Scott Berube makes it work
October is National Disability Educational Outreach Month (NDEAM) and a good time to showcase employees at VisionCorps.
Scott Berube, an employee in the York manufacturing facility, lives out the VisionCorps mission of living independently. He lost his sight in an accident several years ago when he was a truck driver and owned his own rig.
Unable to drive, Scott received rehabilitation services and later employment services in the York office starting in 2000.
“It means a lot to me to work here,” said Scott. “I’ll be here until I decide I don’t want to work anymore.”
Working at VisionCorps or at home, Scott finds a way to get his work done.
“I like to work in my garage on vehicles tearing my motorcycle apart or fixing carburetors and brakes on cars and trucks,” said Scott. “I’d like to work as a mechanic, but they won’t hire me because I’m blind.
“I can do the work. I have to touch and feel things, but you’ve got to learn to deal with it.”
Scott also likes to do home remodeling and repairs.
“I like to make stuff with power tools. I can build a deck or do woodworking and make steps. The stuff I built was able to pass code inspections.
“If you help me get what I need, I’ll find a way to work with it. My wife will order the parts, and I can do the repairs.”
Scott and his wife have been married for 35 years, and they just had their first grandchild.
“I’m lucky to have a wife who stuck with me when I had my accident and lost my sight.”
At VisionCorps, Scott works on the National Library Service line working on audiobook cartridges. The free talking book library service is for people who are blind or vision impaired and others who have a temporary or permanent reading disability that prevents them from reading.
His job starts with formatting the cartridges. First, Scott erases the books, wraps the cartridges into bundles of 20 and then packs them 400 to a box. NLS gets about 3,000 new titles a year, and VisionCorps has taken on more work with its NLS contract, adding a line to its Little Rock facility.
Scott previously did a variety of different jobs on the manufacturing line, moving into new business lines on the work site. He was able to learn several new positions, but later returned to work primarily on the NLS line.
“I like to mentor or help out younger workers,” said Scott. “I’ve been around for a while so I can tell them how to do certain things to make it easier. I also help make accommodations to help make some parts of the job easier to do without sight.”
Another innovative idea he implemented was a change in packing his NLS cartridges in boxes. He used to pack them with newspaper. Then he found out that there is a lot of waste material from the production of helmet pads. He suggested using that pad waste to help pack the cartridges – both saving and recycling the waste product.
When you lose your vision, “you just can’t give up and sit in a corner and collect disability,” said Scott.
He enjoys telling visitors to the line about his work.
“Sometimes people think we work in a sheltered workshop setting, getting paid low wages for piece work,” he said. “But that’s not what we do. We work in a setting where 75 percent of the employees are blind, but we get paid real wages and have a good benefit package.
“People think that you should be mainstreamed into jobs. If you’re young, go for it – go to college or learn a trade, and it’s likely someone will give you a chance.
“But this is also good work option,” said Scott.
“You only get one life, you’ve got to learn to deal with it,” said Scott. “I’m happy here. I’m not going anywhere.”
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