SKILCRAFT U.S. Government Pens Features in Washington Post Story

The 41-year-old National Industries for the Blind SKILCRAFT U.S. Government Pen is being called an “American icon” in a feature story that ran on the front page of the Washington Post on April 18, 2010. Washington Post reporter Ylan Mui became interested in the “ubiquitous” pen after finding dozens of them around her house. An excerpt from her story, which has also been syndicated nationally, is below:

Excerpt: For more than 40 years, standard black pens have cluttered the desks of thousands of federal employees, hung on a chain at post offices across the country and slipped into the pockets of countless military personnel. Yet few have realized that this government-issue pen has a history to rival that of any monument.

Blind workers assemble the pens in factories in Wisconsin and North Carolina under the brand name SKILCRAFT as part of a 72-year-old legislative mandate. The original 16-page specifications for the pen are still in force: It must be able to write continuously for a mile and in temperatures up to 160 degrees and down to 40 degrees below zero.

It has been used in war zones and gas stations, and was designed to fit undetected into U.S. military uniforms. According to company lore, the pen can stand in for a two-inch fuse and comes in handy during emergency tracheotomies.

"It's the Coca-Cola of ink pens," said Richard Oliver, operations manager for Industries of the Blind in North Carolina. "Everybody recognizes this pen. It's amazing."

Read the full story, “Low-Tech SKILCRAFT Pens Endure in a High-Tech World,” in the Washington Post online. Don’t forget to read the comments by readers from around the country! Registration may be required (it’s free). Read the related story in the Herald-Tribune.com. SKILCRAFT products and services are sold to the federal government and U.S. military through the AbilityOne Program.

For more information, contact Ken Murphy at 703-310-0500 kmurphy@nib.org

Washington Post Story Creates Demand for SKILCRAFT U.S. Government Pens

The Sunday, April 18, 2010 Washington Post front-page story about SKILCRAFT U.S. Government pens is generating a lot of inquiries on where to buy these American icons. Fortunately, SKILCRAFT U.S. Government pens available online at http://www.abilityone.com.

SKILCRAFT U.S. Government pens come in black or blue ink (the casing color is the ink color). Refills are also sold.

Interested in becoming a distributor, visit http://www.skilcraftsales.com/

National Industries for the Blind developed the U.S. government from 1967 to 1969, then received a GSA contract to produce the U.S. government pens under its SKILCRAFT brand in 1969.

Irving R. Dickman, in his book “Creating Jobs, Changing Lives,” which covers the history of the Wagner-O’Day Act 1966-1988, the GSA sought NIB as a producer of a new pen for government sale because it had 13 million defective pens on hand. [Note: the book does not name the producer of those defective pens].

The book says: “If there was a single key to government acceptance and the success of the [SKILCRAFT] ballpoint pen project, it was the quality of the product.”

NIB was created in 1938 to produce jobs for people who are blind through the sale of products and services to the U.S. government and Department of Defense. Today, nearly 6,000 Americans who are blind or visually impaired are employed by NIB and its 89 associated agencies. Most products and services are sold through the AbilityOne Program (JWOD Act).

Every purchase of a SKILCRAFT product or other products on the government procurement list through the AbilityOne Program creates or sustains economic independence for people who are blind or visually impaired.