After suffering a combat injury that left him blind, Jeffrey Mittman found a new opportunity to help others who are visually impaired. 

Mittman, an Army infantry veteran, and Indiana native says his life changed forever after an ambush left him severely injured and blind. When he woke up in a hospital bed, he discovered that his life was changed forever.“The first visually impaired person I ever met was myself,” he says. 

Now, after years of advocating for visually impaired veterans, Mittman is the President and CEO of Bosma Enterprises, an Indianapolis-area organization that provides employment and services to the blind and visually impaired. 

Bosma is the largest employer of people who are blind or visually impaired in Indiana. And despite what others might say, Bosma employees continue to defy the odds. “We prove them wrong every day,” Mittman says.  

Bosma serves over 1,000 Hoosiers every year, but Mittman says, with more than 160,000 blind and visually impaired people in Indiana, there’s much more work to do. With a 70% national unemployment rate, Mittman wants more organizations to offer job opportunities to the community. He says there is a pool of untapped workers eager to prove themselves.  

Mittman encourages employers to not be afraid to hire people who are blind or visually impaired. He says since job opportunities can be few, the community tends to be very loyal, and adding someone with a different life experience to your team could bring value. 

Bosma uses a combination of state and federal contracts to manufacture and ship products using a blind and visually impaired workforce. Mittman calls it a “social enterprise” that doesn’t operate like a typical non-profit.