Colleen Smith has been a clerk at the McChord Air Force Base AbilityOne Base Supply Center (BSC) for more than four years now. Her previous job could not have been more different.
“I was an X-ray tech for 15 years,” she says. “I worked with surgeons doing back surgeries, GI-type surgeries, all sorts of stuff.”
Colleen has Aniridia, which is the absence of the iris. She was born with the condition, which makes you more susceptible to developing eye conditions later in life. In 2004, after she gave birth to her son, she developed eye tumors and had to have radiation. The radiation caused side effects that have led her on a path to having ten eye surgeries, with an eleventh planned for some time in the future. She has no vision in her right eye, and limited vision in her left.
Now she’s well-versed in military lingo and she helps Air Force troops get the supplies they need. For three days each week she helps stock shelves, order supplies, assists customers, answers phones, and does whatever else needs to be done.
Through the AbilityOne Program the Lighthouse operates many Base Supply Centers up and down the West Coast. BSCs offer one-stop shopping to military personnel and federal employees. Colleen works at one of the four BSC locations on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in WA.
Colleen wants people to know that vision loss can often be an invisible disability. A person who is blind might have some usable vision and that amount or type of usable vision may differ from person to person. Individuals’ accommodation preferences can differ just as much. No two people are the same.
“When I came here, I had to learn how to do things differently and start relying on others,” she says. “This job allows people like me to be part of the community.”
