Full Transcript
Man:
When you work with Beyond Vision, you’re not working with a charity, you’re working with an actual business that wants to provide you with a quality product in a timely way.
Woman:
Quality, production, on-time delivery, and honesty. That’s what you get from me.
Diana:
We talk about our career runway here, where it’s a place to land and a place to take off in your career.
Jennifer:
Go to beyondvision.com, that’s our website, and there is a careers section there that will give you the current opportunities. They can also email me a resume and cover letter at jobs@beyondvision.com.
Stephen:
It was so cool just being able to take this position on and start working at breaking those stereotypes, and really informing the community about Beyond Vision.
Jennifer:
I was very impressed by the way we have gone away from the traditional sheltered workshop concept. Our CEO likes to say this isn’t your grandfather’s sheltered workshop.
Jeff:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. Today in the studio I’m excited to have with me five members from a company called Beyond Vision, a company that is bringing awareness to industries and communities about the possibilities and realities when it comes to hiring blind and visually impaired employees. And to start it out, I have Jennifer Wenzel. Jennifer, how are you doing?
Jennifer:
I’m doing great, Jeff, thanks for having us here today.
Jeff:
Oh, you’re welcome, but the thanks goes out to you and your team for coming onto Blind Abilities and sharing what a great job you are doing for the blindness community with Beyond Vision. Jennifer, thanks for reaching out, and could you tell us a little bit about your title? Talent Acquisition Coordinator at Beyond Vision.
Jennifer:
Yes, one of the most important things that keeps Beyond Vision doing the things that we do are our employees, and I’m lucky enough to be able to help find quality employees for the different jobs that we do, and we have a couple of them here today with us.
Jeff:
And from marketing, please welcome Diana Voigt. How are you doing, Diana?
Diana:
Hello Jeff! Very good, thank you.
Jeff:
Diana, tell us a little bit about the marketing at Beyond Vision.
Diana:
I am our Marketing and Funding Development Leader. I help manage all of our communications, and help to drive any of our fundraising goals to support training, and additional equipment for our employees.
Jeff:
And also from marketing, we have Stephen Gould. Welcome, Stephen.
Stephen:
Yes, so I’m the Marketing Assistant here at Beyond Vision, and I work side-by-side with Diana helping her out with a lot of tasks. Then I also do a lot of social media, photography, videography, marketing campaigns, and all the fun marketing stuff.
Jeff:
Alright, and we also have Michael Newman, who works in the machine shop. How are you doing?
Michael:
I’m doing fine.
Jeff:
And from shipping and receiving, we have Javier Johnson. How are you doing?
Javier:
I’m alright.
Jeff:
Good. Jennifer, why don’t you give us a little bit about what Beyond Vision is?
Jennifer:
Sure! So Beyond Vision is what they call a social enterprise, which means we’re a nonprofit, but we have a fiscally responsible business as part of our company. Our main mission is to employ blind and visually impaired people, and we do that in a variety of ways. We have a manufacturing area in Milwaukee, and we have both commercial and federal customers that we work for, do a variety of assembly and packaging projects, and that’s growing and changing all the time, which is really exciting. People do a variety of jobs there. We also do a customer care center, which is a call center, that’s in Milwaukee, and we also have some remote agents that are starting to work for us as call center agents, and we have a variety of customers for that as well. We also have base supply center stores across the country, selling skill craft brand products to federal customers, and we have blind and visually impaired people working there as well, and then we have blind and visually impaired people working at all levels of the company. I’m in HR, and the other people in our HR department are blind or visually impaired, and we have people in IT, and just sort of all over the company integrated with sighted workers, are blind and visually impaired workers, and we’re all making our team better and helping our company succeed.
Jeff:
Great. Stephen, your company is called, I see it all the time, branding itself as a social enterprise, can you explain that?
Stephen:
Yes, so we are a nonprofit, but all of our profits go back to our company. We’re making profits off the work that we do, off of our commercial work, off of our government work, we have customers, we’ve worked for Harley Davidson, Birds and Stratton, constantly doing work, so that’s where the social enterprise part comes in, where we’re sort of self-sustaining.
Jeff:
Oh, great. I was looking through all the different areas that you have, from machining and we’ve got two people from machining, shipping, receiving, different areas of the company. One of them I saw was call center technology, which is basically customer care. Can you tell us a little bit about that area?
