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Presenter(s)
Therese Stein
Senior Workforce Development Specialist
NISH
8401 Old Courthouse Road
Vienna, VA 22182
571-226-4628
fax: 703-288-9146
Email: tstein@nish.org
The NISH National Scholar Award for Workplace Innovation & Design was established to encourage college students to develop solutions to barriers that prevent people with disabilities from entering or advancing in the workplace. Now in its third year, NISH's unique scholarship program is cultivating the interest of university students across the country in the field of assistive technology, as it relates to workplace productivity. And through this technology NISH hopes to enable people with disabilities to use their unique abilities to reach their employment goals. The scholarship program is open to technology designs that address employment issues through computer access, environmental accommodations, functional control and access, transportation and mobility, and communication assistance. During this session we will discuss the following elements of this unique program and explain how people can get involved.
NISH is a national nonprofit organization, established in 1974 as part of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Act, whose mission is to create employment opportunities for people with severe disabilities by securing federal contracts for agencies that participate in the JWOD Program. NISH as a network of nearly 600 community rehabilitation programs that produce quality products and provide a variety of services to federal customers nationwide.
Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Program
The JWOD Program provides employment opportunities for over 40,000 Americans who are blind or have other severe disabilities. The JWOD Program uses the purchasing power of the federal government to buy products and services from participating, community-based nonprofit agencies dedicated to training and employing individuals with severe disabilities. The JWOD Program provides people who are blind or who have other severe disabilities the opportunity to acquire job skills and training, receive good wages and benefits and gain greater independence and quality of life. Through the JWOD Program, people with disabilities enjoy full participation in their community and can market their JWOD-learned skills into other public/private sector jobs.
NISH National Scholar Award for Workplace Innovation & Design
NISH established the National Scholar Award to encourage students to design creative technological solutions to barriers that prevent people with disabilities from entering or advancing in the workplace.
People with disabilities must compete for employment opportunities with those who do not experience physical, sensory and/or cognitive disabilities. Technology can be used to help people with disabilities use their own unique abilities to reach their employment goals.
NISH will accept the following types of workplace technology designs:
• Computer access
• Environmental accommodations
• Functional control and access
• Transportation/mobility
• Communication assistance
This competition is open to any student or team of students at the graduate or undergraduate level. Both hardware and software designs are accepted. Additional criteria for entries can be found in the application which will be available online in April 2004.
Up to three awards are given annually. First place is awarded up to $10,000, second up to $5,000 and third place up to $3000.
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