Making America’s workforce work for people with disabilities

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.

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.

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’.

GCE - Letters GCE with shooting star circling them sit to the right of condensed bold copy reading “Global Connections to Employment” in blue.

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 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”.

Interested in becoming a member?

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The Alliance for Expanding America’s Workforce is a 501(c)4 nonprofit founded by Didlake, Global Connections to Employment (GCE), Melwood, ServiceSource and Transylvania Vocational Services (TVS). The individuals and organizations that are members of the Alliance are dedicated to expanding America’s workforce by protecting, promoting, and evolving the AbilityOne Program, the Small Business Administration, Sections 501 and 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, and other federal strategies to promote employment for people with disabilities.