As a web marketer, I’m especially sensitive to the idea of making content accessible to everyone – including the blind and hearing impaired. Its become a habit for those of us who build websites to use certain techniques to make it easy for everyone to get what they need from our sites. Its not always as easy to apply that idea to the real world – particularly to hands-on jobs like manufacturing.
One group in Oklahoma is working to change that though. NewView Oklahoma (formerly Oklahoma League for the Blind) manufactures many different products including shower curtains (around 200,000 a year) for various government agencies. They recently purchased a new $50,000 machine, custom-modified, to be operated safely by employees who are legally blind or visually impaired.
The new machine is not only designed for blind operators, it is quieter and easier to operate making employees feel more comfortable.
Its surprising to learn that every 7 minutes someone loses their site – in Oklahoma alone. The organization’s website also states that over 75% of blind and visual impaired adults are unemployed. Many of the employees at NewView lost their site suddenly during their adult life – leaving them at a frightening and uneasy crossroads not only in their personal lives, but their professional ones as well.
The acquisition of their new machine is an important step in not only ensuring the employment of the blind and visually impaired in Oklahoma, but in creating an array of occupation choices.