Institute for Economic Empowerment

NISH sponsors two assistive technology design competitions:  the JETS/AbilityOne National Engineering Design Challenge, for high school students, and the AbilityOne Network Design Challenge, for university-level students.

The JETS/AbilityOne National Engineering Design Challenge is an annual high school engineering competition through which high school student teams design innovative assistive technologies. Student teams explore rehabilitation engineering concepts and disability facts and statistics, then design and build a working prototype that will help individuals with disabilities enter and succeed in employment.

The AbilityOne Network Design Challenge (formerly called the National Scholar Award for Workplace Innovation and Design) is an annual program established to encourage university-level students to develop creative technological solutions to barriers that prevent people with severe disabilities from advancing in the workplace. Through this program, college students gain a greater awareness of the need for assistive technology specific to the workplace and NISH is able to promote the design of and access to the technology for individuals with severe disabilities.