LaKenia: If you haven’t done anything and you’re new to being blind and you heard about a place, call that place. Ask your mom or your pastor or whoever it is that you can talk to that will help you. If you can’t get help from them, call 211. That’s a great resource and it’s on the phone.

Welcome to the Heard & Empowered podcast presented by National Industries for 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.

Hoby: Welcome back, folks, to the Heard & Empowered podcast. Today I have the distinct honor and great pleasure of having a chat with LaKenia Garnes, who I’ve gotten to know well. And I’m just so excited and tickled to have her on the show. LaKenia, welcome.

LaKenia: Thank you, I’m so excited to be here.

Hoby: Well it’s an honor to have you. So tell us just where you work and what your job title is, if you don’t mind, LaKenia.

LaKenia: Okay, well I work for the Lighthouse for the Blind Seattle. And the BSC, the Base Supply Center, is the department that I work in. And I am a purchasing assistant, so I work in operations and I assist with pretty much anything to do with operations.

Hoby: Incredible. That’s awesome. I always like to start from the beginning and really not only get the story of what you do and how you empower people and all the amazing work that you do, but I like to get to know the person behind the work. So if you don’t mind, if you could just share with us a little bit about your background, your upbringing, whether you’re blind or sighted and sort of your journey, if you will, to where you are right now.

LaKenia: Okay. Well, I was born in Tacoma, Washington, a little south of Seattle. And I was actually fully sighted until the age of 18. I lost my sight to trauma, actually a gunshot wound. A whole different story. So yeah, I’m happy to be here and be alive.

Hoby: We’re happy to have you.

LaKenia: Yes, it was a weird transition going from being totally sighted for 18 years and living that life and then just suddenly losing all of my sight.

Hoby: Literally instantaneous, was it?

LaKenia: Yes, it was instantaneous and it was super awesome though, I was only in the hospital for two weeks and I didn’t have any extra, I didn’t have to do physical therapy or anything like that. It was just, I lost my sight. So I consider that an incredible blessing. And my daughter will argue with that. I’ll say I have no brain damage, you know, but some of my friends might not agree with me on that one.

Hoby: No, but just losing your eyesight, it could have been – I love that attitude because so many people hear about blindness and they think if they’re going blind later in life, it’s like, I’d rather not live. I don’t know what to do without my eyesight. But to hear you say, and because you lost it at a fairly young age, to hear you say that only losing your eyesight was a blessing is so on point and exactly right, in my opinion.

LaKenia: And I had never known anything about being blind or not even, there was like one gentleman in our neighborhood who had gone blind in his old age, but that’s as far as any association I had with being blind. So it was definitely different and definitely a transition. But luckily I’ve been blessed with an optimistic spirit. And so I was like, it happened on December 9th and I’m trying to go out to the club for New Year’s Eve. And my friends are like, “You can’t go out to the club.”

Hoby: And you’re like, “Oh, yes, I can.”

LaKenia: It’s like, “Maybe you want to heal first, you know?” So yeah.

Hoby: I love that.

LaKenia: Yeah, I was very optimistic through the whole journey. And I believe that being positive and staying positive and focusing on the things that you have is what actually helped me with my transition.

Hoby: It’s the only way to be, in my opinion. People say, “How do you do life as a blind person successfully? And I say, you just have to be positive. And if you can laugh about something six months from now, just laugh about it now. You’ve got to be open-minded and positive and willing to have that abundance mindset and try anything once, you know?

LaKenia: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Hoby: LaKenia, most people if they lost their eyesight as a teenager, would have a really hard time being optimistic and want to go to the club just three weeks after it happened. What do you attribute to your optimism and positivity through the whole journey?

LaKenia: I think that it has something to do with just focusing on what I do have. Instead of dwelling on what I didn’t have or the things that I wasn’t going to be able to do anymore, I just tried to find new ways of doing the things that I could actually do.

Hoby: That’s beautiful.

