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Program provides corporate internships for students who are visually-impaired

Lean In!: Building job-readiness, career pathways, and confidence
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Misperceptions among employers about blind or visually-impaired job seekers have kept more than half of those adults out of the workforce. An estimated 44% of working-age people with full or partial vision loss are employed, compared to 79% of those without a disability. 

One Michigan businessman is looking to change those statistics with a program he founded called Lean In!. Launched last fall, its mission is to help young college students who are blind or have low vision carve out a career path through a corporate internship.

At the same time, he’s making the case to employers that people who have vision loss bring unique skills to the workforce.

“You hire the seven-foot tall guy to play basketball because he’s seven foot tall. You hire the blind person because they think around corners. Because they see what you don’t see. Because they’re focused on what you might not be immediately focused on. And we think around corners,” says Gary Horton, founder and president of Vanward Consulting Services.

‘I believe the blind should lead the blind’

Horton lost his vision in 2017, something he knew was coming. He was born with a congenital defect and clearly recalls being told at the age of 11 that he would eventually lose his eyesight. Horton considers that moment his catalyst to pursue a different kind of success after a nearly 40-year career in consulting and project management.

Gary Horton, founder, Lean In!

Horton recalls doors closing on him as he lost his job after losing his sight, but he says he never lost his vision for success. He started his own consulting firm and then launched the Lean In! program for college students who are blind or low vision and who want to be employed.

He turned to other professionals who are blind or have low vision to advise and counsel the students. “We provide real-life experiences on how business really works and what job-readiness really is,” stresses Horton. He adds: “I believe the blind should lead the blind. People need exemplars.”

The nine month-long program includes workshops on interviewing, entrepreneurism, elevator pitches, and branding. Guest speakers are brought in and students are given assignments to complete, such as informational interviews with professionals in different industries. The ultimate goal is to land an internship.  

“Along with the job-readiness is also building that confidence and helping these young people visualize what they can do with the degrees that they are pursuing,” explains Horton.

He also wants employers to understand that they shouldn’t overlook this talent pool, and with some work accommodations, they become vital members of any team. 

Understanding Accommodations, Expanding Opportunities

Rangam Consultants is a global minority-, woman-, and disability-owned workforce solutions company. They’ve also partnered with Lean In! to provide work-based learning opportunities to program participants. They brought in their first IT intern this year. “We felt that we wanted to have greater expertise with the blind community,” says Larry Worth, head of global solutions at Rangam. 

Larry Worth, head of global solutions, Rangam Consulting

Worth says the company is exploring ways to expand its partnership with Horton’s Michigan program and give it a bigger footprint. As a workforce solutions company, he says, Rangam is looking to get a better understanding of the kinds of accommodations blind and lower-vision workers need so that it can approach employers with candidates from this talent pool. 

“When it comes to people who are blind or lower vision, there are a lot of myths and there are a lot of misconceptions about what folks can do or what they need in able to be successful,” says Worth. “I think that the biggest one is that you have to be able to see to do the work.”

Opportunity in Today’s Hybrid Workforce

Horton stresses he’s not looking for sympathy for students in the Lean In! program.

“I don’t ask for anyone to give away jobs. I suggest that these young people will earn these positions because they are accomplished, because they work harder, because they have valuable skills that they can bring to the table.”

And with hybrid work so common among corporations, Horton sees opportunity.  “The concept of remote work is a business reality and in that environment, blind people thrive.”

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.