Computer Technician Uses 6th Sense to Aid Baffled Consumers : Careers: Doug Rose, blind since childhood, mans a Packard Bell nationwide 800 line to trouble-shoot.

Doug Rose is the blind leading the blind.

And the sighted. And the elderly. And those with physical disabilities. And maladies such as Parkinson’s disease. And those who can’t read and follow directions.

Rose, a Thousand Oaks resident, is a telephone technician--or techie--for a major computer firm in the San Fernando Valley. Like some Ma Bell operators, he labors amid a sea of identical cubicles, speaking into his headset, his hands racing across his keyboard.

When consumers become baffled by their new home computers--unable to manipulate a mouse or handle a hard drive--they call Rose through a nationwide 800 number. And, more often than not, he solves their problems on the spot from memory.

Because Doug Rose cannot see. Blind since childhood, Rose, 34, is a self-taught electronics genius guiding the sighted and others through the complex world of computer technology, using a sixth sense that some say involves a no-nonsense drive to downplay his handicap.

Rose was the first non-sighted employee hired at the Packard Bell’s Chatsworth office in 1991--a gamble that paid off. Through grants and his own money, he has assembled all the Braille equipment he needs to compete in the sighted environment, despite offers from his supervisors to help foot the bill.

Now Packard Bell is seeking others like him.

“Doug Rose has opened my eyes,” said David Scott Anderson, manager of the firm’s technical support division, which employs 356 techies. “I had never worked with a blind person before. But Doug has this rare ability to see things through sheer determination.

“He’s never seen how to click an ‘icon’ onto a computer window and yet he can teach others how to do it. That’s what kind of man he is. He’s a fighter and he’s an innovator.”

His work has also inspired letters of thanks and praise from Maine to Montana.

Take the Denver man with Parkinson’s disease. Rose introduced him to software that could improve his accuracy on the computer keyboard despite the constant tremble in his hands. And the local woman with speech and hearing problems-- Rose has counseled her for hours, ignoring an office quota encouraging techies to trouble-shoot at least 40 calls per day.

Rose also calls back to check on troubled computer owners. He calls to wish them a happy holiday. Or just to say hello.

Now Rose is spearheading a program to develop a special needs line for callers with physical handicaps, one that would create a database to maintain contact with computer owners with disabilities.

“There’s a need out there,” says Rose, “and you don’t have to have eyes to see it.”

Rose, however, recalls the years when he did have some vision. But by the time he was 5, doctors had removed both his cancer-stricken eyes. Even today, he relishes his shadowy recollections of the sighted world, images of the “Flintstones” cartoon show, with Fred and Barney using their feet to stop their Stone Age buggy. And there was the mole his younger sister once had on the end of her nose.

Years later, while working at the disabled students office at Cal State Long Beach, Rose discovered the computer world. One day a fellow student showed how his Versobraille machine, a sort of typewriter for the blind, could be hooked up to a computer and modem.

“For me, it was like finding a gold mine,” Rose recalled. “Here was this new world of information right at my fingertips. No longer did I need people to read things to me. I was finally on my own in an information age.”

Trouble was, Rose started losing sleep at night. He played with his computer constantly, sending away for computer correspondence courses. What he could not see, he memorized, studied and restudied, until he knew it forward and backward. He talked, thought and dreamed about computers.

He even met his wife, Patti, over a computer bulletin board.

“We both used the board early in the morning,” Rose said. “And I like the morning hours.”

After graduation, he floated through various jobs: part-time computer consultant; a “token blind guy” for a company selling telephone directories door-to-door for the non-sighted.

Then he got his first big break--an interview with Packard Bell. Rose stood out right away: He was the guy with the guide dog.

Where Rose went, so went the black Labrador, Marvina. In the security-conscious office, the other techies joked about the dog with the security clearance and took turns wearing Marvina’s name tag and photograph for a day.

Rose himself was a joker. One day he might ask to borrow the boss’s car. If he bumped into a chair, he announced that he “didn’t see it.” When a caller complained that he couldn’t see properly without his bifocals, Rose observed that bifocals “wouldn’t even help me.”

Meanwhile, on the telephone, Rose was establishing a national network for disabled computer-users. And he outfitted himself with the latest technology. A search through the classified ads of a newsletter for blind workers recently enabled him to help test new computer software that “talks” to blind users.

One call is all it takes for most customers to believe in Rose.

“Even though he’s blind, Doug is so tuned into the world that he picks up on little things you do,” recalled customer Verlin Goetz. “He diagnosed me right over the telephone.”

Goetz, the Denver-based consultant who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, often has trouble hitting the right keys on his computer because his hands shake and tremble.

While on the trouble-shooter line last year, Rose noticed that Goetz often took several minutes to carry out the simplest instructions.

“Verlin, are you nervous or are you coming off a three-day drunk?” he asked.

“I have Parkinson’s disease,” Goetz replied. Then Goetz noticed the voice of Rose’s computer in the background. “Are you blind?” he asked.

“I absolutely am.”

From that moment, Rose recalled, “we just sort of formed a bond right then and there.”

The friendship has endured. After Goetz followed Rose’s suggestion that he purchase special software that would help his inaccuracy at the keyboard, several members of Goetz’s local Parkinson’s disease support group followed his lead to buy the software.

Rose often calls to check on Goetz’s progress. Last Christmas, Goetz sent Rose a basket of fruit, along with several bones for Marvina. Says Goetz: “I’ve never met anyone like him.”

But once he steps away from the computer, Rose admits he’s at a disadvantage. His co-workers watch out for him, though, pushing chairs out of the way and opening doors.

Even at the keyboard, Rose has problems working with some computer functions--such as graphic-related icons that his verbal computer software cannot read.

Still, his bosses are so pleased with his work that they are seeking other visually impaired candidates.

“Doug was the first blind person in technical support--we give everyone a chance but to be honest, there was some reticence on whether he could swing it,” said Steve Dvorak, technical support lead supervisor.

In his corner cubicle, walking cane hung on the wall, Doug Rose claims he’s nothing special.

“Nationwide, three out of four disabled people are out of work,” he said. “I’m not the only blind guy to succeed. Lots of people with disabilities can bring results.

“Just give them a chance.”