LaKenia: As far as even brushing my hair or, you know, when I was laying in the hospital I literally was thinking, “How am I going to wear eyeliner again?” I was trying to think, “How can I do this?” And by the time I came home, I was trying it out.

Hoby: I love it.

LaKenia: So yeah, I think just focusing on what you can do and what you have now is what keeps you moving forward.

Hoby: Had you graduated high school by the time this happened?

LaKenia: Well, I was a bit of a rebellious child, so I got my GED. I didn’t do the whole high school thing.

Hoby: But you got that before you lost your vision?

LaKenia: Before I lost my vision, yes, I did. But I did go on to go to college after, so I did experience that.

Hoby: Nice. What did you study in college?

LaKenia: Psychology. I was a psychology major and I got my bachelor’s in liberal arts and I got a master’s in clinicals. Well, actually marriage and family therapy is what my master’s degree is.

Hoby: And how did you go from, “Okay, I’m blind” to, “Yeah, I want to go to college”? Like walk me through the journey, the training that you received, anything like that, that empowered you to do that, to take that next step and go to college.

LaKenia: Well, I had went to the OTC, the orientation training center, when I first lost my sight at 18. And then years later when I decided to go back to college, I went through Goodwill. So I went through their computer training program and that’s where I learned how to use JAWS and many other types of assistive technology that I would be able to utilize while I was in college.

Hoby: And that’s Goodwill Industries, for folks who don’t know, the large chain of secondhand stores, correct?

LaKenia: Yes, yes, yes. A lot of people don’t know that they use a lot of the funding from you buying those old shoes and purses goes towards helping people with disabilities and different underprivileged children and moms and veterans and all different kinds of people for job rehabilitation and vocational training.

Hoby: No, exactly. I think that’s awesome. So you got your training to go to college from Goodwill Industries. You went to college and you got your master’s in marriage and family therapy psychology, which is incredible. Did you work for some time as a therapist?

LaKenia: Well, I believe that that is where, from some of your previous podcasts you talk about challenges that we have as blind people working in the mainstream industry. So I did run into several challenges trying to get my therapy license, which I never successfully received my license to be a therapist. But I did work as a counselor and different things like that.

Hoby: If you don’t mind me asking just so listeners know what they were, if you don’t mind sharing I should say, what were some of the challenges that you faced there?

LaKenia: Dude, okay, I believe that a lot of people didn’t recognize my abilities to do the job because of whatever they were thinking in their mind what a blind person could or could not do, you know? And so they would say stuff to me that was totally irrelevant to working as a therapist. Like “I’m just trying to figure out how you’re going to get to the bathroom.” Like, what does that have to do with me being a counselor, you know?

Hoby: Oh gosh.

LaKenia: And so I think that the obstacles, the barriers that they would think would be a barrier for them working in whatever the situation was, and that that would be a barrier for me. It got to the point when I had done an interview at this one particular place, like this is the third time I’m interviewing for the job. So on paper, I’m 100% qualified, right?

And so when we got there, and this was my third time interviewing, and so the lady asked me and she’s a frail woman, you know, smaller than me. And so she tells me that she’s just worried about my safety. And it was working as a therapist in a mental hospital, which they have security there while you’re in session. Like she’s not sitting there in the room by herself, there’s a security person.

So what I said to her, I said, “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. We can wrestle and whoever wins, you know, I don’t know what else to say. I have been here three times. I don’t know how to tell you that I can?”, you know, I explained to her my background as being an ex-gang member and getting shot and that I can hold my own. I don’t know how can I explain to you that I’ll be able to be a therapist? You know, I’ll be safe here.

Hoby: What does it take?

LaKenia: Yes, exactly. Yeah. So that was very frustrating, but I just kept trying and trying. And that’s when I ended up working for the Lighthouse because I couldn’t get a job doing that. I worked in a couple of nonprofits and different things like that. But, yeah.

