Ollie Cantos on National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) and White Cane Day

Today we speak to West Covina City Councilman Ollie Cantos as we recognize National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) and White Cane Day.

Blind since birth and born in Los Angeles to Filipino immigrants, Ollie as a native son of West Covina was raised here since age 4. He defied conventional wisdom of what was then considered possible or practical in light of the relatively limited expectations about persons with disabilities during his formative years. The product of West Covina values — proud, strong, and determined-- he has spent his life, breaking new ground and paving the way for others to follow. 

Ollie is the first blind person and individual with a visible disability ever to be elected to the City Council since West Covina's founding in February 1923.

Early leadership roles include Student Body Vice President at Hollencrest Junior High in Eighth Grade; Junior Class President and Student Body President at Bishop Amat Memorial High School in La Puente; and Student Senator, Speaker of the Senate, Vice President of Student Services, and Executive Vice President and Chairperson of the Student Senate at Loyola Marymount University where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. The year he graduated, he received the Stanley Chan Award, the highest honor to be given by the University's Political Science Department.

After earning his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School Los Angeles and becoming an attorney, he served as Staff Attorney and Director of Outreach and Education at the Disability Rights Legal Center, General Counsel and Director of Programs for the then 70,000-member American Association of People with Disabilities, Special Assistant and later Special Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, Associate Director for Domestic Policy at the White House under President George W. Bush, and now Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. He has also received presidential appointments from two different Presidents of the United States. His work at the Federal Government level has spanned across both Republican and Democratic administrations since 2004.

In addition to his ongoing Federal Government responsibilities, Ollie is Attorney Mentor with the American Bar Association's Commission on Disability Rights, Member of the Kiwanis Club of West Covina, and Chairman of the Board at RespectAbility, a multi-million-dollar national nonpartisan non-profit cross-disability organization that fights stigmas and advances opportunities on behalf of this nation's more than 61 million Americans with disabilities.

Prior leadership posts include Member and Vice Chair of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities,  Legal Officer for the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, Vice President of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Member of the Board of Directors of the Loyola Marymount University National Alumni Association, and Member of the Board of Governors of the Loyola Law School Alumni Association.  Among others, he was also on the boards of the ENDependence Center  of Northern Virginia and Community Lodgings.

But Ollie is most grateful for his adoption of three blind triplet boys – Leo, Nick, and Steven.  Their compelling story has been told by National Public Radio, PEOPLE Magazine, The Washingtonian Magazine, USA Today, and videos that went viral on

www.innovatinginclusion.org