Poll finds public support for agency purchases from blind, disabled

Americans strongly support the federal government's policy of purchasing goods and services from blind and disabled workers, according to a new survey.

More than 74 percent of 1,020 respondents to a survey conducted in September by market research firm RoperASW said that federal agencies should purchase goods and services through the Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) program, which creates jobs for blind or severely disabled people. Nonprofit agencies such as the National Association for the Blind (NIB) and NISH, which provides work for the disabled, hope the results of the survey will encourage the government to make greater use of the program.

The 64-year-old JWOD law created a system that enabled groups such as NIB and NISH to sell their products and services to the government. The law requires agencies to try to buy items from nonprofit organizations affiliated with JWOD before looking elsewhere to fill their needs. The federal government spent more than $1 billion in fiscal 2001 on JWOD products and services.

"It's been a partnership that's been working well since 1938," said Leon Wilson, executive director of the federal Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled, which administers the JWOD program.

Employees with disabilities work on JWOD contracts everywhere from the Library of Congress to military installations, and their SKILCRAFT brand of office supplies is used throughout the federal government. Advocates say the work ethic of these employees outshine the commitment of all others, but they lament the 70 percent unemployment rate among people who are blind or disabled.

"If you think about it, 70 percent unemployment is an embarrassment," Wilson said. "If every organization in America just added a few jobs, then we could take a larger bite out of the unemployment rate."

On Thursday, Wilson joined Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of NIB, and Bob Chamberlin, president and CEO of NISH, to present the results of the RoperASW survey and plead the case for blind or disabled people.

"We flat-out believe in the capabilities of people who are blind," Gibbons said. "The sustainability of our program really does exist."

Gibbons described the many ways JWOD programs support national security, such as producing Army canteens, camouflage items, medical bags and rifle artillery magazines.

"Supporting the military is critical, it's something I'm very proud of as a blind person who couldn't serve," Gibbons said.

Chamberlin sold JWOD as a program with benefits for everyone. "The JWOD is a win-win-win situation," Chamberlin said. "The government gets quality products that they require at a fair market price so that taxpayers are saved money and people with severe disabilities get meaningful employment."