Hoby: It’s amazing, I just want to reflect a little bit on it for me personally, selfishly, on what you’ve just said. And it’s so interesting to me how often people put their own fears in our way of succeeding. They think, how could I do that? Or how would this work for me? Well, it wouldn’t. So I guess I can’t hire this person because if I couldn’t do it, I don’t know how they’re going to do it.

I remember sitting in a job interview, this is an embarrassing one. And the person interviewing me, it was one-on-one, said, “You know? You’re really amazing.” I said, “I am? I’m just a guy who happens to be blind applying for this job.” And they said, “Well, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I decided to see what it was like to be you and I didn’t turn the light on. And I ran right into my bathtub.” And it’s just like, “You’re not me. You haven’t had training for 30 years, you know, how can you?” And then, of course, they didn’t give me the job because they said I was a liability.

LaKenia: Yes, I’m telling you.

Hoby: So it’s just, it’s funny and we can lament about that. And flash to the scene a little bit of the crux of why we’re talking today, which is the fact that these organizations that are NIB associated nonprofit agencies and NIB themselves, NIB ourselves I should say, they champion our blindness. They don’t use their fear.

And by the way, I don’t think society is evil. I don’t think the person who thought that I was amazing because she walked into her bathtub and I don’t run into walls all the time, I don’t think they were evil. I think they just didn’t understand what our true capabilities are and had a hard time seeing beyond their fear, quite literally, to what I could do.

And I think that’s probably the case for you in many of the situations where the woman was fearful that you were not going to be safe, even when security is in session at the mental hospital, right? So I don’t want to throw people under the bus and say, “Oh boy, nobody gets it and they’re just evil.” They’re just ignorant, I think.

LaKenia: Yes, I believe so.

Hoby: Blindness is barely accommodated in the sighted world, right? Whereas with NIB and the associated nonprofit agencies, it’s totally championed. Like because, isn’t this amazing, LaKenia, that because we’re blind, we’re wanted?

LaKenia: Yes. Yes, it is the best. I’ve never been received the same, even in places that did hire me, they handled me with kid gloves, you know? And they picked and chose what jobs they thought that I would be able to handle, didn’t let me decide or give me a chance to just do everything and whatever I needed help with, ask for help. They would be like, “Well, we think you could do this, or we think you could do that”, and just give me pieces of the job.

Hoby: “Oh, you can sit in the back and answer the phone.”

LaKenia: Right, right. Some simple job that they think I’m capable of. But at this job, I have to do everything, you know? It’s like whatever any other sighted person is expected to do is what I’m expected to do. And I really appreciate that.

Hoby: No handouts, right?

LaKenia: No.

Hoby: Amen to that. I want to hear a little bit about your journey finding Seattle Lighthouse, applying, getting a job there, and just if you can share sort of that experience with me, or with us, and sort of how that went.

LaKenia: Okay. So I had known about them for quite a while, but I wanted to try my hands in the “real world” first since I had went to school and got the degree. And I took that route, right? And so I wanted to try it out. And then what happened is my daughter became a senior in high school and I needed a real job that was going to, you know, because the nonprofits, they lose funding and then you work for free for a couple of months and then they get another grant and, you know.

Hoby: Right, I know the drill.

LaKenia: Right, so I needed something a little more solid. So I applied for the Lighthouse and they hired me. And I initially worked for the first five years as a machinist making airplane parts for Boeing. Yeah, that was super cool because we were using the same exact CNC router machines that the people that work at Boeing use to make machine parts. Ours just had a computer with JAWS on it, so I thought that was pretty cool.

Hoby: That’s awesome. And how did you find…What about your experience of applying and getting hired and getting the job? Would you say you felt like what I’m saying was true, that your blindness was actually celebrated?

LaKenia: Yes, definitely. My blindness was not a factor, right? I mean, as far as the way I felt like they wanted me there, they needed people because it’s part of their mission. They never called me or they didn’t make me feel like my blindness was going to affect my ability to do anything at the job. They were just like, “Jump in, we’ll show you what to do. Choose something that you like and we’ll figure it out from there.”

