We want people to learn and grow when opportunities come up inside Industries of the Blind. But we also want them to learn and grow so, if the opportunity outside of us becomes available, that they have those skills and they can be confident about applying for somewhere that’s not with us.

Welcome to the Heard and Empowered podcast presented by National Industries of the Blind. You’re not just a listener here, you’re a catalyst for change. Whether you’re blind, visually impaired or an ally, this is your ultimate resource for building a fulfilling career and an enriching life. We’re on a mission to shift perceptions, open hearts and minds, and unlock unparalleled job opportunities for the BVI community. Ready to be heard and empowered? Let’s welcome our host, Dr. Hoby Wedler.

This is a special episode recorded at the 2023 National Industries for the Blind Conference in Washington DC. Please excuse any audio quirks as we capture these conversations, but we guarantee the wisdom is pure gold.

Hoby: Hello, and welcome back to the Heard and Empowered podcast for today, I am beyond honored to have a conversation with Richard Oliver. Richard, how are you today?

Richard: I’m doing very well. Thanks for having me.

Hoby: Welcome to the show, we’re honored to have you. This is fantastic. Richard, can you tell us what your current place of employment is?

Richard: Certainly. I work at Industries of the Blind located in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Hoby: That’s fantastic. And you said that your title is director of government affairs. Is that right?

Richard: Yes, it’s one of those long, crazy ones. It’s director of community outreach and government relations.

Hoby: Love it. Love that. That’s awesome. And one of the things that I really want to talk about today is how much the products made by the blind and visually impaired population help the federal government. And you guys have a really good story in that environment, in that regard, but before we jump into that, I would love to know a little bit about your background, how you got into the blindness world, and how you ended up from, I don’t know, graduating college to working in the director role that you have at Industries of the Blind.

Richard: Absolutely, absolutely. So, I was born with colobomas in both eyes, where your retinal wall sort of developed over the top of itself and created scarring and some visual issues from birth. But I had an eye. My right eye was 20/20 till I was 17 and hit my head, tore my retina, and started to lose vision. Then when I was 23 years old it tore again, I woke up from the second retinal surgery and never saw out of my right eye again. I’ve got 22/50 with a contact lens in my left eye.

So that was when I was 23. I worked for a while, did some different things. It was difficult to really transition, and you had that independence of drive and ride and then all of a sudden you come out of the hospital and that’s all gone away.

Hoby: So you couldn’t drive with 22/50 in your left eye?

Richard: Correct, yeah. So finally, in ‘95 I found Industries of the Blind. Funny, I answered a… I’m going to call it a blind ad, right? And went… interviewed… they were just opening up a brand-new distribution center.

Hoby: Okay.

Richard: And I went to work there.

Hoby: Let me step back, how did they advertise that job?

Richard: Well, in 1995 it was in the newspaper.

Hoby: But they were looking for people with visual impairment?

Richard: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Hoby: I love that.

Richard: And because it was a brand-new contract with the Department of Defense that no one in the National Industries for the Blind realm had really been doing yet… it was distribution. So this was the first contract between us and the Arizona Industries of the Blind. So it was a great opportunity that I stepped into doing some warehousing and distribution.

Hoby: Wow! That’s incredible. What did the collaboration look like between Industries of the Blind in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Arizona Industries of the Blind? Like how did you guys join forces there?

Richard: So the contract was sort of split down the middle. We both really have the same inventory. It’s all government owned inventory, light bulbs and ballasts, things of that nature. But the orders really split at the Mississippi. So anything west of the Mississippi went to Arizona and they fulfilled it. Anything east of that came to Greensboro and we fulfilled it. And we ship orders all over the world. Matter of fact, that was in ‘95, we’re still performing on that contract here in 2023.

Hoby: I love that.

Richard: So it was great. And I have had the opportunity through lots of help, lots of mentors, lots of guidance to learn and grow from there. I got to move up in the ranks. I tell people that the only things I really haven’t done at Industries of the Blind is payroll and the president.

Hoby: I love it, payroll, and president. So tell me about your journey. And this is one of the things that we’ve been exploring throughout the very initial episodes of this show, is the amazing opportunity for upward mobility at all the agencies supported by NIB. So if we could hear a little bit about your journey and how you started and what roles you took on and how you climbed the ladder, so to speak.

Richard: Absolutely. So like I said, I came in as a material handler, right? Pulling orders off the shelf and then helping to pack and make sure they got out the door. And as you got that under your belt, you got comfortable with that and moved into shipping and receiving and then moved into the office and to some computer roles. And then by chance one opened up in accounting, which I’m not an accountant, but I moved over and started doing accounts receivable. And then IT.

