Our organization’s founders understood the importance of employment, rehabilitation and community outreach for people who are blind to regain their independence, because they too were blind. They were members of the American Federation for the Blind, and represented cities from all across the state.

O.R. Attebery, Ponca City

Marvin McDill, Tulsa

Troy Couey, Tulsa

C.B. Minner, Norman

Durward McDaniel, Oklahoma City

Floyd Qualls, Muskogee

For the newly founded nonprofit, the first order of business was to create in-house industry that could provide jobs and on-the-job training for the blind. Immediately, contract work from the government and private industry was sought.

 

Our first government contract was manufacturing rubber door mats from old automobile tire strips. This initially employed five people but expanded to include sales to private industry, providing work for dozens of blind workers for more than forty years. Another important, long-term partnership was formed in 1956 with Tinker Air Force Base, sorting jet engine parts. 

 

Successful working relationships in those early years earned a reputation for excellence and attracted larger, more diverse contracts. Soon we were engaged in a wide variety of activities including wooden ladder manufacturing, parking meter repair, creating in-flight dining packets, assembling telephone terminal blocks and rebuilding jet engine parts for Tinker Field. 

 

The Oklahoma League for the Blind took an important step forward in the late 1960s by supplementing work-related enterprises with a comprehensive Vision Rehabilitation Department that focused on teaching independent living skills, cane techniques for safe travel, and reading and writing Braille . 

 

In the 1970s, we secured an important contract to manufacture aircraft wheel chocks for Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. NewView Oklahoma is now the primary supplier of wheel chocks for the U.S. Military, producing approximately 30,000 units each year. 

 

The products we create are constantly evolving based on market demands. In 1980, we began production on a line of wooden step and extension ladders. The ladders were a very successful product for us, but were discontinued when the overall demand for wooden ladders decreased.

 

We also produced Styrofoam cups for a time. In fact, by our 55^th anniversary in 2004, we had become the nation’s fourth-largest manufacturer of the item.

 

Today, NewView Oklahoma maintains a sophisticated, 53,000-square-foot industrial manufacturing plant. Our highly skilled workforce produces a diverse and expanding line of durable, high-quality products relied on by the U.S. Military, state and federal government agencies and private industry.

 

We currently provide more than 100 jobs through in-house manufacturing and a growing number of service contracts with major employers at the local, state and federal level. 

 

Our Vision Rehabilitation Department touches the lives of more than 1,000 people each year, and we are currently renovating the fourth floor of our headquarters to facilitate an expansion of services. 

 

In Nov. 2009, while celebrating our 60^th year of service for the blind and visually impaired in Oklahoma, we changed our name to NewView Oklahoma to more positively and accurately reflect our original mission as we meet the challenges of the next sixty years.

 

Our dream will only be realized when every person who needs services, receives services, and every person who wants a job, has a job. We’ve been very successful over the years, but the best is still yet to come.