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Photo by Reed Hutchinson UCLA Photographic Services

15 seconds

PATRICK BURKE

Adaptive Technology Specialist, Academic Technology Services

A native Angeleno, Burke hated computers until he discovered the wonders of UCLA’s Disabilities and Computing Lab. “As a blind person, I could finally read a newspaper on my own,” he said, “and it could just as easily be a paper from Australia or Pakistan as the L.A. Times.” With a B.A. from Pepperdine and an M.A. in German literature from UCLA, Burke now experiments with very innovative technologies to help those with disabilities “succeed and excel at things that used to be impossible or a major struggle.”

If you hadn’t chosen your current occupation, what would you have become?
The best theremin (an electronic musical instrument played by moving a hand between two projecting electrodes) player in the western U.S.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Multi-tasking.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Learn to multi-task better!