Rouge: Pictured in Its Prime

33. Workers with Disabilities

33 WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES The policy of Henry Ford was to give equal opportunity for work to all, including those who did not have full use of their physical faculties. For blind applicants, in particular, a number of specific jobs were available in such departments as motor assembly, including especially the gasket department and the valve bushing department. This work could be handled efficiently by sightless employees. There were times when as many as 1200 employees who were blind or had seriously impaired vision were working at the Rouge Plant, earning wages equal to those of other workers. Also working at the Rouge were more than 150 deaf-mutes, 15 men in wheelchairs with both legs amputated , 130 employees minus a hand or a whole arm, and one with both hands gone. Including all of his factories, Ford was reported in March 1927 to be employing 13,000 people with disabilities. Between World War I and World War II, great advances had been made in fitting seriously disabled men for industrial work. In appropriate jobs, workers with disabilities were sometimes more efficient than other workers. These workers asked no odds and were given none when work suiting their abilities was found. In 1929, Ford stated that he preferred having employees who were thirtyfive to sixty years old, but, in reality, the range extended way beyond in both directions. This office worker without hands is able to write and use a typewriter. (833.77132-C) 207 208 With just one arm, this man can operate a freight elevator as well as any man. (833.69239-C) 209 A blind man with his leader dog is trained to assemble motor guide bushings by touch. (833.77082-O) 210 Top: Two blind men sort and fit together valve guide split bushings for motor assembly. (833.69239-B) Bottom: A blind woman assembles ammeters for installation in the instrument panels of Ford automobiles. (833.68526) 211 Ben McLennan, at age eighty-one, continues to work as operator of a hot forging press. (833.69672-A) 212 Top: Three older men assist in the Rouge boot repair shop during April 1936. (833.65729) Bottom: It’s all business for these elderly men at a steel mill stockroom counter on September 1, 1937. (833.68734-A) 213 An elderly disabled man separates ferrous from nonferrous scrap with a magnet.The photo was taken during the period at the start of World War II. (833.77123-19) ...