This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

OKLAHOMA CITY – Members of Oklahoma’s blind community are speaking out against several House bills that could eliminate job opportunities for blind individuals.

Mike Spencer operates the Tulsa County Jail commissary.

Spencer, a blind man himself, employs many other blind Oklahomans.

"Inmates get locked up. They get three meals a day, and what commissaries do is gives them a little taste of outside things. For instance, I sell soap. I sell thermal shirts in the winter when it gets really cold,” Spencer said.

Under the Title VII statute, Spencer said blind individuals are given priority for certain business opportunities, which includes operating vending facilities like Spencer does.

"We work through the Department of Rehabilitation Services. We get trained, and Title VII helps us in these facilities,” Spencer said.

However, that could soon change under three proposed House bills, which Spencer said would amend Title VII.

"It's going to take away their income. It's going to take away their employee's income. We won't be paying sales tax anymore. We'll probably have to go back on government assistance,” Spencer said.

Spencer and others are speaking out, hoping to meet with the representatives who authored the bill to voice their concerns.

"For about three years, I couldn't find anything. Finally, I heard about this program, and came to the city, and applied and got into this program. But, there I was at 53, and I couldn't find another job,” said John Wardwell.

With a very high unemployment rate among blind adults, Spencer said he doesn’t want to see anybody else have to rely on government assistance.

"We just want to keep our jobs. We don't want to come to the public and say, oh, feel sorry for us. We don't need your sorry. We just want to work,” Spencer said.

In years past, authors of similar bills have said this has nothing to do with the servers and everything to do with the service because of slow delivery.