Yesterday marked the 26th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the landmark civil rights legislation that has removed barriers for millions of Americans and serves as a gold standard around the world.
On July 26, the Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program, an initiative through which the Defense Department offers free assistive technology devices to support military personnel and federal employees with disabilities, provided its 13,000th device of the current fiscal year. The previous record of 12,777 was reached in 2014.
“We simply couldn’t have planned a more fitting way to celebrate this record-breaking milestone and the ADA anniversary,” said CAP director Stephen M. King. “As a resource for reasonable accommodations and assistive technology, we are passionate about ensuring that military and civilian personnel have the tools they need to maximize their job performance. The timing is impeccable.”
Hiring Individuals With Disabilities
The growing need for CAP services, he said, coincides with increased hiring of individuals with disabilities within the DoD and throughout the federal government.
“My staff and resources are being pushed to the limit,” King said. “Thanks to the support of DoD’s leadership, we have been able meet the challenge, just as our customers prove they can in service to our nation every single day.”
Established in 1990, CAP is the largest centrally-funded reasonable accommodation program in the federal government and the largest assistive technology program in the world. To date, more than 165,000 assistive technology solutions have been provided to more than 67,000 CAP customers.
(From a Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program news release.)