ORLANDO, Fla. — When Calvin Echevarria lost his vision nearly 20 years ago, he thought his working days were over. At the time, he was a store manager and part-time truck driver. Within months, diabetes-related complications left him blind.
“I thought I was going to be on Social Security for the rest of my life,” Echevarria said.
But that changed when he connected with Lighthouse Central Florida and its social enterprise, Lighthouse Works. It helps people who are either blind or visually impaired find new jobs and careers.
There, Echevarria was introduced to JAWS, short for Job Access With Speech.
The software reads everything on a computer screen out loud. With one ear, employees listen to the caller on the line. With the other, they hear JAWS guiding them through the screen.
“If it wasn’t because of Lighthouse Works, I would not be having a house right now,” Echevarria said.
Echevarria started as a call center agent in 2011 and is now a team leader. He shows new employees shortcuts and commands to help them succeed. Customers on the other end of the line often have no idea the person helping them is blind.
“Especially when someone is new and you can show them new tricks, it feels pretty good,” Echevarria said.
Lighthouse Works President & CEO Kaleb Stunkard says that’s the point of the program.
“It’s important for two reasons. The first is independence, and the second is empowerment. Our mission is empowerment through employment,” he said.
Not only does Lighthouse Works have a call center, but there’s also a warehouse for employees.
Today, Lighthouse Works partners with more than a dozen companies and has more than 300 employees across the country. Leaders say they want to double that reach in the next five years.
For Echevarria, the message is simple: “If I could do it, you could do it. We can actually hold a job just like anybody else working 40 hours, having insurance, and we can do our own business just like anybody else.”