Jennifer:
So our call center works for a variety of different customers. We do ingoing and outgoing calls, and it’s customers like Harley Davidson, there’s a bicycle shop, we work for the state of Wisconsin, we worked a lot during the elections, we’ve worked a lot with pandemic unemployment assistance, so we have a variety of customers, and our call center works very well with screen readers, so most of the people working in the call center use JAWS, or they use magnification, and are able to do quality call center work for a variety of customers.
Jeff:
I’ve been around, I don’t want to say my age, but I’ve been around a little while, and I’ve heard a lot of people who have worked in call centers, and it’s always the accessibility, but you guys worked on a solution called TCN, can one of you explain that?
Jennifer:
I’m fairly new, but I believe that TCN is a web-based platform that works with the call center to make sure all the calls are coming through, and make sure everyone can access the information and the screens needed. We are all about accessibility in every aspect of work, so we have a lot of manufacturing things that have become accessible due to the hard work of our engineers who have made fixtures using, like, the 3D printer to help make processes accessible that weren’t formerly accessible, and then we have many software things that have become more accessible through Israel, our Accessibility Coordinator, writing scripts and making sure they’re accessible, and I know some of our team leads also write scripts for different projects at the call center that really help streamline the process and make sure that everyone can access the information they need.
Jeff:
And this just proves that if you remove the barriers to employment, that blind and visually impaired people can succeed. You have, from entry level to manager positions, which means they can start there and there’s probably upward mobility as well.
Jennifer:
Yes, that’s completely true. And Javier is a fairly new employee that is starting at the entry level, and I know Mike, you’ve been here for a little while. Do you want to talk about how you came into Beyond Vision and what your future plans might be or how you’ve- Mike, maybe how you’ve grown with the company?
Michael:
Yes. I’ve been here about 10 years. I used to be in law enforcement, and I lost my- the majority of my eyesight to glaucoma, so I was not able to do my job no more. I heard about Beyond Vision through a coworker that met me in the store, and I applied and I started working here in A&P, then I moved to the machine shop, and I love it since I’ve been in the machine shop. This is a great opportunity and learning experience, something different, something I never did before.
Jeff:
And you learned all that right there.
Michael:
Yes.
Jeff:
Wow. That’s pretty cool, that the training to bring you up and you can succeed, that’s awesome. How about you, Javier?
Javier:
Well, before I got hired on here, I worked at a gym, and then COVID hit, and so I was working in laundry, and they had no use for the laundry people, so I just got laid off, and I just found this on an ad on my computer, and I was just like, I need a job, I’m visually impaired, and I was just like, it’ll be something new, and I just feel like it was a good thing to do.
Jeff:
Diana, how do you market to potential employees and to potential customers?
Diana:
I think it’s interesting, because most of our efforts end up being community awareness or education, because a lot of people with vision loss aren’t aware that we are here, and offer these opportunities, and in the community a lot of businesses had no idea that maybe we offer machine shop or assembly packaging services, because we’re very old, and we’ve got a very consistent customer base, so getting new people aware of us is one of our marketing hurdles. It’s not just to potential employees or just to potential customers, I think we’re right now doing a blanket of awareness.
Jeff:
I mean, you’re offering market competitive wages with benefits to match, so there’s no problem there, it’s just getting the word out.
Diana:
Exactly, because once people come and experience our culture, get to understand the market base wages that we pay, the excellent benefit packages, and really the tremendous people that we have working here, that part isn’t the problem. It’s just getting them in the door the first time.
Jeff:
So it sounds like your customers – Harley Davidson, GE, 3M, Hewlett Packard, they’re all satisfied with the work, so they keep coming back.
Diana:
Exactly, but as their businesses change, we’re trying to change too, and expand to find new customers, maybe new opportunities, as I think there’s some old saying, like you can’t put all your eggs in one basket, so we’re trying to get some more baskets.
Jeff:
Mm-hm. And you also reached out with some community service, I heard about the No Empty Backpack program that you got involved in last year.
Diana:
Oh, yes. Exactly. The No Empty Backpack is a program that a customer of ours, Bested, is working with Milwaukee public schools on, and we are assembling all of the school supplies that BestEd gathers for students in need at MPS, so it’s just a delightful way of bringing the community together, bringing our team into a community supporting effort, and connecting with MPS, because we do want to expand awareness in the public schools of our program, and the possibility of summer employment or first-time employment for young people with vision loss coming out of school.
