Lions World Services for the Blind

In the 60 years since its founding, Lions World Services for the Blind has grown into the largest and most comprehensive training center for the blind and visually impaired while earning international recognition.

Ramona Sangalli has worked at LWSB since 1971, becoming CEO seven years ago, but her ties to the nonprofit go back even farther. Both her parents were blind, and Sangalli’s father was a classmate of Roy Kumpe, founder of what became LWSB, when both attended the Arkansas School for the Blind. The organization, originally Arkansas Enter-prises for the Blind, changed its name in 1989.

Sangalli noted that 70 percent of blind Americans were either unemployed or underemployed. LWSB provides “training opportunities so people can regain their independence,” she said.

LWSB has evolved from an Arkansas-based organization primarily working to give visually impaired people skills to adapt to the “sighted” world to one that attracts international students and provides job training. The blind feel the lack of employment in the same way the sighted do, Sangalli said. “As one of our clients said, ‘You gave me the chance to be back where I belong as the head of my family and the breadwinner.'”

LWSB has trained more than 9,000 people from all 50 states and 57 other countries since its founding. Since 1967, Lions World Services for the Blind has partnered with the Internal Revenue Service to train employees.

LWSB has outgrown its Fair Park Boulevard site, and is in the early stages of building a new campus near the Clinton Presidential Library and Heifer International in downtown Little Rock.

LWSB also works to educate the public and employers about the abilities of those with sight loss. “Some of our clients have never been able to get a job because employers don’t truly understand the ability of someone who is vision impaired.”