DISABILITIES

By Daniel J. Vance

James Tylee is one of only eight technical troubleshooters worldwide managing the daily computer network crises experienced by 8,000-employee, New York-based Bloomberg. The company provides stock market data, pricing, trading and news to corporations, financial customers, and individuals throughout the world. It's owned by Michael Bloomberg, New York City mayor.

“It's a 24/7 job,” said 30-year-old Tylee in a telephone interview from his Long Island home. “When something goes down in Japan, for instance, we are answering the telephone in New York at 2 a.m.”

Tylee and about 20,000 other Americans have osteogenesis imperfecta, or “brittle bone” disease, which is a genetic disorder affecting the body's production and/or quality of collagen, a protein necessary for bone construction.

“Both my parents have disabilities,” he said. “My mom has brittle bone disease; that's how I got it. My father has only one arm and it has 'frozen joint disease.' He does everything, including driving and typing, with his feet. In fact, he used to race cars semi-professionally using foot controls until he won. They ended up disqualifying him because he drove with his feet.”

Tylee has had over 260 broken bones.

“My entire childhood was a complete effort of mastering how to walk,” he said. “Every time I got walking down cold, I would grow a bit and would have to get new rods in my legs. The rods would require being in a cast, and after the cast came off I would have to learn how to walk again.”

At 12, he began using a wheelchair. It was easier than walking.

“When I turned 18, my parents expected me to get a job or go to college like everyone else,” he said. “I know a lot of handicapped people that are coddled (by their parents) and don't have a full-time job even though they could be working.”

Both his parents work for the Internal Revenue Service.

It's this lack of having been “coddled” that formed his outlook on life, he said. Today, he lives as if he can do anything. Recently, he spent ten hours in his wheelchair using a shovel to dig a backyard water pond. He refuses to purchase a wheelchair-adapted van to drive because he doesn't want to be labeled as “handicapped.”

Tylee and his wife have a 5-year-old son, Hunter.

For more, see www.danieljvance.com or www.oif.org