‘Excellence’ Program Assists People With Disabilities
Summary:
People with disabilities remain an untapped resource in the nation’s workforce, facing an unemployment rate of 70 percent.
With a 70% unemployment rate, people with disabilities continue to be an underutilized resource in the labor force of the country.
NISH, a nonprofit organization that helps secure federal contracts for agencies that employ people with disabilities through the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program, is working to change the status quo.
The group has launched a new initiative in which organizations named “Centres of Excellence” coach other organizations to help them raise the caliber of the services and goods they offer to the federal government.
The Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program is the largest single source of jobs in the U.S. for people with disabilities. Often referred to as the JWOD program, it provides employment opportunities for more than 45,000 people who are blind or have other severe disabilities.
The program’s origins may be traced back to the 1938 Wagner-O’Day Act, which gave blind people the ability to work by enabling them to produce mops and brooms for the federal government.
In 1971, Congress amended the act to include people with severe disabilities and to allow the agencies to provide services as well as products.