John Gunn runs a manufacturing operation. It’s a small business just like any other.
When he gets an order, it has to be filled. It has to be on time – and to specification.
Gunn has about 20 workers to supervise on any given day. It is in those workers that Gunn likes to think – in some ways – he has an advantage over other employers.
Your Business Has Gone Global. Has Your Insurance?
A decade ago, “doing business internationally” was mostly a large-company concern. Today, a manufacturer in…
Learn More
“They’re terrific workers,” said Gunn, who has 30 years of experience in manufacturing. “There are no absenteeism problems. They are here every day rain or shine. We don’t have quality problems. These people take such pride in their work.”
They’re different all right.
Just about every one of them is blind – and dealing with some other disability.
The business is IN-SIGHT’s Industrial Workshop. It relocated this spring to
a building with about 10,800 square feet of space off Narragansett Park Drive
in East Providence.
Inspiration
Gunn manages the place. He can see fine and what he sees every day – what he feels – is inspiration.
“You count your blessings,” he says. “It’s wonderful. There is a sense of satisfaction in seeing people learn new tasks.”
The bulk of the work being done there comes from government contracts, mostly the Department of Defense. When I visited the workshop on a Tuesday afternoon, some workers were busy caning chairs for private clients – others were busy producing nylon compass cases for the Department of Defense.
Orders for the compass cases have increased by 75 percent in recent months, in large part because of the war with Iraq. Workers at IN-SIGHT are producing 7,000 per month. They also produce pre-operative shaving kits for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
And just like any other manufacturer that does work for the military, IN-SIGHT is visited on a regular basis by a government representative who signs off on the product.
“We have to be efficient,” said Gunn.
The workers take advantage of technological advances. For example, the sewing machines are equipped with special safety features. But mostly it’s all about a skilled work force, one that combines patience and dexterity – and that simply focuses on feel rather than sight.
The industrial workshop is the oldest of IN-SIGHT’s efforts, which range from life skills training to computer training to a closed-circuit radio reading service. The organization also has a program to provide volunteers who serve as sighted guides to accompany people to medical appointments, shopping or other places.
IN-SIGHT’s roots date back to 1904 when a group of people concerned about the needs of the area’s blind population got together to organize social gatherings for those with severe vision loss.
In 1925, IN-SIGHT was incorporated as the Rhode Island Association for the Blind. It was located on the third floor of the Arcade in downtown Providence.
In 1965, the organization purchased the former A.T. Cross building on Broad Street. It changed its name to IN-SIGHT in 1984 and two years later moved its headquarters to its present location on Jefferson Boulevard in Warwick.
While it has certainly grown over the past 100 years – and expanded its efforts to help the blind or vision impaired – the basic mission of IN-SIGHT hasn’t really changed at all.
“The main concern has been to keep people from being isolated from the rest of the world,” says Judy Smith, president of IN-SIGHT. “Vision loss is a very isolating problem.”
Smith has worked at the organization 21 years. Like John Gunn, she is one of those special people you meet when you take the time to visit a place like this.
Joining me on a tour of the East Providence facility, Smith stops to greet each worker by name. She admires them – and they admire her back.
In a perfect world, IN-SIGHT workers would receive training and then go on to be hired at a private company. But it’s not that simple.
“Employers are fearful of employing the visually impaired,” says Smith. “There
are liability issues that they worry about.”
Refining skills
So the workshop is really about providing a place for folks to go to work every day where they can work as a team and meet goals.
The atmosphere, says Gunn, is like any other manufacturing plant. Some workers are quick to enjoy a laugh, while others are more serious. Coffee is popular in the morning.
There is something else these workers share. Once they start working at IN-SIGHT, they tend to pick up or refine skills that make things easier at home.
“They learn to do things they couldn’t do when they had vision,” says Smith. “They come in and they blossom.”
Just about all of the services IN-SIGHT provides are free. And while Smith didn’t ask for this plug, if you think you want to help them out with some kind of donation, there are all kinds of ways to do that.
You can get more information at 941-3322 or visit www.in-sight.org.
And there is one other way you could help.
“If there are businesses out there that have jobs that could be accomplished by a workshop like ours, give us a shot,” says Smith.
