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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Feel free to reply to this e-mail with your
thoughts, questions, whatever.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Joe Sontag</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>
Randolph-Sheppard: Our History Calls Us to
Action<BR>
by James Gashel<BR> From the Editor: Jim Gashel is
the secretary of the National<BR>Federation of the Blind, vice president in
charge of marketing for KNFB<BR>Reading Technologies, and former director of
governmental affairs and later<BR>head of strategic initiatives for the National
Federation of the Blind. To<BR>newer members of the Federation, Jim is best
known as the man who is always<BR>talking about books and reading technology,
but to longtime members, and<BR>especially to those who have long been active in
the Randolph-Sheppard<BR>Program, he is probably best known for his creative
leadership in crafting<BR>legislation and implementing regulations to advance
the rights of blind<BR>entrepreneurs.<BR> The
following remarks were delivered at the 2013 Business Leadership<BR>and Superior
Training (BLAST) Conference, a place where the fruits of Jim's<BR>work are made
manifest in the lives of hundreds of blind businessmen and<BR>businesswomen.
Here is what he said to conference
participants:<BR> Thank you very much. What a
pleasure it is for me to be back at BLAST,<BR>not to mention having the special
privilege of being asked to speak to the<BR>whole crowd, and I don't think I am
expected to talk about books or to<BR>demonstrate any technology. Wow! All I
have to do is relax and say<BR>something meaningful about blind people
succeeding in business-that I can<BR>do.<BR>
Although BLAST reflects an interest among blind people that goes<BR>beyond the
operation of vending facilities alone, these business leadership<BR>gatherings
certainly have a rich tradition of speaking to the needs of<BR>blind vendors.
And, by the way, how about getting our more modern term,<BR>"blind
entrepreneurs," officially adopted to express who we are and who we<BR>have
become? According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, an<BR>entrepreneur
is "one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a<BR>business or
enterprise," and the same source defines "vendor" as "one who<BR>sells" or
"vending machine." So here's your choice: you can organize,<BR>manage, and
assume the risk of a business, on the one hand, or, on the<BR>other, you can be
a vending machine-take your pick.<BR> Now the
Randolph-Sheppard Act was originally written in 1936 when two<BR>members of
Congress-Jennings Randolph and Morris Sheppard-put their heads<BR>together to
back an historic economic opportunity bill for the blind.<BR>Jennings Randolph
served as a member of the House of Representatives from<BR>West Virginia, and
Morris Sheppard represented Texas in the Senate. Their<BR>vision was to create
business opportunities for blind people by means of a<BR>preference for vending
stands run by the blind to be set up in federal<BR>buildings; the concept was
really quite simple and amazingly elegant.<BR>
Elegant? I think so. Remember, we are talking about a bill developed<BR>in the
1930s in the midst of the Great Depression. Few blind people had<BR>jobs outside
of working in workshops or making brooms or rugs at home. The<BR>chance to have
a small business if you were blind at that time was all but<BR>unheard of, and
here were two visionaries in the Congress working to create<BR>a business
program for the blind. Even more amazing, they were working to<BR>create this
program a full four years before the founding meeting of the<BR>National
Federation of the Blind in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Imagine if<BR>Messrs.
Randolph and Sheppard could be present here at BLAST 2013, how<BR>proud they
would be; their vision lives in us.<BR> But the
vision that Jennings Randolph and Morris Sheppard had in 1936<BR>was not the
only vision for the blind at that time. In 1938 Congress passed<BR>two other
laws about employment of the blind, and both are still on the<BR>books. One of
these was the Wagner-O'Day Act, providing sheltered work<BR>opportunities for
the blind to make products needed by the government. This<BR>is now called the
Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act, and the program is known as<BR>"Ability One." The
second law enacted in 1938 was the Fair Labor Standards<BR>Act, for the first
time setting up a minimum wage for all workers in the<BR>U.S., except for
workers like the blind, who were presumed to be unable to<BR>be productive.
Unlike the Randolph-Sheppard Act, which focused on enlarging<BR>economic
opportunities, the abilities of the blind, and striving to
become<BR>self-supporting, the Wagner-O'Day Act and the Fair Labor Standards
Act<BR>focused on disabilities and limitations, promoting sheltered jobs
at<BR>substandard wages for the blind on assembly lines but no jobs in the
front<BR>office. All jobs in the executive suite were reserved for the sighted.
