One of the most promising examples of a one-stop shop for AT is the federal government’s Computer/Electronic Accommodation Program (CAP) established under Executive Order 13163 to increase opportunities for people with disabilities to be employed in the federal government under the Department of Defense (DoD). The Executive Order required the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to develop a plan to hire 100,000 people with disabilities over a five-year period (2001 to 2005). Federal government agencies were required to focus on IT positions for these new employees and to develop a centrally funded accommodations program for them. CAP, operating out of DoD, also operated a centrally funded accommodations program for DoD employees with disabilities since the 1990s, so the proposed accommodation support system merely extended their services to benefit all federal agencies. Now CAP operates as a centrally operated and centrally funded program to provide accommodations to all federal government employees with disabilities. Since its inception, it has handled 28,000 requests for accommodations to ensure access to information and communications technologies. Its annual budget is $2 million and provides accommodations for federal non-DoD employees with disabilities and $2.6 million for DoD international employees with disabilities. NASA recently announced that it would also participate in the CAP program. CAP provides services in three stages:

1. Needs assessment: An on-site assessment of federal employees’ needs is done by using outside assessment resources. CAP uses many public and private AT evaluation/assessment resources such as:
    
   • State AT Act-funded Resource Centers;
      
   • Centers for Independent Living offering AT assessments;
      
   • Colleges and university-based assessment programs;
      
   • Alliance for Technology Access programs, and;
      
   • AT vendors and private non-profits.
      
2. Equipment procurement: CAP purchases equipment for globally based federal employees with a seven to 10 day turnaround time using only two VISA cards. Electronic purchases cut down ordering time from two months to between seven to 10 days. The cost of the AT/Info Tech is paid for from two annual budget set-asides to cover all program administration, assessment, training and AT/Info Tech purchases.
    
3. Customer care: Installation, integration of access devices and training are provided to each employee, and customers are surveyed to ensure continuous improvements. Since CAP provides services around the world, it develops creative approaches to providing training needs to support the customer and products. Vendors and other state or national resources skilled in training are paid directly by CAP. Follow-up customer services, completed by CAP staff, look at the outcomes of the services from the customers’ perspective. Surveys yield information about the need for additional services.

As of March 19, 2002, the CAP program had 47 participating government partners. With all participating DoD and federal non-DoD agencies, only electronic, telecommunications (www.disabilitydirect.gov) and computer equipment can be purchased. However, CAP has recently negotiated a turn-key type arrangement with the Department of State, which has its own budget for purchasing AT Information and Communication technologies. The Department of State turned to CAP for technical assistance in handling needs assessments, procurement, installation and training and pays for the cost of all technology. The budget for DoD and federal non-DoD comes directly through DoD allocations, thus creating a more natural incentive for federal managers to hire more people with disabilities; it doesn’t cost them anything and the process is completed with a simple two-page request form without bureaucratic delays.

CAP provides its total services for a per capita cost of $658 per service, which includes program administration and accommodations. The program provides tremendous cost-savings to participating federal partners because it is funded and centrally operated and can achieve more economies of scale by bulk purchasing when necessary. For example, when federal agencies around the world needed to order TTYs for employees with disabilities as well as their customers, CAP placed orders for 1,500 TTYs. CAP saved federal agencies $700,082 on this sole order. Had each order been placed separately, as is done with most state public programs, the cost per TTY would have been $750 per unit. CAP easily negotiated a unit cost of $558 per unit. Cost savings from bulk purchasing through a non-bureaucratic, centrally operated and centrally funded service could potentially underwrite all administrative costs of program operation on a national or statewide level.