I was playing around with websites, because really back in the late 90s early 2000s you were building websites, coding it yourself using HTML, all that kind of stuff.

Hoby: Totally. Yeah, and you knew code.

Richard: So I sort of taught myself how to do that.

Hoby: Wow!

Richard: And then I built the first website for Industries of the Blind.

Hoby: Really?

Richard: Yeah. So they immediately made me go into IT. Not made me, but you know what I mean.

Hoby: Invited you, yeah.

Richard: Invited me. So it was great. So I got to really transition and transitioned into sales and marketing. And one of my favorite, favorite roles was I was the director of operations. So I got to run all of the manufacturing and all of our distribution services. And the really great part is that as an NIB agency, inside of our agency plus everywhere else, right, people are really supportive.

So was that my background? No, it was not my background, but you have people there that are guiding you, helping you, mentoring you. You fall down, they pick you up, let’s keep rolling forward. And you learn and grow. And that’s how really I got, after director of operations, moved back over into the sales and marketing and the community outreach pieces that I’m doing today. So, it’s fantastic! A really supportive environment.

Hoby: And that’s what, we’re going to touch on this a little bit later in the show, too, but that’s one of the things that I think is so valuable about the NIB agencies, is they promote upward mobility, and they support you every step of the way. So there’s nothing unsafe or barbaric or anything like that when you jump into a job like this. You’re really throwing yourself into a group of people who want you to succeed.

Richard: Absolutely. So think if you were the only person who was blind at a company where everyone else was sighted, you’re isolated, you’re alone, people don’t know, I mean, they want to help, but they don’t know how to help. They don’t know what’s out there to help you to succeed.

Well, that’s completely different inside of our NIB agencies. It is more about how can we make sure that the operations that we want you to do are going to support you, so that you can learn and grow and succeed. I mean, that’s all we want, is for people to achieve and succeed.

Hoby: One of our main taglines for this show is we want to create employment where you are not accommodated, but rather celebrated. And I think that really ties into what you’re saying. Industries of the Blind, and a lot of these NIB agencies really celebrate employees who are blind and visually impaired.

Richard: Absolutely. And we do that through lots of ways. I mean, technology is fantastic nowadays for helping people who are blind if you’re in offices or you’re doing some other pieces of manufacturing and stuff. But machines have gotten smarter, and you can adapt. I mean, we do a lot of textiles, and you can adapt the equipment with guides and fixtures and do programmable things that really allow someone to really succeed at a job you wouldn’t think someone would, like sewing a very complicated combat trouser.

Hoby: Wow! You know, that’s something that I think is so important and near and dear to what the NIB agencies do. I always say that we are not disabled, we’re only as disabled as the technology that we use makes us, right? So when we buy a washing machine and the buttons are not tactile, it’s not that we’re disabled and we’re unable to use a washing machine. It’s that that manufacturer didn’t think about us and their design.

Richard: Very true.

Hoby: And what you’re saying about sewing and building a complex textile, there are ways that are not only fairly easy and straightforward, but also extremely cost effective to make this machinery totally accessible to someone who can’t see a thing.

Richard: Very true. There are some very smart people that work across, not just NIB, because NIB has engineers, but across all the NPAs. There are some very smart people that that’s what they’re sitting there doing, is figuring out how someone who is blind, no matter what the vision level is, right? I have a lot of usable vision, though I’m still legally blind, to someone who has no light perception whatsoever.

Hoby: Like myself.

Richard: They’re sitting down figuring out how can these operations get done in an efficient manner that’s the same quality. It’s a repeatable quality, right? Because that’s the real thing, is to make things repeatable.

Hoby: Absolutely. So on that note, let’s talk about what Industries of the Blind makes, because you guys are really, you supply the Armed Forces mostly, is that correct?

Richard: Correct. Correct.

Hoby: And your products, you’re the exclusive supplier of a lot of products that they use every day. So walk us through a little bit of your product line and how those products are used and what you guys make, what you do.

Richard: Sure, absolutely. So we really have, I call it three business lines.

Hoby: Sure.

Richard: One is our products. So we make office products and JanSan products.

Hoby: Just a quick note to our listeners. When Richard mentioned JanSan, he was referring to janitorial and sanitation products. Now let’s get back to Richard’s insights.

Richard: We really have, I call it three business lines.

Hoby: Sure.

Richard: One is our products. So we make office products and JanSan products. That category is ink pens, we do a lot with retractable ballpoint, retractable gel pens. We’re making millions, pretty close to about 8 million individual pens a year. Then we make clipboards and sew cotton mops, mop handles, things of that nature.

The second part of our business is textiles. So we produce the army combat uniform jacket, the fire resistant combat trousers, that base level T-shirt that a soldier wears underneath their combat jacket, we make that as well.

