By JEFFREY MITTMAN
Guest Columnist
This past weekend, the president signed the bipartisan bill House Resolution 4920. While the bill received little attention, it will have an enormous impact on Americans who are blind and visually impaired and their ability to gain employment and contribute to society.
I want to personally thank Senator Todd Young, Senator Mike Braun and Representative Susan Brooks for playing instrumental roles in the bill’s passage.
HR 4920 clarifies an unintended conflict created by Congress during its drafting and passage of the Veterans Benefit Act (VBA) in 2006. The conflict involved the Javits-Wagner O’Day Act (JWOD) – a federal statute now known as the AbilityOne Program – established by Congress decades ago to create jobs for people who are blind or significantly disabled.
The new legislation allows AbilityOne and the VBA to coexist and achieve separate, but complementary service missions.
AbilityOne provides sustainable employment for more than 45,000 people who are blind or severely disabled, including more than 3,000 wounded, ill or injured veterans. Nationally, people who are blind or visually impaired face a 70 percent unemployment rate – more than 18 times the rate of unemployment for sighted Americans.
Bosma Enterprises is Indiana’s largest employer of Hoosiers who have lost their sight and a leading provider of rehabilitation and training services for people with blindness or visual impairment. Our organization would not exist if not for the AbilityOne program.
For several years, Bosma has contracted with the Veterans Affairs administration to provide medical supplies to its hospitals. We have been operational throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, shipping hundreds of millions of gloves to VA facilities. Our employees are very proud of their contribution to ensuring the safety of health care professionals caring for our nation’s heroes.
Bosma and the AbilityOne Program provide people with more than just jobs. They provide dignity, confidence and the ability to live independently.
Without this long-term solution, the total loss of jobs would have been devastating, both for people who are sighted and those who are blind, visually impaired or have significant disabilities. It would have meant job losses for several veterans as well, many of whom have disabilities.
Worse still, thousands of Americans would have lost access to life-changing rehabilitative and support services provided by Bosma Enterprises and other AbilityOne programs.
Since our founding in 1915, Bosma Enterprises has supported the VA and all veterans. We employ veterans who are blind and visually impaired and provide rehabilitative and training services to help veterans with vision loss gain the life skills they need to live independently and the job skills they need to stay self-sufficient.
I am a veteran myself, serving in the U.S. Army for 21 years, including one combat tour in Afghanistan and three in Iraq. I am also the first CEO of Bosma Enterprises who is blind. While serving in Baghdad in July 2005, a roadside bomb struck the vehicle I was driving. A month later, I woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and learned I would never regain my vision. My experience as someone who is visually impaired uniquely positions me to understand the overwhelming challenge for people with disabilities to secure employment, which is why this legislation is so important.
I also want to offer my sincerest thanks to the National Industries for the Blind, Blinded Veterans Association, National Federation of the Blind and American Council of the Blind for their unwavering support of this bill.
Thank you again to Senator Todd Young, Senator Mike Braun and Representative Susan Brooks for playing an integral role in the passage of HR 4920. Because of your efforts, Americans who are disabled will be able to share the same sense of pride in their work and in themselves.
Jeffrey Mittman serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Bosma Enterprises, an Indianapolis-based non-profit. Learn more at bosma.org.