This<BR>vision for the blind reflected a plantation
mentality.<BR> So what are the results of these
visions from the 1930s three-quarters<BR>of a century later? Annual gross sales
reported by blind entrepreneurs in<BR>federal fiscal year 2010-the most recent
year available-$792,613,306, with<BR>net earnings to the blind of $134,412,036,
and average earnings of $56,168.<BR>Although blind people can certainly find
jobs individually that are more<BR>lucrative, as a group blind entrepreneurs do
better than any other single<BR>subset of blind people in the U.S. and probably
around the world as well.<BR> Turning to Ability
One, $557,700,000 was paid out in wages to 48,816<BR>blind and disabled
employees in fiscal year 2012. These 48,816 employees<BR>worked a total of
47,700,000 hours during the year, with the average number<BR>of hours being 977,
or on average less than half-time employment. With an<BR>average hourly wage of
about $11.24, the average annual compensation of<BR>Ability One employees was
$10,983 and change during 2012. Now remember that<BR>the average net earnings of
blind Randolph-Sheppard entrepreneurs was more<BR>than $56,000 even two years
before these official figures from Ability
One.<BR> In Randolph-Sheppard, blind people are
the managers, but not so in<BR>Ability One, where the amount paid to sighted,
non-disabled managers is not<BR>even disclosed except through occasional press
reports and annual charity<BR>filings. Imagine what life would be like to be the
president and CEO of<BR>Goodwill International, perhaps the largest of the mega
charities with<BR>contracts through Ability One. According to Goodwill's form
990, filed with<BR>the Internal Revenue Service for 2012, the president and CEO
received an<BR>annual salary of $434,252 and total benefits and other
compensation of<BR>$99,513, as well as retirement and non-taxable benefits of
$103,554. Added<BR>all together, his total compensation and benefits package
amounted to<BR>$637,319 in 2012. Also his eight other colleagues in the
executive suite<BR>with pay high enough to report, collectively received
salaries and benefits<BR>totaling $1,815,770 as a group. And all of this to
produce average annual<BR>wages of less than $11,000 for their blind and
disabled employees; and they<BR>wonder why we call it
exploitation!<BR> Looking at the results, the
vision of Randolph-Sheppard, focusing on<BR>ability, has clearly delivered
better opportunities for blind entrepreneurs<BR>than the so-called "Ability One"
program has done with its focus on<BR>disability and limitations of blind and
disabled workers. The reason why is<BR>not a mystery. If you're looking for the
secret sauce that makes the<BR>Randolph-Sheppard vision work, look no further
than the spirit of an<BR>entrepreneur-not to mention the collective power of
several hundred<BR>entrepreneurs assembled for this conference and hundreds more
working to<BR>support one another through the National Federation of the Blind
and our<BR>merchants division.<BR> To be fair, the
Randolph-Sheppard program does provide blind<BR>entrepreneurs with space,
resources, and support (including money) needed<BR>to set up shop. This help is
vital, but businesses succeed over time with<BR>smart management, strategic
planning, hard work, dogged determination, and<BR>serving the customer first to
sustain and build demand. State agencies do<BR>not-cannot-provide these
essentials, but all of them are job one for
blind<BR>entrepreneurs.<BR> In 1974 the law on
federal property was changed to convert a<BR>preference for the blind when
feasible into a priority, meaning a first-in-<BR>line status or prior right for
blind people over other competing interests.<BR>The 1930s term "vending stand,"
was replaced by a far broader definition of<BR>vending facility, incorporating
gift shops, cafeterias, and other services<BR>not thought of as falling within
the more limited scope of a vending stand.<BR>The point is, blind people had
outgrown the original concept of a single<BR>vendor in a small stand and were
demanding more lucrative
business<BR>opportunities.<BR> In 1966, when a new
federal building was constructed in Des Moines,<BR>Iowa, a great kerfuffle
ensued over how food service would be provided to<BR>employees and the public.
