Two Paths, One Message: Meet Laquana and Donald
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, a time to celebrate workers with disabilities and the workplaces that make room for them to thrive. At NewView Oklahoma, that work happens every day.
This month, we sat down with two members of our team, Laquana and Donald. Their roads to NewView look nothing alike. Laquana first worked here nearly 20 years ago, back when we were the Oklahoma League for the Blind. Donald hopped on a bus from California and found his first job here.
Their stories are their own. But ask either of them what they’d tell someone with vision loss who’s afraid they can’t work, and you’ll hear the same answer: you can.
Laquana: “You Have a Place Here”
Laquana was born five and a half months premature. She has retinopathy of prematurity, with a total retinal detachment in her right eye, and has been blind since birth.
“It was pretty much life,” she says. She went to public school, learned braille, and learned to travel with her cane.
Laquana first connected with NewView through OWL Camp, back when the organization was the Oklahoma League for the Blind. After college, she came back as a part-time employee. She worked straight through COVID and has been here ever since.
Ask Laquana what she’d say to someone with vision loss who’s afraid to work, and she doesn’t hesitate.
“We have a place for you here, because this is for you,” she says. “You’ll be able to do everything, because the machines and everything are modified just for you.”
She describes the range of work available: the assembly line, the hose department, the chock department, and vinyl. “It’s pretty much all hands-on,” she says. Technology fills in the rest. Tools like Meta glasses let employees read manuals and job instructions, and computer classes open doors to computer-based jobs.
For Laquana, NewView is more than a paycheck. Through assistive technology and daily living skills training, employees can build independent lives too. “You’ll be able to live independently and work at the same time,” she says.
And for anyone who hasn’t heard of NewView yet, she has one more thing to say. “This is a great place to work. It’s a great culture,” she says. “You may be blind, but we can see you working at NewView.”
Donald: “Come On In, the Water’s Fine”
Donald was also born with retinopathy of prematurity. He arrived at five months and weighed just one pound, six ounces. He spent nine months in an incubator because his eyes hadn’t fully developed.
“I was born at one pound six ounces,” he says. “So yeah, very tiny.”
NewView is Donald’s first job, and he doesn’t take it lightly. “What can you say when somebody gives you a job?” he says. “It means the world to you, because it’s your first job, and you’ll do whatever you have to do to take care of it.”
What matters most to him is the people. “Sure, we all have our days. But we’re all human beings here. We have modified equipment so that we can work.”
Donald heard about NewView from his mom, who had recently moved to Oklahoma. She told him there was a place for the blind where he could work. He decided to check it out for himself. On YouTube, he found a video of NewView President and CEO Lauren Branch walking through the organization. “The way she said it just got me to do it,” he says.
So, Donald took a bus from California and followed his mom to Oklahoma City. It took some time to get in, but he made it. Donald works in production now, and he’s set his sights on computer work next. Even so, he loves where he is. If he had to stay another ten years, he says, he wouldn’t mind.
“This place is so nice to us,” he says. “They give us pizza. They give us lunch every few weeks. Why would anybody be mad at that?”
His advice for anyone with vision loss who’s afraid to work is simple. “Come on in, the water’s fine,” he says. “It takes some time to get used to, but it can be done.”
Work Is Possible
Laquana and Donald came to NewView by different roads, and they bring different dreams with them. One is teaching herself the Zulu language. The other is aiming for a desk and a computer. What they share is the knowledge that blindness and low vision don’t close the door to meaningful work.
That is what National Disability Employment Awareness Month is about. When workplaces are built with accessibility in mind, through modified equipment, assistive technology, and training, people who are blind or have low vision can build careers and independent lives.
If you or someone you love is living with vision loss and wondering what’s next, take Donald’s advice: come on in. Learn about careers at NewView Oklahoma.
