The Importance of AbilityOne’s New Strategic Plan
On June 30, 2022, the AbilityOne Commission issued a four-year strategic plan that lays out a vision and a roadmap for modernizing the AbilityOne Program.
The AbilityOne Program leverages the power of federal procurement to create jobs for people who are blind or have significant disabilities. Last year, approximately $4 billion in federal contracts for products or services flowed through the program. These contracts, through which federal agencies obtain vital products and services, were offered solely to qualified non-profit agencies that met statutory requirements for hiring people who are blind or have significant disabilities for the jobs resulting from the contracts.
The origins of the Program in 1938 lie in an old vision of employment for people who are blind or have significant disabilities. Under that view, individuals with such disabilities could not be expected to find employment on their own and be successful in the regular economy. The goal of sending certain contracts only to participants that would hire primarily people who were blind or had significant disabilities was therefore to create jobs that such individuals “could do,” while still meeting the real needs of federal agencies for products and services. There was not an expectation that such employees would necessarily move on to other jobs. The goal was simply to hire as many people who were blind or had significant disabilities as possible and give them jobs. Jobs that might offer pay below a competitive wage, no opportunity for advancement, and no meaningful interaction with people without disabilities.
The statutory basis for the Program is antiquated and has not been amended since 1971. For instance, to participate in the Program, participants must show that at least 75% of their direct labor hours are performed by people who are blind or have a significant disability. This requirement not only disincentivizes the creation of more integrated work spaces, it has appropriately drawn criticism from disability rights advocates and proponents of modernization.
Despite the framework of the law, numerous participants in the Program run major enterprises, performing contracts for sophisticated manufacturing and services. They have a mission to hire people with disabilities, but they don’t exist solely for that purpose. They have a mission to ensure that employees with disabilities are successful in their jobs, are provided job supports and career counseling, and are encouraged to advance in employment. These participants also exist to deliver well on their federal contracts, with the goal of getting more contracts and creating more jobs. Some participants have been able to create work settings in which employees with and without disabilities work side-by-side doing a same or similar job. The plan applauds participants that have managed to do so and pledges to help other participants achieve that optimal work setting where possible.
The AbilityOne Commission’s new Strategic Plan identifies the many levers it intends to pull to modernize the AbilityOne Program, even within the context of a statutory scheme that needs to be updated. The plan sets out steps to ensure that all participants in the Program are committed to and capable of providing “good jobs” for employees with disabilities working on AbilityOne contracts. The plan defines a “good job” as one in which employees are paid competitive wages and benefits; the job matches an employee’s interests and skills (“job customization”); employees with disabilities are provided opportunities for employment advancement comparable to those offered to employees without disabilities; and all those working on the contract are covered under labor and employment laws.
The plan also focuses on ensuring that federal agencies are getting good value for their dollars. The AbilityOne Program is most successful when the federal customer is happy. The federal customer is happy when the contract is being performed well. It’s really as simple as that.
A true transformation of the AbilityOne Program will depend on Congress amending the statute to create a procurement program that provides a preference for hiring people who are blind or have significant disabilities but does so in a manner that ensures full integration in the workplace between employees with and without disabilities. This vision of “competitive, integrated employment” (CIE) is and must remain a north star for the disability community, including for the AbilityOne Commission.
But there is much that the AbilityOne Commission can do even before such a legislative transformation occurs. We cannot stand still and wait for change. We must use every tool at our disposal to create good jobs in every AbilityOne contract and to increase employment opportunities for people who are blind or have significant disabilities.
The new Strategic Plan sets us off on that road. Now let’s get it done.
