Blind, disabled Americans help prepare Airmen for battlefield

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  • By Staff Sgt. C. Todd Lopez
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  In several factories around the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, Americans who are blind or severely disabled are now assembling the uniforms Airmen will soon wear while fighting the war on terrorism.

Under federal law, when purchasing certain items, the Department of Defense and other government agencies must first place orders from nonprofit manufacturers that employ Americans who are blind or have other severe disabilities.

In 1938, Congress passed the Wagner-O'Day Act. The law required government agencies to give consideration to nonprofit manufacturers that employed Americans who are blind. In 1971, the act was amended to give consideration to Americans with other severe disabilities. Today, the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act, called JWOD by those involved with federal procurement, helps ensure meaningful employment for thousands of Americans who are blind or otherwise severely disabled, said Leon Wilson Jr., executive director of the JWOD Committee.

"The intent of the act is to use the purchasing power of the government to facilitate jobs for people who are blind and severely disabled," Mr. Wilson said. "The government's continued support of the JWOD Act is critical to the effort of addressing this nation's 70 percent unemployment rate for people with significant disabilities."

As a result of the JWOD Act, over 45,000 blind and severely disabled Americans find employment each year with over 600 JWOD nonprofit organizations, Mr. Wilson said.

Not every item the Air Force or other services needs is made by people who are blind or severely disabled. But the JWOD Committee, by law, has created and continues to update a procurement list of nearly 10,000 items that can be furnished to the government.

The JWOD procurement list serves as a starting point for federal procurement officials. If a needed item appears on the list, procurement officials work with the JWOD Committee to find a nonprofit agency -- one that employs Americans who are blind or severely disabled -- that is capable of filling the need.

"Once a full or partial product or service requirement is on the list, the nonprofit agency designated by the committee becomes a government source of supply, until the item is removed from the list, or the item or service can no longer meet government requirements or be provided in a timely manner," Mr. Wilson said.

To be eligible to provide goods or services to the federal government under the JWOD Act, an agency must, among other things, employ individuals who are either blind or severely handicapped for not less than 75 percent of the man-hours of direct labor required for the production or provision of the commodities or services.

Because the government is required to use JWOD sources for items on the procurement list, the government can field items faster than it could if it had to competitively source the items, said Diana Stewart, a spokeswoman with the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia.

"Working with JWOD allowed us to quickly place on contract ABUs, while the competitive solicitation goes through the formal process of advertisement to all potential sources," Ms. Stewart said. "Essentially, it gets production started sooner than that which could be obtained on a competitive solicitation, thereby allowing us to begin accumulating inventory to support introduction of the new uniform."

Because the JWOD program does not have the full requirement on its procurement list, not all ABUs will be made by Americans who are blind or severely disabled. Right now, for instance, the Defense Logistics Agency has a competitive bid out to for-profit manufacturers to build additional uniforms.

"Production by commercial sources will follow and will supplement the JWOD production of the ABU, providing sufficient inventory to roll out the new uniform to larger portions of the Air Force," Ms. Stewart said.

Still, the first 100,000 ABUs will be built by Americans who are blind. And likely, based on the quality shown by JWOD-recommended nonprofit contractors in the past, people who are blind or severely disabled will continue to build a percentage of the ABUs, Ms. Stewart said.

"The JWOD firms are held to the same standards as commercial sources and must comply with the same quality and delivery requirements, as well as requirements for use of domestic components and manufacturing," she said. "And there are many, many cases where JWOD sources have exceeded quality and delivery expectations."

The Air Force isn't the first service to have uniforms or other products built by the JWOD Program. In fact, the Department of Defense purchases thousands of products from JWOD sources, to include uniform items, trash bags, office supplies, flashlights, batteries, medical supplies, janitorial supplies, mattresses, and rifle range targets.

The Air Force expects the first delivery of the ABU to begin in fiscal 2007. Those first uniforms will be given to deploying Airmen.