"It's two o'clock p.m.," says the audio digital clock that sits on Peter Benavidez's desk at Blindness Support Services, Inc. (BSS) in Riverside, California. It's just one of several adaptive equipment devices Benavidez, BSS's chief executive officer, relies on to accomplish the simple office tasks most people take for granted, such as reading a contract, signing a document, dialing a phone number or telling time.

Benavidez was born with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which caused the gradual deterioration of his vision ultimately leaving him legally blind by the time he was 30.

"Growing up, I remember having difficulty seeing at night and playing outside with other kids who functioned pretty well, and I was amazed at how they were able to [see at night] because it was difficult for me," recalls Benavidez.

And although the years went by and his eyesight grew weaker, he refused to believe the effects of RP were slowly taking over. So slowly, in fact, that the stages of deterioration were barely noticeable, until one morning he realized he could no longer read the bold-faced headlines of the newspaper.

"I woke up one day and I couldn't do that. Probably because of denial I didn't want to know [what was happening]. I just thought I had a defective newspaper," he jokes.

It wasn't until years later that Benavidez accepted his fate. Retinitis pigmentosa had left him blind and the only thing left for him to do from that point on was to adapt and learn to live with his disability. And when he could no longer see where he was going, his denial became the biggest obstacle to overcome. He needed a white cane to help him get around, but he admits it was difficult to pick up.

"But using that thing has its advantages, especially at airports. I'm the first one to board and first one to disembark," he laughs pointing to his cane propped up against the wall next to his desk.

His perseverance paid off when he graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology.

With a degree under his belt, Benavidez now confronted a new set of obstacles, this time in the workforce.

"It wasn't hard getting jobs, it was hard keeping them. Especially when employers started to recognize the limitations of not having 20/20 vision," says Benavidez.

Although discouraged by his termination with the Riverside County Department of Mental Health for fear of his safety, Benavidez wasn't shaken. In 1992, he began volunteering at Blindness Support Services. Two years later, he became the president of the board of directors after the organization's founders could no longer oversee it.

"And I said, 'Let me take over and let me see what I can do.' And they said, 'Okay, go for it'," recalls Benavidez with a smile. From that day on, Benavidez faced and overcame the challenges of learning how to administer a non-profit organization.

Today, as the agency's executive director, Benavidez oversees a number of programs offered at BSS such as referrals, independent living skills, counseling, Braille transcriptions, employment preparation, computer training and mobility training.

"As a person who lost his vision, I learned to use the bus system and I turned that knowledge into a program so blind people could learn to ride the buses and be as independent as possible." That was an idea Benavidez developed and later sold to the Riverside County Transportation Commission.

Experiences like this one were instrumental in shaping the services that are currently offered at BSS.

"Being a visually impaired guy that experienced these needs first-hand gave me the ideas about how things should be, or at least, in my opinion, to make things easier," he explains. "Everything we do here is based on what I and other blind people have learned. Living independently to the extent to which each person desires is essential."

And that's the idea behind BSS, to provide innovative approaches to achieving self-reliance and productivity for blind and visually impaired Inland Empire residents in Southern California.

Along the way, Benavidez has become a member of the California Blind Advisory Committee and is only one of three Latinos heading a non-profit organization in the city of Riverside. Earlier this year, the Riverside Transit Agency recognized him as RTA's Unique Rider of the Quarter for teaching people with visual impairments to use public transportation.

And that's not all. Since 1994, Benavidez has kept a journal documenting the challenges he's faced. At last count, it was 176 pages long.

"It's about my experience as CEO of Blindness Support Services. I talk about everything, but I don't know what I'm gonna do with it," he pauses and thinks for a moment. "Maybe I'll send it to Ron Howard to make a movie out of it," he laughs.

His road to success has not been easy, but he knows that it could have been much worse.

"You know what, Pete, you have nothing to cry about," he tells himself. "In fact, you should consider yourself fortunate."

And although his accomplishments at BSS have been fulfilling, Benavidez still asks himself, "Do I want to be CEO at Blindness Support Service until I retire? No. I don't know what's next; there's gotta be something else. But I still have a lot to do here."