And then our third business line is 3PL distribution services.

Hoby: That’s fascinating.

Richard: So we store government owned materials, and we pull them, ship them all over the world. On average, that is doing six to 700 orders per day.

Hoby: Wow!

Richard: And we use some really great technology in all of that to be able to perform those services and make those products.

Hoby: And does your distribution center run their own trucks?

Richard: We don’t.

Hoby: Okay.

Richard: We’re pulling orders and putting them on pallets or shipping them out. They either go LTL, or they go to FedEx or UPS all over the world.

Hoby: Got it. And you make products for countries outside the United States, is that right?

Richard: Well, we ship outside the United States.

Hoby: But it’s for the United States government mostly.

Richard: Yes. Yes, I mean all of the textiles are specifically for and contracted with the Defense Logistics Agency.

Hoby: Sure. Sure, sure, sure. And for 55 years, you guys have been making a special government, which I know very little about. So that’s what I know Industries of the Blind for, is the special pen. So maybe you can describe a little bit about what that pen is.

Richard: Sure. That is my favorite pen. Yeah, so it’s the US government SKILCRAFT^® pen. It’s that standard issued pen in the military, but we’ve been making it since 1968, for 55 years. It’s got 16 pages of military specifications that it meets, which is crazy for an ink pen. And in ’68… ‘70 that was actually the most complicated item that was being performed by NIB agencies at the time.

Hoby: Wow!

Richard: So in those 16 pages this pen has to write a linear mile. The ink has to withstand two doses of bleach. The barrel is an emergency tracheotomy tube with its clip.

Hoby: Wow!

Richard: The pen actually on a map they use it, it’s 150 nautical miles. It works in extreme temperatures of like 40 below to 120 above.

Hoby: That’s amazing!

Richard: So, it’s your all-purpose pen. It’s that pen… I tell people it’s that pen that you throw in your desk drawer or the glove compartment of your car, wherever, and two years later when you’re scrambling around looking for a pen and you find that, that one works.

Hoby: Good as new.

Richard: It’s fantastic.

Hoby: And when you say on a map it measures, everything else made perfect sense to me, but it measures 150 nautical miles, based on the key of a government map, right?

Richard: Yeah.

Hoby: No, I love that. I think that’s so interesting and so wonderful how that particular pen has been the most complicated item produced by an NIB agency and well over 50% of the people producing that pen are blind or visually impaired.

Richard: Yeah. In our facility, everyone who works in that department doing direct labor is blind or visually impaired, absolutely.

Hoby: Wow!

Richard: And it’s a lot of fun. So, another really fun part about the pen is that, like I said earlier, we make the army combat uniform jacket. Well, on that jacket there is a pencil pocket.

Hoby: Right.

Richard: In the past it was always on the chest, today it is on the sleeve. But the pen and the pocket were sort of designed together to marry up with each other.

Hoby: And you make them both.

Richard: And we make them both, so it’s fantastic.

Hoby: I love that. That’s awesome! No, and that really tells a good story and it’s a good promotional story for your agency too. Do you guys also offer training services for the blind?

Richard: Well, we have in-house trainers for the operations that we have in manufacturing.

Hoby: But you’re not teaching orientation, mobility, that sort of thing necessarily?

Richard: Well, we do have an O and M specialist on staff who works with new hires or folks who’ve been there for a while and their vision has transitioned and need some cane training. So we do have one on staff, and then he does other things as well. He’s doing human guide training. He goes to our associate’s homes if they want some help traversing the neighborhood, or if you live in an apartment complex, being able to get back and forth from the mailbox, those types of things.

Hoby: Right. And he literally works, this person literally works with people one-on-one as they need it.

Richard: Absolutely, absolutely. So he’s fantastic. His name is Jack Mitchell and with us, he sort of doubles as our access technology person as well, because we have a computer lab where he is teaching things like Excel and Word. And so, we’re trying to build the skills of our associates for two reasons.

One, we want people to learn and grow when opportunities come up inside Industries of the Blind. But we also want them to learn and grow so if that opportunity outside of us becomes available, that they have those skills and they can be confident about applying for somewhere that’s not with us.

Hoby: And there’s no shame or no harm in the agency world. Again, it’s supportive. If you want to go somewhere else and take a higher paying job, go for it.

Richard: Absolutely. I mean, that would be fantastic. That is a success for us.

Hoby: I love that. That’s very special and very, very cool.

Let’s transition for a minute to talk a little bit about what you do in your role relating to the government. And maybe we can use this opportunity for you to explain, to use your agency as a lens to explain how NIB agencies fit in with the federal government and are able to sell products into them.

