A Utah attorney has been appointed to serve on a federal access board, the White House recently announced.

Ron Gardner, a Bountiful resident who is director of field services for the National Federation of the Blind, will serve his first term on the Access Board during the remainder of the Bush administration and the two first years of the new administration.

The Access Board is an independent federal agency devoted to accessibility for people with disabilities.

Gardner, blind since birth, graduated from Brigham Young University's law school in 1978. He also has worked as legal director of Utah's Disability Law Center, senior trial attorney for the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah.

He also taught business law as an adjunct professor at BYU for 14 years.

Gardner volunteers as president of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah, which is the local affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind.

Gardner also is chairman of the Advisory Council for the Utah Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired and is a member of the Institutional Council for the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

"With his political background, legal experience, and common sense approach to accessibility for the blind and other disability populations, I can't think of a better individual for such an appointment," says Cheralyn Braithwaite Creer, first vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of Utah.

The Access Board operates with about 30 staff members, a governing board of representatives from federal departments, and public members appointed by the president.