Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:36:18 EDT From: Jamal Mazrui <74444.1076@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: "Young, Blind Whiz On Computers" in WSJ The Wall Street Journal Copyright (c) 1997, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Friday, August 15, 1997 THE FRONT LINES A Young, Blind Whiz On Computers Makes A Name in Industry By Lee Berton TOLEDO, OHIO -- SOMETIMES, a perceived disability turns out to be an asset on the job. Though he is only 18 years old and blind, Suleyman Gokyigit is among the top computer technicians and programmers at InteliData Technologies Corp., a $70 million software company with several offices across the nation. "After a merger last October, two disparate computer networks were driving us crazy," recalls Douglas Braun, an InteliData vice president. "We couldn't even send e-mail to each other." In three weeks, Mr. Gokyigit, a University of Toledo sophomore who works part-time at InteliData's office in the city, created the software needed to integrate the two systems. None of the company's 350 other employees "could have done the job in three months," says Mr. Braun, InteliData's chief technology officer. "Suleyman can literally 'see' into the heart of the computer." Mr. Gokyigit's gift, as Mr. Braun calls it, is a rare ability to conceptualize the innards of a machine. It is one of several skills he has refined since childhood to compensate for -- and in many ways overcome -- his handicap. "The computer permits me to reach out into the world and do almost anything I want to do," says Mr. Gokyigit (pronounced gok-yi-it), who is a computer-science engineering major with straight As. He has certain assets -- notably a prodigious memory -- that have let him surmount hurdles that often defeat others with his handicap. Indeed, as software increasingly uses graphic icons rather than numbers to convey information, it's become harder, rather than easier, for blind people to become computer-proficient. Oral Miller, the executive director of the American Council of the Blind, knows of about 400 blind programmers in the U.S. Of these, he says perhaps only 25 have Mr. Gokyigit's level of skill. LIKE MOST blind people who work with computers, Mr. Gokyigit uses a voice- synthesizer that reads the video display on his monitor in a mechanical voice. Devices that produce Braille screen displays are also available, but Mr. Gokyigit says they "waste time." Instead, he relies on memory: Turning the synthesizer to top speed, he remembers virtually everything it spews out, at least until a project is completed. While the synthesizer talks, Mr. Gokyigit mentally "maps" the computer screen with numbered coordinates (such as three across, two down) and memorizes the location of each icon on the grid so he can call up files with his mouse. The young programmer is also at home with hardware, thanks partly to a highly developed sense of touch. Mitzi Nowakowski, InteliData's Toledo office manager, recalls how he deftly disconnected and reconnected their computer systems during a move last year. "Through feel, Suleyman can locate connectors, pins and wires much faster than most other people with sight," she says. Blind technicians often have this skill, says J. R. Westmoreland, a software engineer at Pacific Corp.'s Salt Lake City office, who is himself blind. He hasn't met Mr. Gokyigit, but knows him by reputation and says his remarkable memory and speed give him an additional edge. Mr. Gokyigit was born in Turkey, where at age two he developed retinitis pigmentosa, which left him blind. His parents brought him to the Mayo Clinic in the U.S., to no avail. "His doctors kept emphasizing, 'Never shelter him or pity him,"' recalls his father, Hasan, a Toledo contractor. The family moved to the U.S. when Suleyman was five so he could attend mainstream schools rather than be segregated in schools for the blind, as was the custom in Turkey at that time. Today, Mr. Gokyigit's co-workers call him "Suleyman the Magnificent," after the 16th century Turkish sultan who greatly expanded the Ottoman Empire. MR. GOKYIGIT was hired two years ago, after he answered an InteliData recruiting ad on a college bulletin board. The company, based in Herndon, Va., sells home-banking software to financial institutions and special telephone equipment. Working part time to accommodate his school schedule, Mr. Gokyigit earns $12,500 annually. He replaced a full-time programmer and technician who earned three times his salary. Word of his memory has seeped beyond InteliData's techies. Coworkers say they ask him for suppliers' or customers' phone numbers instead of looking them up in the directory. Several months ago, on a sales call in San Francisco, Mr. Braun had difficulty accessing the company's mainframe in Toledo using his laptop. He needed specific numerical codes to tap into four InteliData files. Instead of asking someone to manually search a thick logbook of computer addresses, he called Mr. Gokyigit, who had committed the logbook to memory and produced the proper codes "in 10 seconds," Mr. Braun says. Much of the student programmer's speed comes from his ability to block out distractions while at the computer. When typing, he cocks his head to one side, listening intently to the synthesizer. His long, thin fingers fly over the keyboard. "Nothing seems to shake his concentration," says Mrs. Nowakowski, his immediate boss. Mr. Gokyigit is the only company employee on call 24 hours a day. "We consider him our top troubleshooter," says Mr. Braun.