Pentagon to help small agencies who hire workers with disabilities

If your agency has 5,000 or fewer employees, the Defense Department will provide you with free assistive technology to help employees with disabilities do their jobs. Under a new program aimed at small independent agencies, Defense will acquire and install devices that help people who are blind, deaf or have other physical disabilities use computers and telecommunications equipment. Defense will also provide training on how to use the devices. "One of the impediments to hiring people with disabilities is the cost of accommodating them," said Dinah Cohen, director of Defense's Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP). "Small agencies can benefit the most from CAP's services. They're a group that does their share of hiring people with disabilities, but it probably doesn't make good business sense for them to set up their own centers for assistive technology." Since 1990, the CAP office has filled 20,000 requests for assistive technology from employees with disabilities throughout Defense. The program has been so successful that Congress gave Cohen an additional $2 million this year to expand the program to civilian agencies. Most large departments have their own accommodation programs, so Cohen decided to target the money at the 80 agencies that comprise the Small Agency Council. Through CAP, small agencies will be able to get high-quality Braille displays, screen readers and magnification tools for employees who are blind or visually impaired; computer-based or stand-alone teletypewriters for the deaf; and track balls, touch pads and other devices for people with carpal tunnel syndrome and other illnesses and disabilities that affect dexterity. The free service comes as agencies are working toward a goal of hiring 100,000 people with disabilities by 2005 under an executive order that President Clinton issued last year. Federal technology managers are also focusing on accommodations for people with disabilities-both federal employees and the general public-who must use technology to interact with the government. Technology-based accommodations became mandatory under recent revisions to Section 508 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. Clinton also signed an executive order last year instructing agencies to provide more accommodations to employees with disabilities. Cohen said that the program can help both people who were born with disabilities and those who developed disabilities later in life. "As we get older, some of us will develop disabling conditions," Cohen said. "It's much better to keep employees productive than to have them be unproductive or go out on workers' comp." To take advantage of CAP's services, a small agency head must sign an interagency agreement with the Defense Department. Twelve agencies have already done so, including the Small Business Administration. Once the agency head signs the agreement, the CAP office's specialists help the agency figure out how to meet employees' needs. Interested small agency representatives can contact the CAP office at 703-681-8813 or visit the office's Web site at www.tricare.osd.mil/cap. The office also holds several open houses each year at the Pentagon, displaying the assistive devices available through CAP.