Melissa Smith does not like to discuss the extent of her vision impairment. She wants people to judge her based on who she is, not on what she can or cannot do as well as someone with perfect vision.

But what she has overcome and what she can do are impressive.

For the first time in her life, Melissa is able to drive herself anywhere she wants, whether to the supermarket, across her hometown of Manchester, or to her job as a special education teacher at Clay County High School, where she helps as many as 60 students with learning or physical disabilities learn to accomplish daily tasks.

Without the help and support of Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs, Melissa might not have been able to obtain her job or the freedom that comes from being independently mobile.

“The WIA is a very good program,” Melissa says. “When you go 29 years and think you’re never going to drive, I just don’t know how to put it into words how major of a step this is for me. I’m very fortunate to be able to be doing what I do, and they contributed money-wise to help me do it.”

First, WIA helped Melissa complete the final two years of work toward her bachelor’s degree by covering her college-related travel and food expenses, and contributing greatly toward her tuition. Then special WIA funds paid for her custom set of bioptic driving glasses and training in how to use them. Her training culminated in passing her driver’s test, giving her the freedom she has longed for her entire life.

“I’ve always made the statement that I was an independent person in a dependent body,” Melissa says. “That used to be true, but now I’m finally able to have the independence I always wanted.”

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Except for their deep-red hue, the oversized glasses Melissa wears each time she gets behind the wheel of her car look a lot like the safety goggles people wear while trimming the yard—until you notice the miniature scope protruding at an upward angle from the right lens. That telescopic lens goes through the red plastic and attaches to the right lens of a traditional pair of glasses beneath the goggles.

With a slight downward tilt of her head, Melissa can peer past the red lens and through the scope at whatever is in front of her. Objects that once would have been fuzzy or obscured suddenly become sharper and clearer.

“When I view through the scope, it brings my vision up to 20/60,” Melissa says. That improvement raises her vision to the level required by the state statute that has allowed bioptic driving in Kentucky since 2001.

“It’s not something you constantly stare through,” she says. “My peripheral vision is good, but I am to very frequently look down into this scope to get a good view of what’s ahead. It allows me to view at a distance.”

The scope also works in conjunction with the red-tinted goggles to help her overcome a degree of colorblindness that previously would have kept her off the roads. When combined, the two devices allow Melissa to clearly distinguish between traffic signals for the first time in her life.

“I can see green, but I can’t see red,” she says. “My red lenses filter out green colors, so when I come to red lights, I look through the scope to see if the light is green. But the red lenses allow me to see red colors, so that’s how I see the red lights.”

The bioptic glasses are as expensive as they are effective. Melissa says her custom set cost over $1,000, and the red-tinted goggles cost an additional $60.

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Melissa first heard about the Kentucky Office for the Blind’s (OFB) Bioptic Driving Program while she was still in college. At that time, her husband drove her on 50-mile round-trip from their Manchester home to her classes at Union College in neighboring Knox County. After she graduated and began teaching at Clay County High School, she depended upon her father to take her to work and upon whoever was available to drive her home each afternoon.

“Sometimes I was left there at school almost an hour later than everyone else waiting for my ride home,” she says. “Always having to depend on somebody else was very stressful.”

Enrolling in the Bioptic Driving Program meant adding her name to a lengthy waiting list, Melissa says. In the meantime—before she could begin her training—networking between staff of the JobSight network and OFB Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist Twyla Hammons led to the discovery that the WIA could provide a crucial assist with Melissa’s bioptic training costs.

The JobSight network is a collaborative partnership of workforce and training agencies administered by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), which also funds WIA programs. In Manchester, services are provided at the Clay Count JobSight workforce center in the Daniel Boone Development Council (DBDC).

WIA Career Adviser Phillip Arnett worked with Melissa at the Clay County JobSight throughout her initial enrollment period, during which WIA covered her college-related travel and food expenses and the majority of her tuition for her final two years at Union College. After Melissa graduated, Twyla contacted Phillip about Melissa’s interest in the Bioptic Driving Program.

Phillip and Lee Jones, the Clay County JobSight Manager, began working with EKCEP Quality Assurance Manager Ken Enochs late last year to ensure Melissa would be able to access special reserve of WIA funds that are set aside by the state level to provide drivers’ training for visually impaired persons.

Because Melissa had already graduated and began working, making those funds accessible to her involved first getting her re-certified into WIA, Phillip said.

“Lee said that Melissa needed services, and while we weren’t totally sure how it could be done, we knew it could be done,” Ken said, noting such an arrangement had only been attempted once before in EKCEP’s 23-county service area.

Ken helped guide the process by communicating with officials in the Kentucky Department for Workforce Investment in Frankfort, while Phillip made sure Melissa completed all necessary paperwork to get her re-certified as a WIA participant.

When Melissa was re-certified, WIA fully covered the costs of her bioptic driving equipment, and her driver training and testing.

“All of these agencies working together is a wonderful thing,” Melissa says. “I would not be where I’m at without their help.”

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Driving in city traffic can be an edgy experience for most motorists. Multiply that feeling by 100 and that’s how Melissa says she felt as she pursued her bioptic driver’s training in the always-hectic city of Louisville. In addition to Louisville, Melissa also took numerous practice trips in various driving environments with trainers in Manchester and London.

Much of her hands-on training took place this spring after she received her WIA-funded custom bioptic glasses.

“Normally, the program requires at least 40 hours in a car with a driving trainer,” she says. “That person’s side of the vehicle is equipped with side brakes, and a kill switch. And trust me; they’ll let you know when you’ve done something wrong.”

After many hours of behind-the-wheel practice, Melissa made a final trip back to Louisville in April to take her official road test. Accompanied by a Kentucky State Police trooper, Melissa used her bioptic glasses to navigate various areas of the city. She says the test was “rigorous,” involving “a lot of traffic lights, merging onto the interstate, going through a little community area, and having to notice stop signs and other road signs.

“For someone who is visually impaired, that’s all kind of tough,” Melissa says with a laugh. “But for anyone who questions if should I be driving, just go look at the area where I took my road test. If I can handle driving there, I can handle it anywhere.”

Melissa said it is difficult to explain exactly how it felt to learn she had passed that test and earned her driver’s license. Try considering what it might feel like taking the first few unassisted steps after spending life in a wheelchair, she said.

Although her newfound independence feels priceless, Melissa knows that earning it through the Bioptic Driving Program did in fact carry a price tag. Thanks to the WIA, Melissa did not have to pick up a cent of that tab on her way to a future she can finally see clearly.

“I think that God had a plan for me,” Melissa says. “It’s by His grace that I’m driving, and only through His grace could I have been helped by the people who have helped me.”