Champion of the disabled

The building occupying 59 Hempstead Gardens Drive in West Hempstead looks like others on that street: industrial, nondescript and plain. But a significant chapter of national history began there, through a company that helped Americans with disabilities nationwide obtain equal rights.

Abilities Inc., started in 1952, was the first company in the nation to be staffed primarily by people with disabilities. Its founder, Dr. Henry Viscardi Jr., was born with stumps instead of legs. He became a leading national disability advisor to eight presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter.

Viscardi started Abilities Inc. after working with disabled people through the Red Cross at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., which then housed the only military amputee center in the country. Though his primary role entailed writing reports, he took on more hands-on work — such as encouraging and listening to wounded soldiers and teaching them how to walk on their artificial limbs, as Viscardi did. He also held driving classes for amputees, recognizing how necessary driving was to hold a job.

Viscardi eventually worked with the Air Force’s rehabilitation center, which ultimately led him to a program established by the armed forces and the Veterans Administration that provided soldiers with the finest prosthetics available.

At the urging of long-time supporter Eleanor Roosevelt, Viscardi started Abilities Inc., a nonprofit business that helped people with disabilities get subcontracting jobs with major companies, including Grumman Aircraft, General Electric, IBM and the U.S. Department of Defense.

“In one year’s time, he created new jobs for 57 men and women, all of whom others felt were unemployable, and established a viable enterprise that continues to carry out his vision today,” said John Kemp, president and CEO of the Viscardi Center.

Abilities Inc. grew quickly, and within five years it moved to Albertson, where it is now known as the Viscardi Center. Today the organization offers numerous work-readiness, job-placement and school-to-work transition programs and services to more than 3,000 children and adults with disabilities each year.

The Town of Hempstead recently recognized the former site of Abilities, Inc. after Town Supervisor Anthony Santino visited the Viscardi Center in August and learned of its West Hempstead roots. On Oct. 24, he and other town officials erected and unveiled a “History Happened Here” marker in front of the site, to the applause of West Hempstead residents, hamlet historians and Viscardi Center executives.