Truck Driving School for the Blind Overcomes Adversity to Graduate First Class

"Although many thought this day would never come, this is a triumph for the visually impaired," according to Jim Sykes, director of Blind Spots, a federally-funded program to train visually impaired truck drivers. "Today's graduates are on the road to tomorrow," adds Sykes.

"The idea behind Blind Spots is to empower visually impaired individuals and raise awareness that the visually impaired can do anything a so-called normal person can do," said a government spokesperson made up for this article.

Despite the school's important mission, the program hit several roadblocks on its way to success. "Overcoming the stigma that the visually-impaired cannot operate an 80,000-pound truck was our first big hurdle," says Sykes, "but our students were so enthusiastic and excited to be behind the wheel of a tractor trailer, that we quickly ran over any opposition."

Another issue the school faced was a lack of funding. "Training blind truck drivers is not as cheap as it sounds," says Bill Nycheck, instructor of parking and turn signals at the school. "Our increased training cycle simply takes more money than the government estimated," added Nycheck.

"Early phases of the training program were fraught with problems," admitted Sykes. "Our students did great on the straight roads where they didn't have to stop, but curves and other vehicles continued to cause problems."

Sykes quickly realized that the problem didn't lie with the students. "Our problems could be traced to one thing - a lack of funding," said Sykes. "We simply needed more money to hire better instructors and more administrators."

Sykes took his case to Washington, demonstrating the great strides his students had made. "Once government officials saw the school's progress, funding began pouring in. It made me proud to be on the government payroll," said Sykes. "Once government officials made up their minds that this was a good idea, they agreed to spend whatever it would take to help our students get on the road to success."

Still, Sykes admits, the road ahead may be difficult. "The toughest part will be job placement for our graduates. I'm not sure how many trucking companies will be willing to look beyond their preconceived notions and hire a visually-impaired truck driver."

When asked whether they would be willing to hire blind truck drivers, all of the major trucking companies contacted for this article declined to comment. But that didn't dampen the mood of Ray Simpson, a graduate of the program who has been blind since being struck by lightning in 2003. "Just hearing that big engine crank up and knowing that I'm behind the wheel gives me such a sense of empowerment," beamed Ray. "I can't wait to get on the road."