someone whose cortex couldn't make sense of a visual scene, for example,-would not be considered "legally blind," so long as his eyeballs themselves were functioning normally."

Since we're being ridiculous, the legally blind can get a hunting license in Texas, though they cannot get a drivers license in any state (which is probably a good policy.)

Humor set aside, according to the US Census Bureau, there are 51.2 million Americans living with disabilities in the United States. These people range from someone fully capable of being the Governor of New York to people who are utterly dependent on others for care.

Of those, 10.7 million are dependent on others for care, 2.7 million are confined to a wheelchair, and another 9.1 million are dependent on another form of ambulatory assistance.

That number also represents an enormous economic impact - in all directions - in our country. Again, according to the US Census Bureau, 11.8 million people of working age report a disability that makes it difficult for them to work, while 44% of people with a "non-severe" disability work full time.

While those numbers represent an obvious and direct economic impact, the "soft" impact of disabilities on our economy is quite tangible. From goods and services marketed to people with disabilities, to the invaluable & historical contributions from people with disabilities - Governor Paterson for one, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Steven Hawking, Monet, Beethoven, Steve Wonder.... Yes, those are the obvious ones, but as you go through your day, just look around.

As a society, it's time for us to embrace and understand people with a wide variety of disabilities. From Downs Syndrome to Asperger's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy to dwarfism, 18% of our population has some form of disability - that's too many to be swept aside and ignored.

The Americans With Disabilities Act, which was signed into law by the first President Bush in 1990, is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability. It also regulates physical accessibility to any public building or service. The ADA is why there are curb ramps at intersections, access ramps into buildings, larger doorways, and lifts on busses. It is why companies like Adobe and Microsoft and others spend millions of dollars making sure that disabled people have access to alternative technology so that they are not left on the shoulder of the information super highway.

We have made great strides. Laws have helped, sure. But nothing helps quite as much as seeing "real people" live real lives in a really successful way. Nothing helps quite as much as listening to, paying attention to and getting to know someone with a disability and realizing they are as human as you and me.

Disabled just isn't the right word. "Differently-abled" is more accurate, and more PC, but really hard to say. Just human, how about that. And as valuable and productive as the rest of us. As good and bad, happy and sad, nice and crabby as the rest of us.

So right now, as David Paterson takes front and center at the core of the Big Apple, I think this is a pretty monumental day. I know, he's not a hero, per se, but we have a legally disabled black man in this very powerful and very public position. Maybe he'll fall from grace - he is, after all, only human - but hey, if Paterson does decide to go the way of Spitzer, it won't be nearly as sensational a price, seeing as he doesn't have to pay for the pretty ones. No, that was bad, sorry. I shouldn't have said that, especially when he clearly has a much better sense of humor than I do. When asked if he enjoyed the services of the occasional prostitute, his answer was, "only the lobbyists." He may be blind, but at least he knows what he's looking at.