Jeff:
Yeah, I think it’s really good that you reach out to the community. It builds awareness, and when you’re hiring people at an entry level, and being able to grow within the company, I mean, whether it be management, assembly, manufacturing, that shows a lot. You probably get employees that are working for one of your customers that might move onto them as well, or you know, advance to a point where they want to go out in the workforce outside of Beyond Vision.
Diana:
Absolutely, we talk about our career runway here, where it’s a place to land, and a place to take off in your career, so someone could get started, learn some skills, and maybe apply them as you had suggested, to work for a customer. We’ve had a number of people build their skillset and work their way up from assembly, packaging, part-time work to customer care center, and then learning some tech skills, maybe taking some classes, and then they go on to work as an HR person at an independent corporate company. We’ve had somebody who moved up the ranks and left our fund development group to work for another nonprofit.
Jeff:
Wow, that’s really neat. I mean, you guys are quite diversified. I also saw that you have some web accessibility testing going on.
Jennifer:
Yes, we do, and you know what, Stephen, do you want to answer some stuff about web accessibility?
Stephen:
Yes, so we have a lot of web accessibility, we do a lot of testing. We have our accessibility team, which consists of Israel and another couple of members over at our call center, where they go on and they have a really cool process where they scan people’s websites and make sure everything is accessible on their website, because right now that’s a big issue where lawsuits are happening with a lot of companies that don’t have accessible websites. So we’re providing that service for different companies, and making it accessible for everyone.
Jeff:
And who best to test it out than someone that actually uses the equipment, the JAWS screen readers and stuff.
Jennifer:
Exactly. Exactly. That’s the problem with some companies that try to make accessible websites, they don’t have a good way to test it, and so they’re doing their best, but having someone to actually check it can be really important.
Jeff:
What I’m really impressed about is that you have people who have experience with visual impairment or blindness working within and throughout your entire company. I think that’s a major difference.
Stephen:
I think that’s really cool too, because Jeff, I’m actually recently new here, I’ve been working here for about five months now, and that was one thing that- I am typically sighted, and that was one thing that was really cool coming in here and learning and seeing this whole process of how Beyond Vision operates, how we’re an integrated workforce, and how cool and how successful we can be with that integrated workforce.
Jeff:
Yeah, it doesn’t seem like it’s kid gloves, it just seems like more common sense. I mean, you’re breaking down the barriers that other companies feel that that’s why they may not be hiring someone, or even acknowledging that there’s people who are blind and visually impaired out there that are possible employees. You’re exposing the talents and the skills that they’re perfectly able to do, if you break those down.
Stephen:
Exactly.
Jeff:
So if someone’s listening to this and they’re interested in learning more about Beyond Vision or some jobs that are opening, they can go to your website?
Jennifer:
Yes, they can go to beyondvision.com, that’s our website, and there is a careers section there that will give you the current opportunities. They can also email me a resume and cover letter at jobs@beyondvision.com, and currently we are looking for people to work in our manufacturing area in-person in Milwaukee. We’re also looking for a person at our base supply center store in Illinois, as a Customer Care Specialist, and we’re looking for a Production Manager. All of these jobs, we would welcome blind and visually impaired candidates for any of them.
Jeff:
Now, Jennifer, I’ve known you through working for Adjustment to Blindness Training Center, and when you went to Beyond Vision, how did that feel? I mean sometimes there’s a stigma of places that have visually impaired people working in assembly lines and stuff, and they always talk about, you know, oh, you want to be in a more competitive area or something, but you went there, and you’re there now, and you’re hiring people. Explain that.
