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Accomplishments
 | Randolph-Sheppard is by far the most successful effort to provide
employment for blind individuals in the history of the United States |
| Randolph-Sheppard is also the most successful disability-targeted program
for providing real opportunities--with competitive wages--in the history of
the United States |
| Randolph-Sheppard employs blind people to operate cafeterias, vending
machine operations and snack bars on municipal, county, state and federal
properties |
| The first few words of the 1936 Act still ring true, "To provide blind
people with remunerative employment, enlarge their economic opportunities, and
encourage their self support" |
| Randolph-Sheppard has employed over 30,000 blind vendors since it started
in 1936 |
| In Wisconsin, Randolph-Sheppard employs more blind people than any other
industry or sector |
| Most importantly, Randolph-Sheppard gives a blind person real empowerment,
value and control over life. It allows that individual, in the words of
one vendor, "Personal reward that cannot have a money figure attached to it" |
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Creating Economic Opportunities
| The average vendor earned $37,323 in 2002 |
| Randolph-Sheppard provides a means for tens of thousands of blind people
to earn a living, compete, and achieve in a field that would otherwise be
virtually inaccessible to them |
| Randolph-Sheppard is the American dream--entrepreneurship and business
ownership |
| The program directly combats stereotyping of the blind as an unemployable
group |
| Randolph-Sheppard discourages exploitation of blind persons in low-wage
and meaningless jobs by someone else |
| Senator Jennings Randolph said his greatest pride was giving employment to
the blind and allowing them to be productive and self-supporting |
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Saving the Government Money
| When the blind work, societal welfare costs are substantially reduced |
| The societal cost of supporting one unemployed blind person, using average
SSI and SSDI payments and unpaid tax liabilities, is estimated at $916,000
over a lifetime |
| The blind suffer from a 74% unemployment rate |
| Today, over 100,000 Wisconsin adults are blind or have substantial vision
loss |
| The estimated annual cost of blindness to the federal government in SSI
and other welfare payments is $4 billion. (Prevent Blindness America,
1994) |
| Tomorrow, with increased population and life expectancy, the number of
blind people will grow significantly. One in six persons over the age of
65 will suffer from macular degeneration or glaucoma, the leading causes of
blindness. |
| It costs the government nothing to run the Randolph-Sheppard program.
Indeed, because the vendors are completely self-supporting, and pay for
services and equipment use out of their own earnings, as well as paying
commensurate income taxes, the government actually makes money from the
program. |
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