“One day, the doctor told me I was legally blind,” says Leonard Williams, aged 62. “I had no idea, because my vision loss happened so slowly.”
With his big smile and warm “hello,” Leonard makes his rounds at ACC Care Center delivering laundry to residents and several linen supply closets around the facility. I met him in the laundry room at ACC Care Center to hear his unusual story.
As a young man, Leonard was the picture of health. He was a runner and he loved to play basketball. He had tremendous physical energy and an irrepressible personality to match. But that changed.
“I got glaucoma when I was 35 or 36. I didn’t feel anything when this was happening,” says Leonard. He worked for 15 years, including a job in construction, until he was declared legally blind. “My left eye has only 9% vision, and I only see 30% in my right eye.”
Leonard became a statistic. The labor force participation rate for working-age people with no disability was 76% in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For people with disability, the rate was 37%. Employer bias is a big factor in this discrepancy.
Last fall, Leonard entered ACC’s paid job training program (see next story below) and was assigned to work in the laundry room at ACC Care Center. At first, I couldn’t tell he had a disability because he seemed to function like anyone else in that job. Leonard hauls laundry from the washing room to the folding room without missing a step. He folds the laundry fast and with machine-like precision.
“I have to turn my head to see through the narrow part of my right eye that still has some vision. So, right now, I can’t see you,” Leonard tells me. Then his turns his head slightly. “Now I can see your face, but I can’t see your hands or any other part.”
Fortunately, the sliver of vision Leonard still has is enough to get around ACC. “I’ve pretty much adapted to the space here. I don’t have to count steps or use my blind stick. When I fold laundry, I look and feel my way through the task. Most of the clothes are repetitious like towels, face towels, sheets, blankets, fitted sheets, flat sheets. They showed me how to fold them and I picked it up pretty good.”
Marissa Belmes, the Billing Manager, works next door to the laundry room. “Leonard has such a positive attitude,” she says. “It’s my honor to meet him, knowing that his disability doesn’t stop him from doing his work and other activities of daily living. He gives me the inspiration to come into work every day.”
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