As I was approaching the Industries of the Blind building I immediately had a sense of curiosity in my mind. This was because the exterior of the building was so plain and boring with just a brick facade. The main reason I was so curious to go inside was because the building had very little windows; therefore I could not see anything whatsoever.
As I entered the building I came up a few different lobby like rooms that were all white walls and it gave off a very boring and cold feeling. I instantly thought of all of the possibilities of colors and decorating that it could use to spruce it up. There was a desk where one would go for information or for assistance. My eye was next instantly drawn to the nature garden like area to the right of the staircase. I thought this was very strange and out of place. I really felt as though it had no purpose because I’m not really sure why the workers here would go over to this area. Most people who come to a job want to leave after their day is done not stay and hang out. I think this area could be useful as something much more purposeful that people would actually get use out of.
As I went up the staircase I noticed how it looked so unwelcoming and non-home like. It seemed so non-modern and cold. At the top of the staircase I went into a conference room that had a large table with leather chairs all around it. In this room there was a display case with all of the products that the Industries of the Blind makes. In my head I was thinking that this should have been on the first floor in the lobby area where people visiting would see it. It would show what the company really does and what goes on inside the building to people who may not know.
As I went into the large rooms where the products are being made by hand my first reaction was “wow”. I had entirely no idea that all of that was going on inside this building by looking at it from the outside. The first room was huge, having lots of boxes everywhere with shipments of the products that had come in.
The second warehouse room that I entered had people everywhere at little stations working hard to make tan colored t-shit’s. You could tell that they were producing quite a lot at a rapid pace. The most fascinating part of this is that seventy five percent of these workers are legally blind. I find that so amazing that they can accomplish all of these tasks when they are blind. This just shows how well blind people can really be taught and progressively learn how to do incredible things. In some of the other rooms the employees were making pens, mops, clipboards, pants and all kinds of other stuff. The stuff that they make is for the army, which I find to be very interesting.
Overall, after leaving here I learned that this building is truly more than what you see on the outside brick façade. There’s a whole other world inside of there that I’m sure no one really even knows about. The blind employees there are very hard workers, I could tell this just by walking through and viewing what they were doing. The owner of this company also has a great deal of trust in his employees and I feel as though that is a very important thing. I am looking forward to helping update this building, redecorating it and making it a more welcoming place to be in and work at.
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