For years, Gary Wagner ’19, ’22 was ashamed of his poor vision, even as his sight slowly eroded.

These days, the Buffalo, NY native, a husband and father of three, has become a voice for the blind and visually impaired. As a member of the Advocates for Leadership and Employment Program for the National Industries for the Blind (NIB), Wagner and his colleagues from affiliated agencies visit Capitol Hill annually. There, they lobby Congress for jobs and policies that benefit the blind and disabled.

He also does advocacy work for the blind community on the local and state levels through his job at Visually Impaired Advancement (VIA) a nonprofit that serves the blind and visually impaired in Western New York.

Last summer, Wagner was in Washington, D.C. urging Congress to adopt a 1% AbilityOne Program utilization goal for the Department of Defense. The proposal would increase the percentage of the DOD’s purchases of products and services procured through AbilityOne from 0.55% to 1% by 2027. The change would increase much-needed jobs for people who are blind or disabled.

AbilityOne provides job opportunities to 40,000 people who are blind or have significant disabilities, including more than 2,500 veterans. In addition to providing jobs, the program uses the purchasing power of the federal government to buy products and services from participating nonprofits nationwide.

 

The Path to Advocacy

Wagner became an advocate for NIB in 2015, working with the organization’s public policy team to meet with members of Congress and get their support on priorities that impact the blind.

In 2020, Wagner helped usher into law the Department of Veterans Affairs Contracting Preference Consistency Act. The law gives preference to nonprofit firms that employ the blind and significantly disabled when contracting for covered products and services that are included on the procurement list maintained by AbilityOne.

The path to advocacy didn’t come easily. As a child growing up in Buffalo, NY, Wagner struggled through school.  Sports were challenging, and he had his share of mishaps on bikes. A test showed he was color blind. In high school, he struggled to read a computer screen.

What he didn’t know was that he had retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease caused by the deterioration of light-sensing cells in the eyes that results in progressive deterioration of vision. His grandmother had had the same disease.

For years, Wagner was embarrassed by his vision problems, so much so that he delayed the use of a cane. When he tried to use a weight machine already in use by another guy at the gym, he realized the time had come.

 

Making It Work

Despite his worsening vision, Wagner thrived at his job at Tops Supermarket, where he was quickly promoted from stock clerk to night manager. For years, he found ways to accommodate, but his failing eyesight soon became unmanageable.

During an appointment to get new glasses, his optometrist asked him how he was able to still work. “He asked, ‘How are you able to see? Don’t you have concerns about your safety?’” Wagner recalls.

The day after that appointment, while walking the store with the produce manager, Wagner realized he suddenly couldn’t see his colleague’s face. For Wagner, it was a defining moment. Unable to make further accommodations, he had no choice but to leave his job of 18 years, even though he’d become the store’s operations manager.

A call to the Blind Association of Western New York, now the VIA, led to a job as a switchboard operator at the Buffalo VA Hospital. “I thought, I can do that,” he recalls. “I can answer phones.”

After a few years, Wagner wanted something more interesting. The HR director sent him information about a business management training program offered through NIB at George Mason University. Wagner applied and was accepted.

He remembers feeling embarrassed because he didn’t have a college degree, only a few courses from Villa Maria College in Buffalo. “I was a switchboard operator, and one woman was a CEO and had two MBAs,” he says. “But people there looked up to me. I never admitted that I didn’t have a degree. I didn’t even have an associate degree.”

 

An Educational Revelation

Getting his certificate inspired Wagner to enroll at Empire State University. By then, he’d been promoted to supervisor of the switchboard.

Wagner praised the support and help he got from his mentor, Hartley Hutchins, and Melissa Zgliczynski, the director of accessibility resources and services. “Anything I needed she’d get it for me in an accessible format,” he says. He became more proficient at using a screen reader and had help from a tutor.

Wagner graduated with an associate degree in business, management, and economics in 2019, and followed that with a bachelor’s degree in the same program three years later.

His role as an advocate for NIB led to an expanded role at VIA, where today, he is the director of VA contracts and public policy, working with local and state legislators on agency, employee, and client-related issues. He is the first blind person to hold that job.

Wagner is thrilled that he has helped others with vision impairments find jobs.

“I’ve had the opportunity to play a small role in enhancing independence and creating and protecting jobs for people who are blind or visually impaired," he says.