For 85 years, National Industries for the Blind has championed diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility through its enduring mission to create employment opportunities for people who are blind.
Seventy percent of working-age people who are blind in the United States are unemployed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the jobless rate for people with a disability is about twice as high as the rate for people without a disability.
NIB strives to change those statistics and reduce that unemployment rate by creating opportunities for people who are blind or visually impaired to become wage earners and taxpayers, eliminating reliance on government support. In 2023, NIB and its nearly 100 associated nonprofit agencies across the country employed more than 5,200 people who are blind and provided jobs for 476 veterans.
NIB provides a wide variety of services for its government and commercial clients, and its SKILCRAFT® contract management support (CMS) services are one of the organization’s flagship offerings.
CMS services are specifically designed to provide contract closeout support services to the federal government. Since the CMS program launched in 2010, NIB and its associated nonprofit agencies have identified more than $25.8 billion for deobligation and closed out over 588,000 contracts – all while retaining a quality rating of 99.6%.
NIB’s CMS services free up time for government personnel to focus on inherently governmental functions and facilitate the return of unused funds to the government.
“NIB can take almost everything off a contracting officer’s plate and provide contract management support in one package,” said – Robert Harris, NIB senior director of services. “We take the guesswork out of working with the AbilityOne Program and allow government customers to focus on the next acquisition.”
Scarlet Nishimoto is a contract closeout specialist who is also blind. She is part of the contract management support division at VisionCorps, an NIB associated nonprofit agency in Pennsylvania.
“Meaningful employment increases access to resources, services, and opportunities that enable individuals with disabilities to live more independently,” Scarlet said. “I accepted the position three-and-a-half years ago. I am now the primary income for my household, and I recently bought a house. This was a very large goal of mine that I thought would be much harder to achieve a few years ago.”