Congress enacted a law called the Randolph-Sheppard Act (Chapter 6A under Title 20 of the U.S. Code). This law provides that we give entrepreneurial
opportunities to blind persons who operate vending facilities as a business on federal
property. In addition, under the Randolph-Sheppard Act program, a blind vendor who
operates a vending facility on federal property may also receive income from vending machines that are located on the same property, even though
the blind vendor does not service, operate, or maintain the vending machines.
There are similar state programs that also allow blind vendors to operate vending
facilities on state and local government properties. Like the Randolph-Sheppard Act
program, many of these state programs also provide the blind vendor with income from
vending machines located on the same property, but operated independently of the blind vendor’s vending facility business.
Effective 09/21/2012, we published a Social Security Ruling
(SSR), SSR 12-1p, that addresses the evaluation of vending machine income from blind self-employed
persons. Note that we are addressing vending machine income, NOT vending facility
income.