Company helps boost confidence of blind workers

A company with a mostly blind work force competes for contracts.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
MILWAUKEE -- Jackie Ackley was despondent. Who wouldn't be?
She went blind for good in May 2001, losing the vision in her left eye less than two years after going blind in her right eye from complications from diabetes.
Ackley had to give up her job of 22 years at the Milwaukee County Zoo, where she was the animal services supervisor doing "everything else no else wanted to do" -- vermin control, putting animals in crates, driving to the airport to pick up new arrivals.
She found herself sitting on the couch and watching soap operas. Strange, Ackley thought, for someone who loves to work.
"I was very dysfunctional and extremely upset," she said.
At one point, Ackley wished she would die. But then she got into a rehab program for the visually impaired and learned from a woman she met there about Wiscraft Inc.
The small manufacturing plant in Milwaukee hired Ackley in 2002.
And as it did for so many people in situations similar to Ackley's, Wiscraft helped turn her life around.
About Wiscraft
Wiscraft has been doing that since 1903, first when it was a state agency known as the Wisconsin Workshop for the Blind. Since 1985, it has been a private, nonprofit company that contracts with local, state and federal governments and companies such as Harley-Davidson Inc. and Briggs & amp; Stratton Corp. to do assembly and packaging and machining work, including sophisticated computer numeric control machining.
Ackley, 55, of Milwaukee, said Wiscraft helped restore her independence.
"Sitting on the couch does not appeal to me. I have a strong work ethic. I like to function on my own," said Ackley, who was Wiscraft's employee of the year in 2005.
"The job gives you a feeling of accomplishment. You have contributed something," she added.
Employees at Wiscraft, where at least 75 percent of its direct labor force is legally blind, are quick to point out that their company is not a charity.
The 32 employees compete head to head with other companies for contracts. Wiscraft also does not receive tax support subsidies from local, state or the federal government. Workers rely on relatives, friends or public transportation to get to work.
"We don't want people to give us these jobs because we're blind. We don't want the sympathy kind of thing. We want the job because we can do the work for them," said Gene Hubbard, 57, ISO certification documentation assistant and a trainer at the plant.
"It's important to have a place where the culture is to encourage and adapt things for people who are blind so they can do jobs," said Hubbard, blind since 1977 from diabetes and a Wiscraft worker for 12 years.
Others on a mission
Wiscraft isn't alone in providing employment for the legally blind. Industries for the Blind Inc. in West Allis, Wis., has a similar mission, and the majority of its workers are blind or visually impaired.
Robert Buettner, rehabilitation services director at the Badger Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired, said companies such as Wiscraft play an important role in providing employment for the blind.
But Buettner said Wiscraft and similar manufacturing facilities should never be the only option for the blind.
"Our goal in our rehabilitation program is to help individuals meet whatever potential they have," Buettner said of the Badger Association, a leading resource on vision impairment and vision rehabilitation. "We work with people who are teachers, lawyers, people who work in information systems. They should have the opportunity to work in any field they choose and not be restricted to organizations that employ only the visually impaired or blind."