Making America’s workforce work for people with disabilities

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Asian woman with chin-length wavy hair, arm amputation and red glasses charismatically leads a meeting while seated between female coworkers in a bright, modern office.
THIS JUST IN: AEAW Announces new Executive Director
What We Do
The Alliance for Expanding America's Workforce (AEAW) seeks to leverage the hiring and purchasing power of our nation’s largest employer – the federal government – to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We advocate for federal strategies that provide stable, dignity-affirming jobs for people with disabilities, that in turn, provide the public sector with a talented, diverse workforce.
Policy Strategy 1
Modernize the AbilityOne Program
The AbilityOne Program is the nation’s largest source of employment for people with disabilities – but it hasn’t been updated or expanded since the 1970s. AEAW seeks to build on the strengths of this hallmark legislation and expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities in the context of today’s workforce.
A female black employee with Down syndrome wearing a white colored tee-shirt stands in the center of a hardware store aisle, smiling directly at the camera.
A woman with dark hair and glasses, wearing a heather gray shirt, uses a power chair at an office pizza party. She is smiling directly at the camera.
Policy Strategy 2
PROCUREMENT
WITH A PURPOSE
The federal government and its contractors represent immense purchasing and hiring power — and also a lever for reducing un- or under-employment of people with disabilities. AEAW advocates for stronger incentives for the federal government to empower people with disabilities by procuring their goods and services.
POLICY Strategy 3
EXPAND AMERICA’S WORKFORCE
We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. AEAW is expanding access and choice for people with disabilities by taking a holistic approach to championing needle-moving partnerships, policies and programs.
A white male employee with Down syndrome, wearing a headset and a reflective safety vest smiles at the camera. He is working in a warehouse environment.
four icons of people, one has a raised hand
Up to 1 in 4 adults (26 percent) in the United States have some type of disability.
21 percent and 65 percent shown in bar chart
In 2022, 21.3 percent of persons with a disability were employed compared to 65.4 percent of persons without a disability.
one percent
If the Department of Defense meets a one percent contracting goal, it has the potential to create more than 20,000 new job opportunities for people with disabilities, including veterans and wounded warriors.

OUR MEMBERS

A golden lotus-flower shape sits above the type “ACHIEVE HUMAN SERVICES” in a sans serif purple font.
Bobby Dodd Institute - Green and gray starburst shape with bright blue points sits to the left of large gray letters BDI, followed by lowercase gray sans serif letters reading ‘illuminating the possibilities in disabilities.’ The ‘dis’ of disabilities has been struck through with a bright blue line.
CW Resources - Wine-colored and gray circles surround the letters ‘C’ and ‘W’.
Chimes - Orange sunburst-flower shape surrounds the ‘C’ to the left of Chimes.
Didlake is spelled out in dark serif font with a bright blue outstretched star underneath.
EPSI Solutions - Lower-case E with yellow interior and black circle around it sits above the letters EPSI.
Eastern Carolina Vocational School - Letters ECVC appear in white on a navy oval, surrounded by a golden circle above a hand-written font saying “Jobs with Purpose”.
Eggleston - Bold lower-case E in blue sits above thin, sans-serif font spelling out ‘Eggleston’.
Light blue font where Fedcap is spelled out at the top of the logo, sitting above the phrase “inspiring confidence inspiring people” with “confidence” underlined in green.
GCE - Letters GCE with shooting star circling them sit to the right of condensed bold copy reading “Global Connections to Employment” in blue.
Inspiritec - Dark blue font is used to spell out “Inspiritec” above the phrase “Inspiring work through technology.” A star is featured in the upper left of the logo.
Melwood - Bright green lowercase ‘M’ sits above thin, sans-serif copy spelling out “Melwood” in lowercase. Uppercase lighter gray letters below read “Your path awaits”.
Larve blue ‘O’ and ‘V’ are positioned to the left at an angle so that human silhouettes, one helping the other climb up, can be seen above. In gray capitalized serif font “Opportunity Village” sits above two lines of text reading “Empowering Employing, and Serving People with Disabilities”.
Three kelly-green lines arch above the wide serif black font of letters PCSI.
Blocky letters spell out PRIDE in black where the ‘I’ is shaped like a person. “Industries” sits below in all-capital letters in blue font.
A green letter P is shown in a circle, the P resembles a door opening with a curved archway on top. The word “Portco” is spelled out to the right in a chunky bold sans-serif font with the shape from the logo repeated in the P and R openings. Underneath the line reads “Providing Quality Jobs for People with Disabilities”.
Navy letters spell out “SOAR 365” on the right side of the logo. On the left features a multi-colored origami bird.
The logo features “Light House” in orange and black font sitting above the phrase “for the blind and visually impaired.” Braille is featured on both sides of the logo.
A small red box that features a white stick figure sits on top of the words “Service Source” in black and red font.
Rounded square shape with four dots resembling four people holding hands appear in various shades of dark blue to the left of the letters TRDI in all capitals, dark navy sans serif font.
Transylvania Vocational Services - The letters TVS appear in light and dark blue with an arched shape overlapping in dark blue.
In a dark purple sans serif font the letters ‘vers’ appear in light weight followed by a golden s-curve and then bold dark purple ‘ability’. The word ‘resources’ appears below in gray.
A rainbow gradient line creates a ‘V’ shape to the left of gray sans-serif font reading “Vibrant” in bold and “Works” in regular weight. Below copy reads “Empowering people with vision loss”.
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