BIOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF JAMAL MAZRUI
                               August 1, 1996


Jamal Mazrui is employed as a legislative analyst at the National 
Council on Disability, an independent federal agency that advises 
the administration and Congress on public policy affecting people 
with disabilities.  Educationally, he earned a Bachelor's in 
applied mathematics from Princeton University in 1986 and a 
Master's in public policy from Harvard University in 1988.

Jamal has pursued two major career interests:  the design of 
strategic information systems for managers and the promotion of 
sound government for citizens with disabilities. In addition to 
his professional positions, he has run a part-time consulting 
business since 1986 named Access Success, which specializes in 
the development of software with an integrated visual and verbal 
interface--making it friendly to blind and sighted users alike.

As personal background, Jamal is 32, the son of a British mother 
(a foreign language teacher at a Michigan high school) and a 
Kenyan father (a political scientist at a New York university).  
He spent his first 8 years in East Africa, followed by 
significant periods in California, Michigan, New Jersey, 
Massachusetts, and Maryland.  In 1987, Jamal was honored to 
become a U.S. citizen.  In terms of recreation, he enjoys funny 
conversation, spicy food, disco dancing, outdoor leisure, 
thriller movies, and good parties!

Since losing his sight as a teenager in 1980 (from a rare genetic 
disease of the optic nerve), Jamal has been a committed and 
increasingly leading member of the disability rights movement.  
Beginning in 1988, he volunteered for six years as founding 
director of the Visually Impaired and Blind User Group of the 
Boston Computer Society (VIBUG), which offers technology 
workshops, consumer advocacy, and peer support for visually 
impaired persons.  In 1990, he organized the Visually Impaired 
Persons Employment Group of VISION Foundation (VIPEG), which 
sponsors biweekly self-help
meetings for blind job seekers.

After undemocratically being expelled from the National 
Federation of the Blind, whose administration disagreed with some 
of his views, Jamal led a nationwide campaign in 1991 to protect 
the civil liberties of participants in the organized blind 
movement.  In 1992, he founded the Metro Boston Chapter of the 
Bay State Council of the Blind (BSCB), which has addressed local 
issues regarding library usage, public transportation, and 
minority concerns.  As BSCB's governmental representative and 
vice president between 1992 and 1995, Jamal furthered state and 
national issues including braille literacy, identifiable 
currency, and access to graphical systems.  For such efforts, 
Jamal received the organization's Leadership Award in 1995 and 
the Access Award of the American Foundation for the Blind in 
1996.

Since 1992, Jamal has served as a trustee of NELDS, the National 
Education and Legal Defense Service for the Blind, which works 
with the American Council of the Blind (ACB) to defend the civil 
rights of blind people.  In 1994 he served on the ACB resolutions 
committee, and in 1996 on the ACB constitution and bylaws 
committee.

From 1993 to 1995, Jamal chaired the Rehabilitation Advisory 
Council of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, a 
federally mandated body that provides ongoing input concerning 
the effective rehabilitation of blind residents from all walks of 
life.  For several years, Jamal has been an activist in DRIVE, 
Disability Rights in Voter Empowerment, which organizes 
educational campaigns to advance disability issues as voting 
considerations for candidates and citizens during elections