Hoby: That’s amazing. So you felt very embraced and very much like you were wanted?

LaKenia: Yes, yes, definitely wanted. Definitely wanted and needed, and that I had the ability to grow immediately. And they actually helped as far as the application process, there were people there to help you through the whole process. I actually can use computers and things, you know, so I’m pretty apt as far as that goes. But they do have people there that can help you. If you called the Seattle Lighthouse and said you wanted to work there and you didn’t know how to use the computer or apply, they would have someone assist you all the way through the whole process because that’s how they are.

Hoby: And that’s what I love about these agencies is that it’s like, okay, you might not be ready to get the job, but we’re going to give you the skills so that you can come back and apply in a year.

LaKenia: Yes. Yes.

Hoby: So cool.

LaKenia: Yes, it’s super cool. They’ll show you what training and they have all kinds of resources. I’m not sure or familiar with the way other Lighthouses work, but where I work they have braille classes that you can take and ASL classes and computer training and all these things that you can take as part of your job. So yeah, it’s really cool.

Hoby: Now, you mentioned that you worked for the first five years as a machinist working on a CNC machine. And I just want to make sure that, selfishly, I and also our listeners understand what a CNC machine is. Can you explain it?

LaKenia: It’s actually a huge machine. It has a door on it and a table and you put sheets of metal inside of there and then you program the computer to cut different shapes out of the sheets of metal or sometimes plastic parts. So I made like windows for the airplane and all different types of little screws and bolts and different stuff. Some stuff like the board where the pilot works, where his little knobs and stuff, you know? We make those types of things. All different types of parts and you put the metal in there and then it just cuts it out.

Hoby: So from a sheet of metal, you can literally cut out a threaded bolt?

LaKenia: Yes.

Hoby: Who would think? Like a normal sighted person walking down the street would not imagine that a blind person, totally unassisted, would be programming a CNC machine, then loading metal in and cutting highly intricate airplane parts, right?

LaKenia: Yes, yes, yes, down to the hundredth of a thousandth of a millimeter as far as details goes.

Hoby: That’s incredible.

LaKenia: Yeah, people don’t know there’s blind people out there making the windows on your airplane. So I always thought that was pretty cool.

Hoby: You know what? And I feel like when we’re blind, we’re even more dedicated to our work because we have to work that much harder. And if we get jobs ourselves, we’re going to work to keep them and we’re going to be the best darn employees out there.

LaKenia: Yes. There was a study and I wish, I don’t want to quote it. Well, now that I said it, but I don’t remember what the name of the research was, but there was a study done that said exactly that statement, that blind people are the most under looked people in the employment industry, but we are the hardest working and the most dedicated people. Once we get a job, we come on time. We work hard.

Hoby: I believe it. Look, we live in a sighted world. We have to plan things out, right? We can’t just wing it.

LaKenia: Yes, exactly.

Hoby: Sometimes I wish I could wing it more, but I can’t.

LaKenia: Yeah. It would be nice, yes.

Hoby: I’m really excited to hear about your trajectory from the work as a machinist after five years. Where did you go next with Lighthouse?

LaKenia: I went to the position that I have now. Actually, one of the vice presidents of the department called me and she had looked at my resume and saw my background and all the other jobs that I had and thought that my skills would be better used in the Lighthouse in an administrative position because of my education and everything like that. And so I did an internship to see if I wanted to work either in the purchasing or in the operations department. And that was about a year.

And then after that I chose operations. So that’s what I do now. And like I said, I get to work from home and it is super great. I actually get to use a lot of the skills that I learned in college and everything. So I really appreciate them giving me the opportunity to transition from the warehouse floor to administration.

Hoby: And you mentioned at the base supply center you’re literally supplying soldiers and their families goods and services that they need to live fruitful and productive lives.