Jennifer:
Sure, and I think that there is a lot of stigma around what are perceived as sheltered workshops, and one of the reasons I went to Beyond Vision is I was very impressed by the way we have gone away from the traditional sheltered workshop concept. Our CEO likes to say, this isn’t your grandfather’s sheltered workshop, and we’re not. We pay competitive wages, our work is competitive. We don’t just hand blind people a job and say, oh, here’s a job, why don’t you, you know, you do whatever you can and we’ll just accept whatever there is. We’re always working to help people gain more skills, be better at their job, do their job well, be proud of the job that they’re doing, and we pay competitive wages for those jobs, and have competitive benefits. It is a work experience, not a sit around and talk kind of experience. And we do really believe in promoting, and I’ve seen many people promoted throughout our company, or people who gain skills and take another career path, and that’s really important. Sometimes the most important thing for people who are blind or visually impaired who want to be in the workforce is gaining work experience. If you never have had an experience with an entry level type job or any type of job to put on your resume, sometimes it’s hard to get hired for other jobs that you’re looking for that might be more advanced, so I really believe that gaining work experience is a crucial step for anyone in their career path, and if they want to use that career experience to continue working for us, you know, we offer a lot special development, a lot of opportunities, that’s great. If they want to use that career experience to go on and do other great things in other fields or in other places, we’re really supportive of that too, but that work experience is a really important thing.
Jeff:
Well, I think it’s a great thing that you’re doing is helping, you know, people become economically independent. There’s a big difference between being in the driver’s seat of your destiny when you go to work, get a paycheck, get the reward, you just feel the dignity, everything that comes with that is really good. I like that.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
Jeff:
Michael, how does that feel to- I mean, you’ve been there for a while now, so how does that feel to have economic independence?
Michael:
It feels good, when you’re able to take care of yourself and your family, if you have dependents, it’s just a joy.
Jeff:
Javier?
Javier:
My opinion on it, it feels really good, so I’m on the A-Team. It feels really good to say that, hey, I’ve had this vision ability my whole life and I’m still doing this by myself, I’m talking about myself, I don’t got nobody helping me, it’s just a nice feeling.
Jeff:
Well, that’s a perfect age to have a job, be independent. Good for you, good for you, and good for Beyond Vision. This is really something. I’m glad that you have something in Minnesota here, and Illinois, Milwaukee, you’re our neighbor over there. I’m sure a lot of people can take advantage of getting ahold of you and finding out more. Stephen, I have a question for you.
Stephen:
Yeah, of course.
Jeff:
So, you’re sighted?
Stephen:
Yeah, I am.
Jeff:
Okay, being someone who’s sighted and you came into Beyond Vision, you must have been curious, so when you got there, what was it like to wrap your brain around what Beyond Vision was about?
Stephen:
So it honestly, it fascinated me, and what was cool is when I was first applying for this position, I saw it online and I didn’t know too much about Beyond Vision, but the position sounded really cool, and I started looking more into it, and it actually turns out my dad toured here once, and I told him after I applied, I’m like oh, I applied for this really cool company called Beyond Vision, and he’s like wait, like, I’ve been there before. And he’s like, this company’s super cool, like Stephen, you’ve got to, like, commit with this, you’ve got to start following up. I’m like, alright, I got even more excited about the position, and once I started getting farther in the interview process I got a tour of the company, and it was just unbelievable to see the machine shop, and it was so cool talking to Jeff, who’s an engineer here, who 3D prints fixtures to allow people who are blind, visually impaired to do work just as well and even better than people who are sighted because it prevents error-proofing, and all these amazing things, and just all that put together just made me fascinated, and there’s so many stereotypes around vision loss that that was one thing, and even coming in, something I believed, and it was so cool just to be able to take this position on and start working at breaking those stereotypes and really informing the community about Beyond Vision.
Jeff:
And when you’re informing the community, you’re talking about going out to the potential customers and selling Beyond Vision to them.
Stephen:
Yeah, so that and just telling people in general, breaking those stereotypes that I was talking about. A lot of people, like I said, even myself included going in, believed a bunch of stereotypes, and just going out on social media, promoting it to the community, just general overall everyone, saying that this isn’t true, like, this is what is true, people who are blind are just as capable of doing this work.
Jeff:
I’m glad, I like the mission of what you’re all about there at Beyond Vision, and I want to thank you for coming on and sharing with our listeners and hopefully some people will check it out, and we’ll get more people hired on. I’m glad you mentioned those positions, and remember that, that’s jobs@beyondvision.com, send them an email, go onto their website, look it up, they’ve got a section there for career opportunities, and there’s a listing down below, so thank you very much.
Stephen:
Thanks for having us, Jeff!
Diana:
Thanks so much.
Michael:
Yes, thank you.
Man:
Beyond Vision enriches its employees through the power of work, truly a partner to customers and the community.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
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