Visually Impaired Workers Assemble Products Shipped Nationwide

By BRIAN PEARSON
Business Editor (story excerpt and photos used with permission)
Read the entire story at Tylerpaper.com There's a nice video with the story that you'll want to see!

When Lee Tillson and his wife decided to move from Dallas to Tyler to be closer to family, he thought his experience as a produce warehouse manager made him a prime choice for an open position here.

The prospective employers, however, immediately disqualified him when they learned he was legally blind.

"They didn't think I could do the job," Tillson said.

One day while Tillson was riding a bus, the driver decided to introduce him to Horizon Industries, mistakenly believing it served as a transportation option for the blind.

Tillson quickly landed a technician job at Horizon, the industrial end of East Texas Lighthouse for the Blind.

Today, he serves as plant manager for the non profit Horizon, where the staffers, most of them blind or visually impaired, create products as part of a $24 million-a-year business.

Inside the cavernous plant at 500 N. Bois D'Arc Ave., 72 blind and visually impaired employees package napkins for the U.S. Navy, put together three-ply tissue paper and box tens of thousands of miles of parachute cord headed for Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Blind workers represent more than 80 percent of the 89-member staff.

"We're the best-kept secret in town, but we're on our way to changing that," said David Huffman, who has been president and CEO for almost a year.

Read the entire story at Tylerpaper.com

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OVERCOMING AN OBSTACLE: Albert Logan stacks boxes of paper towels on a pallet at Horizon Lighthouse for the Blind. Logan is one of more than 80 blind or visually impaired employees.

Curlie Bailey takes spools of parachute cord off a winding machine.

A special thank you to Brian Pearson, Business Editor, Tyler Morning Telegraph for permission to use these photos, captions and story excerpt.