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Oral O. Miller: Friend … Advocate … Sportsman

By Charles D. “Chuck” Goldman

A few very fond and special memories of a special friend, and giant advocate for persons with disabilities, especially persons with vision impairments, who I was privileged to know for more than 30 years.

Chuck Goldman looks up from perusing an issue of “The Braille Forum” and ponders ideas for his next column.

Above and beyond, he was class through, totally and thorough, a mensch, AND the absolutely smartest man I ever met. Bar none! 

1. My former landlord, American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, had failed to pay rent and was being evicted. I reached out to everyone I knew. Oral and Roberta made space for me to rent on Vermont Avenue, N.W., saving me from being office-homeless.

2. Oral and Roberta treated me like family, part of ACB, inviting me to all ACB parties, including a holiday dinner at their home in northwest D.C. They were madly in love the whole time I knew them.

3. When my book, "Disability Rights Guide," came out in 1989, Oral and Roberta had a book party for me in ACB's office. 

4. I remember bowling with Oral in the basement of a George Washington University building.  There was an issue (specifics long forgotten) involving blind bowlers. I had to join their group in order to represent them. Oral beat me by a boatload of pins. He could bowl as well as row (a passion about which he would was poetic).

5. Another legally related thing Oral and I worked together to provide discounted consultation for ACB members. They got a little bit of free legal advice which they might not otherwise have gotten. I deeply discounted the work when billing ACB and still managed in most months to cover my rent to ACB. Win/win.

6. Oral was politically savvy not only on the Hill representing ACB but also in protecting others. I was working on a piece that was very critical of certain specific sections in EEOC's forthcoming regulations implementing Title I of the ADA. I had gotten a call from someone (a federal employee) who had the final regulations and was willing to violate various federal rules/practices and give me a copy. Oral insisted on sending someone from ACB who would anonymously put the final rules in a plain brown envelope on my desk. That way I would be able to truthfully deny getting the final rule from a federal employee and not be culpable of any breach of federal law relating to my getting them.

Oral was a tireless advocate for blind and visually impaired persons. He never lost track of his priorities. He made the world a better place for blind and visually impaired persons.

Oral was my friend, and I was better for it. R.I.P. my friend.