April 6, 1960
“Good morning, Goodwill Industries. May I help you?”
These or similar words are used many times daily by an attractive brown eyed, brown haired young lady named Joan Cox who is a switchboard operator at Goodwill Industries of El Paso.
What’s unusual about this? Well, for one thing, Joan is blind. She has been blind since birth. For another thing she is the only blind switchboard operator in El Paso and one of the few in the entire United States. She has been employed at Goodwill since January. Since that time she has learned much about switchboard operation, people, and the pleasure of being employed and independent.
Joan’s training and subsequent skill at switchboard operations amounts to one of the major successes of Goodwill Industries in helping handicapped persons find useful, happy work.
Like most success stories this one was a long time in coming. Ever since the Federal Service Commission requirements were amended over a year ago to include blind switchboard operators. Goodwill Industries has been wanting to have a special Braille switchboard installed. Hearing about the idea and need the East El Paso Lions Club came to the aid of Goodwill by offering to pay the additional cost of one year of the Braille board.
The board was subsequently installed by the Mountain States Telephone Co. The only mechanical addition to a standard board is the Braille board to the left which holds steel plungers that pop up when calls are received from outside or when an outside line is needed by someone in Goodwill offices. Braille lettering is attached to the board beneath connection plunges.
Mrs. Eva Elliot, training supervisor of the telephone company, helped Joan get started. “I am amazed at the capable way in which Joan has learned to operate the board,” she said.
Although employed to act as switchboard operator, Joan has since become proficient enough to take calls from Goodwill patrons who wish to make donations. For a blind person living in a seeing world this involves two steps. First, she must get the caller’s name and address and other information about the donation which is being made to truck drivers will not make a mistake when they call at home for the item. This means that Joan must take down the data in Braille, using her slate and stylus. To a blind person this would be adequate, however, the person who is in charge of the truck routing at Goodwill is not blind. Therefore, there must be some way for the Braille information to be interpreted. To do this Joan uses a typewriter with paper fed into it from a long roll. She retypes all information and passes it on to the truck routing supervisor.
Joan has a large notebook filled with truck schedules, permanent names and addresses and other information which she has inscribed in Braille and keeps handy at all times.
Joan is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Cox of Monahans. She is a graduate of Texas School for the Blind and Abilene Christian College where she was a voice major. She took some switchboard training at the Lighthouse for the Blind in Houston before coming to Goodwill Industries.
Since coming to El Paso Joan has joined the El Paso PBX operators Club and a singing group at the Montana Street Church of Christ.
Unusual? Yes, at least to the ordinary person. To Joan? Well, it’s a job. A job which she enjoys very much. “Being a switchboard operator lets me enter into my work more fuller than many other jobs would,” she said. “Every day I meet people who are friendly and interesting. I enjoy my work very much.”
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