Imagine that because of an illness or injury, you are suddenly blinded and don’t know how you will be able to cope with living independently and being able to support yourself and your family. When Sharon Giovinazzo lost her eyesight at age 31 – 15 years ago – due to MS, she had those kinds of questions.
“I was the first blind person I knew,” Giovinazzo said. “I thought I was going to sit in a rocking chair on the porch for the rest of my life wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. There are days I wouldn’t mind sitting in a rocking chair. But blindness does not need to be a death sentence. People who are blind just need the right tools and technology, and they can earn a living, take care of themselves and their family, and have a good life.”
Giovinazzo is a shining example of that. In August 2015, she became president of World Services for the Blind (WSB) in Little Rock, which since its beginning in 1947 has become a national center for providing services to more than 13,000 blind people from all 50 states and 58 foreign countries. About 82 percent of graduates from vocational programs are able to get jobs that help them live an active and productive life.
“Technology is a wonderful thing,” Giovinazzo said. “I use computers, iPhons and iPads that have software that translates what you see on the screen into voice. Technology really does level the playing field. There is a whole menu of items we offer such as keyboarding, learning Braille, how to use a calculator, basic communications, and techniques of daily living.”
Programs at WSB include pre-vocational training such as learning how to walk with a red and white cane, how to navigate the home safely, and how to cook – all things necessary to manage your home in order to live independently. That is followed for people who want to join the workforce with vocational training that allows them to go out and secure employment.
“We are a supplement for people who are blind,” she said. “We are there to pick up the pieces when medicine can’t help them anymore. Grandma with macular degeneration may just need to learn to navigate around the house. Or someone who is blinded at age 25 by being thrown through a windshield can be helped to put back the pieces of his life to go on and have a career, be in the workforce, buy a home, and have a family. Someone might just need magnification devices or to learn how to navigate around the house or safely cook. Our list of programs are vast.”
WSB is a project of the Lions Clubs, but also gets funding from other areas such as states across the country who pay for vocational rehabilitation services, grants and private donations.
“We are a fee-for-service organization,” said Giovinazzo, who is a veteran. “There is a federal program that pays for individuals who are more than 55 who have a vision loss to go through our program.”
The sprawling WSB campus takes up an entire city block in Little Rock. The average vocational student stays for nine months. As they learn, one success builds upon another.
“I liken it to a construction worker who can’t build a home without the proper tools,” Giovinazzo said. “We are giving people the tools to build a solid foundation for a life around them. They can pack up the tools, go out and secure the employment they want and the life that they want.”
In addition to the services provided on campus, WSB also provides training free for people in their homes. It has a partnership with the state program I Can Connect, which provides telecommunications equipment for people with sight and hearing loss.
Their flagship employment program, in place since 1967, is a partnership with the IRS where students accepted and trained for the program are guaranteed jobs upon completion of the program. Recently, thanks to a generous grant from the Lions Club International Foundation, WSB added a call center training program in customer service and adaptive technology. One great thing is that some of those jobs are available for telecommuters. That is particularly valuable for someone who lives in a rural area without access to public transportation.
“More call centers are hiring at home agents,” Giovinazzo said. “That is a model we can pick up and duplicate.”
William Heaston, who has served in a variety of state and regional positions in the Lions Club, said Arkansas has much to be proud of being home to WSB.
“A lot of people can’t believe we have a center like this in Arkansas that serves people who are blind all over the country and the world,” said Heaston, who is on the board of directors for WSB. “WSB has become the most comprehensive rehabilitation and training center for blind or visually impaired adults in the world. If you help just one individual, it makes a difference in the world. That is the way I look at it. We have served a lot of people.
“The talents of a person who are visually impaired is amazing. They are very, very smart. They catch on really fast. They go through the trauma of being blind, and through training and learn mobility, how to cook and sew, make a bed, and how to gain employment. It gives you a warm feeling in your heart that you have helped an individual to be sustainable and independent.”
The Mid-South Lions Clubs also provide low vision services, as well as surgeries to restore sight, to people in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. “We do this at no cost to patients,” said Brad Baker, CEO of the Mid-South Lions.