LaKenia: Yes. Yes. Yes.

Hoby: And this is something that I just have found, by the way, I feel so selfish doing these podcasts because I get to learn so much about amazing people like yourself and also tell the world about it. So this is, like all these questions I’m asking are because I want to know more about you and I want to understand more of what you do. But it’s also an added bonus that we’ve got a listenership that is also excited and interested.

One of the things that’s come up that I’ve heard from some of our listeners is, hey, you guys might not be able to join the military and fight, but you guys save lives every day, right? And you help people live productive lives. So by the work that you do to make airplane parts or by supplying someone who is in the active military with supplies and goods that they need to live their most productive life, we are helping the military. We are helping this effort.

LaKenia: Yes, we’re a part of it.

Hoby: We had a show, I don’t know if you know Jeff Mittman, currently the CEO of Bosma in Indianapolis, Indiana. But we had a show with him, an episode of him fairly early on in the trajectory of Heard & Empowered, where he explained that he lost his sight by basically a piece of ammunition traveling right through the tank that he was driving and hitting him square in the side of the head and going through his head quite literally. And he realized after he lost his sight, when he sort of came into the NIB network and the AbilityOne network that the parts of his helmet that saved his life were made by blind people.

LaKenia: Yes, I love it. Great story.

Hoby: Isn’t that awesome?

LaKenia: Yes, yes.

Hoby: And this is what we’re doing every day that we do this work and that we do the best work that we can. This is why, you know?

Tell me a little bit about mentors that you’ve had who have helped you. And I say this all the time, that I would absolutely not be where I am without my graduate advisor helping me with getting my degree in chemistry or a good friend and mentor, Kevin Eastman, helping me with the business know-how that I have now. It’s these people who really do help change lives and shape us into the people that we are. Tell me about a mentor or mentors of yours that have done this for you.

LaKenia: Well, thank you for letting me talk about one of my favorite people. Her name is Linda Wilder, and she was my counselor for the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind. So when I very first lost my sight, she was the person who came to my house to say, “Hey, you’re blind now, this is stuff that blind people can do, you know?” And so she brought me my first cane and my first talking watch. And she told me about the orientation training center and all of the things.

And she had just lost her sight, I believe maybe two or three years prior, but she was super cool. She had this funky leather jacket and she was chill and she had went to college. And I was like, oh my gosh, my life is not over, you know? I was like, I can be somebody. You know what I’m saying?

Hoby: I know exactly.

LaKenia: She’s like working for the state and going to people’s houses and helping people. And I’m like, I could totally see myself doing that or anything. I don’t have to just stay at home and stare at the wall and watch MTV. You know what I mean?

Hoby: I love it.

LaKenia: I can be somebody. And so thank you, Linda Wilder.

Hoby: Thank you, Linda. Thank you, Linda. That’s beautiful. And doesn’t it help a lot that she happens to be blind herself?

LaKenia: Yes.

Hoby: Like seeing that, okay, you’re not just telling me what I can do, you’re doing it. That’s so impactful.

LaKenia: Yes. And not to mention she was cool and all put together. She had the jewelry and the hair and the clothes and the shoes.

Hoby: I love it.

LaKenia: So she was totally cool.

Hoby: And the funky leather jacket, that just makes it.

LaKenia: Yes, and the jacket.

Hoby: I love it.

LaKenia: So she was cool and she was fashionable. And me being 18, I didn’t want to have to just wear all black or jeans and t-shirt for the rest of my life. I wanted to be cool and have makeup and jewelry.

Hoby: Heck yeah.

LaKenia: And so she showed me that I could do all of those things.

Hoby: That is so awesome. That is such a beautiful thing. You know, our time’s running a little bit short. And by the way, I may very well ask you to come back and do a follow-up interview, just because I’m loving our conversation and our chat that we’re having together. I’ve got a few more questions for you.

