Interesting Fact-

Kevin A. Lynch, President and Chief Executive Officer of National Industries for the Blind (NIB)


Since the passage of the Wagner-O’Day Act in 1938, people who are blind have been a major part of the U.S. labor force by creating quality products for the federal government and military. This contribution to the manufacturing boom after the Great Depression and during World War II was decades before the signing of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)...Today, thanks to modern developments in assistive technology, people who are blind have a wide range of career options. However, the unemployment rate among working age Americans who are blind still hovers around 70 percent. Why is this?...

One issue is that employers assume they will have to invest lots of money to arrange a work environment that is conducive to people who are blind. In reality, the cost of accommodations is often nominal. Data from the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) indicates that most accommodations for people who are blind or visually impaired cost less than $500. In fact, 50 percent of the accommodations required to set-up a barrier-free work station cost less than $50 and 31 percent cost nothing!

A national survey conducted by the Office of Disability Employment Policy on consumer attitudes toward companies that hire people with disabilities indicated that 92 percent of the American public views companies that hire people with disabilities more favorably than those that do not, and 87 percent would prefer to give their business to companies that hire people with disabilities.

I encourage companies to consider this information when making informed decisions about the modest investment required to accommodate this underutilized labor resource