Little Rock Community Low Vision Center providing help, hope for the blind and visually impaired

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — For anyone working at IFB Solutions, it’s a fast paced workplace with a lot of moving pieces. For anyone working there with a vision impairment, it requires a skillful level of focus and drive. Keundra Williams has taken on that challenge for over 35 years. She’s a machine operator for their paper division.

Learn more about IFB Solutions and our Arkansas Community Low Vision Center here.

First Bank Awards IFB Solutions with a $5,000 grant to Assist with Training

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These funds will go toward training 5 people who are blind or visually impaired, plus covering the cost of a trainer who is blind. Workforce Development Through Training and Education is a year-round program designed for people who are blind or visually impaired. It allows them to get the job skills and tools to perform duties with the same level of quality and productivity as their sighted peers.

Thank you to First Bank!

Triad Business Journal’s People on the Move: Vasudha Rangapathy

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Triad Business Journal honors Vasudha Rangapathy’s recent promotion to Vice President for IT & E-Commerce at IFB Solutions:

Vasudha ensures IFB Solutions, the largest employer of people who are blind in the U.S., resources its IT services appropriately to automate and innovate. She manages bscsource.com, IFB’s e-commerce resource for its Base Supply Center business serving as a point of sale for products manufactured, assembled and packaged by people who are blind or have other disabilities. Headquartered in Winston-Salem, IFB provides employment, training, and services for people who are blind or visually impaired.

Read more here.

U.S. House passes bill that helps to protect blind workers

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Some blind workers hope to recover their jobs in Winston-Salem.

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed House Resolution 4920 Monday, Dec. 16, when it moved to undo the damage it dealt to IFB Solutions, the largest employer of the blind. The bill would shield IFB solutions from Veterans First legislation, which required Veterans Affairs to rank veteran-owned businesses above AbilityOne nonprofits that employ the blind and disabled.

Read the full article here.

Walker Supports Job Protections for Veterans and North Carolinians with Disabilities

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Mark Walker (R-N.C.) released the following statement after the House passed the Department of Veterans Affairs Contracting Preference Consistency Act:

“We are thankful for the passage of the Department of Veterans Affairs Contracting Preference Consistency Act. The bi-partisan legislation keeps North Carolinians employed, restores VA contracts for IFB Solutions and National Industries for the Blind and protects jobs for people who are blind and veterans employed by AbilityOne agencies. This summer, we saw firsthand at Industries of the Blind Greensboro just how valuable these partnerships are. We are grateful that they will continue.”

Read more about Mark Walker’s involvement with this bill here.

U.S. House clears bill that would restore two expired IFB Solutions federal optical contracts

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A bill that could restore two expired IFB Solutions Inc. federal contracts cleared the U.S. House on Monday.

If the bipartisan bill passes the U.S. Senate and is signed into law by President Donald Trump, it is possible that IFB could rehire about 90 of the 137 IFB employees who lost their jobs when the contracts originally ended.

Read more about this story here.

VA Contracts Could Come Back To IFB Solutions

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WINSTON-SALAM, N.C. – Months after IFB Solutions lost three key contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs, two of them could be coming back to Winston-Salem.

  • IFB Solutions lost three VA contracts this year
  • Two contracts could be returning to IFB
  • Losing the contracts caused massive layoffs

“It was a devastating impact to our employees. We had 137 people working in our optical lab, and over the period of three weeks we went to 38 people working on our contracts,” IFB Solutions Executive Vice President Dan Kelly said.

Read more about this story here.

U.S. House of Representatives Passes Legislation to Re-Open Path to Employment for People who are Blind

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Contact
Nicole Ducouer, IFB Solutions Director of Corporate Communications
(304) 685-2393 | nducouer@ifbsolutions.org

WINSTON-SALEM, NC (Dec. 17, 2019) – Late Monday afternoon the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4920, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs Contracting Preference Consistency Act, which grandfathers in VA contracts that predate the Veterans Benefits Act of 2006 to restore eligibility for nonprofits who create jobs for people who are blind like IFB Solutions.

The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx and supported by Rep. Mark Walker. It came to the floor after passing unanimously in the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 5. The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate.

“We are very grateful to Representative Foxx for her leadership in passing H.R. 4920 in today’s session,” said Dan Kelly, IFB Executive Vice President of Strategy and Programs. “With this legislation, we can ensure that thousands of people who are blind or have other significant disabilities keep their jobs and continue their path to independence.”

Earlier this fall, IFB Solutions lost all three of its optical contracts with the VA employing more than 137 people at its facility in Winston-Salem. Two of those three contracts predate the Veterans Benefits Act and would return to IFB if the proposed legislation becomes law.

At the heart of the issue are two federal programs created by Congress – the AbilityOne program established in 1938 to help those who are blind or have other significant disabilities find employment, and the Veterans First program established in 2006 to set aside some VA contracts for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Typically, AbilityOne has been exempted when programs like Veterans First are created but when Congress passed the VBA in 2006, it neglected to specify that exemption, creating the opportunity for conflict.

In 2016, PDS Consultants filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government, saying that it should receive preference for the VA’s optical contracts over IFB Solutions. IFB went to court to protect its contracts and the 137 jobs supported by that work. A court decision found in favor of PDS and the VA began transitioning its contracts from IFB in the summer of 2019. Since that time, IFB has maintained a small crew of employees in its optical lab.

“I hope we see this legislation become law very soon because I’m ready to have my colleagues return to work,” said Scott Smith, an IFB employee who is visually impaired and a Navy veteran. “The jobs we have at IFB are life-changing. Before coming here, I could not find a job even though I had many years of work and military experience. We need places like IFB and the contracts that make our jobs possible.”

In addition to pursuing a legislative solution with the proposed Dept. of Veterans Affairs Contracting Preference Consistency Act, IFB Solutions has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case and potentially overturn the earlier lower court decision. IFB expects to hear whether or not its case will be heard by the end of January.

“We don’t believe it was ever the intention of Congress or of the Courts to keep people who are blind or visually impaired from finding jobs,” said Kelly. “There is enough business with the VA for both groups which is what this new legislation is designed to address.

“With strong advocacy from nonprofits like IFB, organizations like the Blind Veterans Association and the National Federation for the Blind, and legislative leaders such as U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx and U.S. Representative Mark Walker, I’m very hopeful that the thousands of people like me and Scott Smith who are blind or have other significant disabilities will soon have the employment opportunities Congress intended when it created the AbilityOne program in 1938.”