Budget constraints force closure of AFMC CAP office

  • Published
  • By John Scaggs
  • Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  As the Air Force continues funding two of its priorities -- waging and winning the Global War on Terror as well as recapitalizing and modernizing its aging air and space force -- budget constraints affect decisions made by senior officials.

In a move that will save Air Force Materiel Command approximately $500,000 annually, AFMC is discontinuing the command's Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program, or CAP. The command's CAP office, located at Wright-Patterson AFB, stopped taking new clients and loaning equipment to all clients March 16. The CAP office will close April 15.

However, Tim Bridges, Director, Installations and Mission Support Directorate at Headquarters AFMC, emphasizes that CAP services remain available to AFMC's work force through the centralized DoD CAP office.

"AFMC is not denying accommodations to disabled employees by any means," said Mr. Bridges. "The centralized DoD CAP still provides the full range of support, from needs assessments to buying equipment paid for by the DoD CAP."

To aid the transition, the 88th Communications Group here will continue to provide forwarding contact information to the DoD CAP office via voicemail after the closure of AFMC's CAP office.

CAP provides accommodation services and ergonomic assistance to all military and Department of Defense civilian employees with disabilities or injuries. It also advocates awareness of the Rehabilitation Act, Section 508 Directives.

AFMC established its own CAP office in the early 1990s and originally funded it through what was then the command's Information Technology directorate. It is the only agency to establish a program to supplement DOD's CAP services, and AFMC had the only physical site outside of Washington, D.C. The command's CAP office acts as the single Air Force coordination point with the Department of Defense CAP.

By fiscal 2006, significant funding reductions resulted in AFMC's Installations and Mission Support Directorate sustaining CAP with end-of-year fallout money. End-of-year funds have kept CAP afloat within AFMC since then.

Many of the individuals who use the CAP services are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. This act requires employers to provide qualified disabled people with the opportunity to obtain employment and to perform the essential functions of positions for which they are qualified. To facilitate the requirements, the law calls for employers to provide "reasonable accommodation" to disabled employees, such as making existing facilities and equipment readily accessible to, and usable by, individuals with disabilities.

The employer's responsibility to reasonably accommodate is not unlimited, however. Employers are not required to provide accommodations that will impose an "undue hardship" on the employer. Undue hardship is defined in the law as significant difficulty or expense in or resulting from the provision of the accommodation.

For more information on the CAP, visit http://cap.tricare.osd.mil. This information will also be posted to the HQ AFMC public web site at http://www.afmc.af.mil.