And really a lot of this has to do with an act called the AbilityOne Commission^® or a commission called the AbilityOne Commission founded in 1938 under a different name, that mandates that products that are sold into the federal government are made by people who are blind or visually impaired. Can you chat with us a little bit about that and that relationship?

Richard: Sure.

Hoby: I mean it’s a behemoth of a conversation.

Richard: That is a very big one. But really, we work in concert with NIB. So the National Industries for the Blind is really that conduit between the federal government and the NPAs.

Hoby: NPA meaning?

Richard: The nonprofit associations.

Hoby: Got it.

Richard: I would just say Industries of the Blind to make life easy. So really, they help to make those introductions, they help to open those doors so that you can go have these conversations directly with the contracting officers inside of the government who are issuing the contracts, cutting the solicitations for you to bid on.

And then NIB has a lot of other services that they do as well… engineering, and different things like that to really help the agencies like us to be able to tell the government, yes, we have those capabilities. Yes, we can perform those services. Yes, we can make those products.

And then it’s sort of a two-fold thing, either if the contract is so large from the government that it’s going to take multiple agencies, like Industries of the Blind, then NIB actually will become the prime for that contract and then we will be subs. Or if it’s a contract where it’s only going to require one agency, like where we’re doing the fire-resistant combat trousers, then they say, okay, you, agency, are the prime. And then we become the prime on the contract and then we’re dealing directly with the government and the contracting officers, on doing all the negotiations and pricings on those contracts.

Hoby: Perfect, and NIB is there as a supporter.

Richard: They are there as a support. Yeah, they will provide whatever assistance they need. And they’re great at opening doors inside of the federal space.

Hoby: That’s awesome. What a tool to have in your toolbox, right, as an agency that wants to employ as many blind people as possible. It’s really good to see that.

Richard: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, without them it would make life a lot harder to really be able to open those doors. You could open some doors yourself, but it’s so much nicer to have someone there who already has those relationships and says, hey, let me make this introduction for you.

Hoby: How cool is that?

Richard: That is very cool.

Hoby: Yeah, no, that’s tremendous. And you guys at Industries of the Blind is a really good example of an organization that is doing, your people, the people you are employing, including yourself, are saving lives every day by supporting the armed forces. Maybe we can’t serve in the military as active-duty members, but we can change lives and save lives and do all that in this capacity that we hold with the agencies.

Richard: Very true. And our folks are very, very proud of that thought, right? We’re making clothing for service members. We’re making products that the service members use in their daily lives. Yes, we can’t serve, but this is the way that we get to serve.

Hoby: Fantastic. Richard, I could talk to you for hours because I love what you do, and I find it all very fascinating, but running a little short on time, I’ve got one big question for you that I just want to sort of think through with you and hear what you think of.

What advice would you give a family member of someone who’s blind or visually impaired, or that person who is blind or visually impaired, thinking about taking that first step and going to work and getting away from benefits and really living that amazing, fulfilling life and having the dignity of being employed? How do you do it?

Richard: So my answer is sort of a two-fold answer. So I’m going to say if you’re new to blindness, right, you just recently lost your vision, that type of thing and you haven’t fully adjusted, my best advice is to go to… Every state has a division for services for the blind, right?

Hoby: Perfect.

Richard: They would be the first resource that I direct people to for transitioning, education, help, all those types of things. But if you’re ready, if you’re ready for employment, then there are agencies across the country just like Industries of the Blind in Greensboro to really take that leap of faith with. We don’t expect someone who is blind to come in and 100% know how to perform the operations that we do. That’s what we’re there for, to train you.

Hoby: Or getting to and from their apartment, finding their apartment within a building, that sort of thing.

Richard: Those types of things. We do all those things. And many agencies across the country do that and more.

Hoby: Right.

Richard: So once you pass that fear and you really come in and step inside and see it’s a supportive environment with a lot of people who are just like you or have been in the same boat as you. So now you’ve got a community that is behind you, wanting you to succeed and really showing you how to do those operations and really achieving the dream that you want to dream.

Hoby: That’s so powerful. That is incredible. And the agencies are there to support.

Richard: Absolutely.

Hoby: Not put up walls.

Richard: Exactly.

Hoby: There you go, we break down barriers together. Richard, you’ve been very inspirational and I’m sure people will want to reach out to you, some of our listeners will want to reach out to you. Would you mind if I just put your email in the show notes of the show?

Richard: Certainly.

Hoby: Thank you so much for that.

This is the Heard and Empowered podcast and we’ve just had a great conversation with Richard Oliver from Industries of the Blind in Greensboro, North Carolina. Richard, thank you.

Richard: Thank you.

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