October 21, 2005  

To the Editor of USA Today  

On Thursday October 20, 2005 , you ran an article on 2 federal programs that are intended to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities.  The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee is looking into several programs for disabled people to determine the impact they have on disabled hiring.  

One of the programs in your article was the Randolph Sheppard Program, which gives priority to blind people to operate businesses on federal property. I am a forty year old resident of Illinois who is blind and have been a member of Illinois ’ Randolph Sheppard Program for over twelve years.   

The Randolph Sheppard Program has afforded me the opportunity to find substantial and gainful employment along with a sense of independence that as a disabled person, I thought I would never be able to achieve.   

Shouldn’t that be the goal of any program that is intended to create a better life for a disabled person, financial and personal independence?  

The Randolph Sheppard Program should in fact be a model for other disabled hiring programs. Your article stated that there are 2,681 blind vendors who employee 7,122 people, 615 of whom are disabled. That means that 8.63% of the blind vendors’ work force is disabled, this is higher then the private sector and in fact is higher then the Federal Governments percentage of disabled workers.  In an ideal world as disabled people we would have a100% disabled work force, but as a blind person I realize that there are certain jobs that I can’t do, the pilots union still won’t call me back.   

In Illinois the average income of a blind vendor is roughly $45,000, but we are considered self employed, so that $45,000 is taxed higher, we receive no sick days, vacation pay or any benefits at all.  

The Senate Committee is chaired by Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wy), the Committee is questioning whether Randolph Sheppard Vendors hire enough disabled workers. I’d be curious to see how many disabled staff members Senator Enzi and the rest of the Senators on the Committee currently employee. If it’s over 8% GREAT, if not I hope before they throw stones at blind people they’d be willing to hire them.  

One of the Committee’s potential recommendations is to combine the Randolph Sheppard Program with another Federal Program, the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program (JWOD). JWOD is intended to employee people with disabilities to produce products that the Government will then purchase (mops, brooms etc.).  

A recent article in the October 18^th edition of The Oregonian reported that some non disabled CEO’s of organizations under JWOD receive compensation in excess of $700,000, while their disabled employees earn less then the minimum wage, as low as $1.93 per hour. Unless having no scruples or integrity has recently been deemed a  disability, the wrong people are benefiting, this just isn’t right.  

As a blind person even I can see the problem. What I can’t see is why the Senate Committee would want to combine a successful disability program, the Randolph Sheppard Program, with a program that has there priorities reversed, Javits-Wagner-O’Day.    

The intent was to help disabled people not their bosses, remember?    

Kevin Dwyer