As late as the 1950s (according to the minutes of<BR>the Iowa Commission for the
Blind), popcorn stands were the most common<BR>form of business operated by the
blind in the state, so the idea that a<BR>blind person would operate the
cafeteria in the new federal building was<BR>unthinkable, and the law did not
support this outcome.<BR> But the fact that the
blind had popcorn stands but not cafeterias did<BR>not stop Dr. Kenneth Jernigan
and the blind of Iowa. Never mind the<BR>limitations of the Randolph-Sheppard
Act at that time; the tide of change<BR>was rising, and the newfound voice of
the blind-the organized blind-would<BR>not be denied. So, when the cafeteria
opened on the first day, Sylvester<BR>Nimmers, a blind person, was in charge.
Regardless of the limits of the<BR>Randolph-Sheppard Act, and over the
objections of the U.S. General Services<BR>Administration, a way had been found
to honor the preference for the blind.<BR>Rather than calling the food service a
cafeteria, which it was-no question-<BR>a permit was granted for operation of a
manually operated snack bar. That's<BR>what they called it on the books at the
GSA in Washington, DC, but in Des<BR>Moines this business was a cafeteria. Call
it by any name you want-call it<BR>George or Kevan if you want-but this business
was a cafeteria. The rising<BR>expectations of the blind would not be
denied.<BR> So it was by no means an accident
that, when the 1974 amendments to<BR>the Randolph-Sheppard Act were written,
cafeterias were specified as<BR>covered under the priority for the blind.
Through our advocacy in Congress<BR>we made that happen. Today, although the
Ability One executives don't like<BR>it, cafeterias even include military troop
dining services. The businesses<BR>resulting from these contracts keep faith
with the Randolph-Sheppard Act<BR>objective to support blind people in achieving
their maximum vocational<BR>potential. In fact some blind entrepreneurs show
higher annual earnings<BR>than the sighted executives at Ability One and its
affiliates. Need I add<BR>that they do this without exploiting their blind or
disabled employees?<BR>Business opportunities awarded to blind entrepreneurs
resulting from the<BR>vision of Jennings Randolph and Morris Sheppard are among
the best business<BR>opportunities available to blind people anywhere in the
world.<BR> And what of our counterparts, the state
agencies and the Department<BR>of Education? Clearly some of the state agencies
are our partners and stand<BR>with us in promoting the vision of Jennings
Randolph and Morris Sheppard.<BR>Some of those agencies are represented at this
conference, and others would<BR>be here, state funds and travel restrictions
permitting. To those who<BR>support us and work with the blind to expand
opportunities we say: your<BR>support deserves our support. When times get hard,
when jobs are on the<BR>line and budgets get tight, you can count on our
support, and you have<BR>nothing to fear from the
blind.<BR> But, I think I have to say this: there
are other agencies that have<BR>turned their backs on blind entrepreneurs and
view the Randolph-Sheppard<BR>program as an annoyance. Rather than taking pride
in the success achieved<BR>by blind entrepreneurs, their administrators and
staff resent the blind and<BR>especially resent those whose earnings exceed
their own. Rather than<BR>sharing the entrepreneurial spirit of Jennings
Randolph and Morris<BR>Sheppard, they view the blind as subservient. And to
these agencies and<BR>their resentful staff we say: your days are numbered.
Although you may not<BR>understand or believe this fact, the jobs you have
depend on us. Trample on<BR>the blind if you will, but we will not forget what
you have done.<BR> To the Department of Education
for failing in its statutory<BR>stewardship on behalf of the Randolph-Sheppard
vision and mission we say:<BR>shame on you. Shame on you for putting
bureaucratic inertia-the desire to<BR>go along and get along-ahead of doing your
duty to build more opportunities<BR>and better lives for the blind. And shame on
you especially for tying the<BR>hands of our friends and colleagues both inside
and outside of the<BR>Department who share the vision of Jennings Randolph and
Morris Sheppard.<BR>To the blind it matters not whether your failure comes from
ineptness,<BR>indifference, or a conscious disregard of the law; the result for
the blind<BR>in lost opportunities and wasted lives is all the
same.<BR> Finally, what of ourselves-America's
blind entrepreneurs and our<BR>friends? To this group-growing in numbers and
firm in purpose-we say: on<BR>behalf of the blind we salute you. In business and
in life you are the<BR>finest examples of success and tenacity. Because of you
the vision of<BR>Jennings Randolph and Morris Sheppard is still alive. For the
blind of the<BR>present generation and the generations to come, we thank you.
Through your<BR>entrepreneurial spirit you are changing what it means to be
blind.<BR>
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