The first one is, in your own words, what do you think organizations like the Lighthouse for the Blind of Seattle does for people? Like how are lives changed by these organizations?

LaKenia: I would say the main thing is that it gives you independence, right? I mean, if you have a job, you can make a lot of your own decisions and you have the ability to move in the world. And it gives you confidence to know that you can be something. That’s the main thing that I got. And the friends that I have that work at the Lighthouse, I think they will agree with me that it gives you, you know, for you to be “regular.” You can have a job and an apartment and be an adult person living in the world.

Hoby: That’s incredible. And it’s so true and it just ties everything together so well. And then another question that I think is just so important to hear from amazing folks like yourself, what advice would you give to someone, whether they be young, like your age when you lost your sight, or even someone a little bit later along in life? Like what do you tell someone who’s sort of thinking about: “Do I get out there, do I run with this? Do I do it? What should I do?”

LaKenia: I would say to do it. And if you’re scared, do it scared, right? Friction causes growth. And there’s always a little pain with a little friction. So if it hurts a little bit, just do it. And pain, you know what I mean? Just do it.

Hoby: And if you make mistakes and fail, just learn from them, right?

LaKenia: Yeah, just learn from them and don’t give up.

Hoby: I love that.

LaKenia: If that didn’t work, try something else. Try something is the word.

Hoby: Amen to that.

LaKenia: Yeah, try something.

Hoby: And even if it’s just making one phone call to that agency that’s near you.

LaKenia: Yes.

Hoby: Just take the step.

LaKenia: Yes. Yes. If you haven’t done anything and you’re new to being blind and you heard about a place, call that place. Ask your mom or your pastor or whoever it is that you can talk to that will help you. If you can’t get help from them, call 211. That’s a great resource and it’s on the phone.

Hoby: 211 is amazing.

LaKenia: Yes.

Hoby: 311, all those things.

LaKenia: Yes, yes. You can just try something. Try it.

Hoby: Stick your neck out there any way you can.

LaKenia: Yes.

Hoby: And what I’ve found is that if you challenge yourself, if you just take that first step and challenge yourself, it is mind boggling how good it feels when you succeed at a challenge. For me, it’s infectious. And I know you’re the same way. It’s like you try something once, you go with it, then it works and you just, you have to keep trying.

LaKenia: Yes. And also I would like to say celebrate the successes, however big or small. The tiniest little success, you have to celebrate that. That’s the part of the positivity thing, you know? Any little accomplishment. If you made your first peanut butter and jelly sandwich by yourself, pat yourself on the back for that.

Hoby: Yes. 1,000% yes. If you haven’t boiled an egg before, try it today.

LaKenia: Yes.

Hoby: Put it in the pot.

LaKenia: And then congratulate yourself and call someone and tell them, I boiled an egg today.

Hoby: Yes. Yes, because it doesn’t matter, and this is another thing that I think is so crucial, is the only person who you can compare yourself to is the person who’s looking back at you in the mirror. It’s yourself, right?

LaKenia: Yes. Yes.

Hoby: If we can just be our best selves and do our personal best, that’s all anyone can ask.

LaKenia: That is a very true statement right there, sir. Very true statement right there.

Hoby: I know people are going to be totally inspired by what we talked about, LaKenia. And I was just hoping that if you don’t mind, I’d love to share your email address in the show notes, if you don’t mind.

LaKenia: No, not at all. That’d be great.

Hoby: Well, you’re an awesome resource for so many people and it’s just great to chat with you. And your positive energy and positive outlook on life and like, let’s just do it, it doesn’t matter if we’re blind is totally infectious for me.

LaKenia: You’re awesome too, sir. You’re like my new inspiration, you are.

Hoby: Well, you’re kind to say that. And we’re both, you know, now that we know each other through this show, we’re friends for life now. So, great to meet you and I can’t wait until the next time we chat.

LaKenia: Okay. You have a good one.

Hoby: You too.

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