PHOENIX — Inside a massive Phoenix warehouse, dozens of workers are feverishly picking, packing, triple-checking and shipping thousands of items each day.
“There’s just so much meaning behind a good day's worth of work and pulling an honest paycheck,” said Douglas Westereng.
It’s especially meaningful at the Arizona Industries for the Blind, when you look around and the men and women doing it all while visually impaired.
“When you come to work, you're a person first, you're not a disabled worker,” said AIB spokesperson David Steinmetz.
Steinmetz and his service dog Rufus provided us with a tour Friday.
“We ship about 325,000 orders a year and we maintain and inventory accuracy rate of 99.99 percent,” said Steinmetz.
The massive fulfillment center works with entities like the U.S. military and the Arizona Department of Human Services.
The team is in charge of processing and preparing inventory heading out the door to troops around the world and folks in the local community.
AIB recently awarded another contract to ship multivitamins on behalf of the state.
We feel more secure if we have a paying job, it helps our confidence level, so we don’t have to depend on other people like our family members, our friends, it just really helps us a lot,” said Christopher Nelson.
Eighty percent of people who are legally blind still have some remaining vision. That’s where the investment into adaptive technology like screen readers, magnification devices and audio assistance help to even the playing field.
“This actually assists me in reading things, I can enlarge it or make it smaller depending on what I need,” said Christine Helvoigt, while showing us how she navigates her screens with a magnification program.
Helvoigt lost her sight when she was 40 years old, to a condition called Angioid Streaks.
“It was very difficult because so many things are lost. The hardest thing was when I handed over my car keys to my husband and said I can’t do it anymore,” said Helvoigt. “You really feel like you are losing independents.”
Her dark days, however, didn’t last long after finding purpose at AIB.
“It is huge on your self-worth, everything you do, my core friends that I have, the confidence I’ve gotten working here," said Helvoigt. "I have a group of friends that do not treat me like I’m blind, they actually forget that I’m blind.”
It’s easy to see why when you watch this well-oiled machine in action.
Despite their lack of vision, these folks navigate their way around obstacles like pros. Some use walking canes, while others service animals. But it’s their process and diligence that keeps their track record for getting the job done right intact.
“It’s always triple check, triple check, triple check,” said Nelson.
“They make it to where you can go as far as you want, there’s not that many restrictions, other than driving the forklift,” said James Clymer.
It’s not only providing a paycheck but opening eyes to their capabilities as a workforce.
“Just take a chance on us like they have here,” said Tricia Todd-Sch.