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Places of Disabled Defense Workers on the World War II Home Front

Map of the eastern and midwestern United States from North Dakota to northern Texas and western Maine to Georgia. Major highways are represented as yellow lines. There are red numbered circles on the locations of places in this article.
This map represents the places featured in this article as red numbered circles. 1) Ford Motor Company River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. 2) Goodyear and Firestone Tire and Rubber Companies in Akron, Ohio. 3) White Engineering Company in Baltimore, Maryland. 4) US Civilian Defense Corps., Deaf Auxiliary Fireman Unit in Wichita, Kansas.

This article highlights a few of the many job opportunities that opened to people with disabilities during World War II.

A man wearing a dark pinstriped sits at a desk. He uses a pen strapped to his forearm to write because he has stumps in place of hands.
A Ford Motor Company employee with disabled hands working at his desk, October 1942.

Courtesy of Benson Ford Research Center, The Henry Ford.

Ford Motor Company River Rouge Plant

The Ford Motor Company was a leader in the hiring of disabled workers since the 1900s and 1910s. During this period, other companies used mechanization as an excuse to exclude workers with physical and sensory disabilities and chronic illnesses to maximize efficiency. Henry Ford, on the other hand, realized that machinery could be used to expand people's abilities by making work easier and more specialized.

Instead of focusing on workers’ physical limitations, doctors in Ford’s medical department conducted physical examinations to place disabled workers in jobs appropriate for their capabilities. By 1919, over 9,000 of the company’s 33,000 total employees were people with disabilities. Although job opportunities for disabled workers declined between the world wars, many of Ford’s disabled employees were World War I veterans.

In addition to workers with disabilities, Ford also hired other groups of people that were often barred from jobs, including African Americans, women, felons, and men over 70. Henry Ford was motivated by his beliefs about social efficiency and the moral value of work and his distaste for waste and dependence. The company’s policy stated:

“No company regards such employment as charity or altruism. All our handicapped workers give full value for the wages and their tasks are carried out with absolutely no allowances or special considerations. Our real assistance to them has been merely the discovery of tasks which would develop their usefulness.”

Two white men in pinstriped suits help a black dog with light markings, pointed ears, and a hanging tongue, to stamp his pawprint. The man at left wears glasses and holds the dog in place while the man at right presses the dog’s front paw on an ink pad.
Ford employee Sylvester Rypkowski helps his service dog Blackie get "pawprinted" for identification, October 1942.

Courtesy of Benson Ford Research Center, The Henry Ford.

During World War II, 80% of all industries hired people with disabilities. The Ford Company alone hired 11,000 disabled people and offered them the same rate of pay as their non-disabled peers. Ten percent of them were blind, including Sylvester Rypkowski and his service dog Blackie. Unlike other employers that were hesitant to hire people with disabilities, Ford publicized his diverse workforce in local and regional newspapers. Some of this coverage featured Blackie joining Rypkowski to get “pawprinted” for identification.

At Ford's River Rouge plant, the company also employed 112 workers with epilepsy in jobs that did not require operating machinery or climbing. The company noted that employers needed to place disabled workers in jobs suited to their abilities with appropriate accommodations, rather than focusing on what their physical limitations.

The Ford River Rouge Complex was designated as National Historic Landmark District in 1978. MotorCities National Heritage Area also commemorates the history of the automobile industry in central and southeast Michigan.

Goodyear and Firestone Tire and Rubber Companies

Color postcard illustration of bird’s eye view of blocky, multi-story factory buildings surrounded by a residential area. Three smokestacks spew smoke. Train tracks run alongside and through the complex. A white US Navy blimp flies overhead. Color postcard illustration of bird’s eye view of blocky, multi-story factory buildings surrounded by a residential area. Three smokestacks spew smoke. Train tracks run alongside and through the complex. A white US Navy blimp flies overhead.

Left image
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Plant in Akron, Ohio, ca. 1930-1945.
Credit: Courtesy of Boston Public Library, The Tichnor Brothers Collection. No known restrictions.

Right image
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, ca. 1930-1945.
Credit: Courtesy of Boston Public Library, The Tichnor Brothers Collection. No known restrictions.

Akron, Ohio saw one of the largest surges in the wartime employment of deaf people. To support defense production during World War II, Firestone and its main competitor Goodyear hired around 1,000 deaf workers. This was largely due to the efforts of Benjamin Schowe, Sr., a labor economics specialist at Firestone. To identify potential war workers, he reached out to vocational rehabilitation training schools and programs around the country. Job postings also appeared in nationally circulated publications, such as the National Fraternal Society of the Deaf and the Ohio Chronicle.

Firestone and Goodyear had also hired deaf people to address labor shortages during World War I. However, both companies were quick to lay them off during the postwar recession. Once the economy stabilized, Firestone and Goodyear reverted to hiring non-disabled, permanent residents of Akron until the onset of World War II.

During World War II, both companies featured deaf workers in films about wartime production. Goodyear highlighted a group of deaf women who signed to communicate at work. Firestone’s film also showcased people who were blind, deaf, and mobility-impaired on the production line.

In Akron, deaf people formed their own clubs, religious groups, sports teams, and other community institutions. At home, they also participated in canned food and scrap drives, donated blood, and knit socks and other items for soldiers. Like their jobs in the defense industries, these activities provided additional ways for community members to contribute to civilian mobilization on the World War II home front.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Headquarters was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

Two young women paint Y-shaped metal parts at a table with finished parts arranged in front of them. At left, Belva is seated & wears a top with polka dots & a flower clip in her hair. At right, Henriette is standing & has dark curly hair & wears a dress
Belva Fletcher, 21, and Henriette Furley, 25, paint Y’s for airplane engines. Due to progressive paralysis, Belva is seated while Henriette must work standing due to an arthritic condition.

Ann Rosener, US Office of War Information, 1942. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, public domain.

White Engineering Company

In Baltimore, Maryland, White Engineering Company hired young men with physical disabilities to prepare parts for airplane motors. These workers had a range of responsibilities, from inspecting parts to operating machinery, such as the lathe, band saw, and drill press. Most of them had limited use of their arms or legs due to amputated limbs or polio.

White Engineering also subcontracted teenaged girls and young women at the Maryland League for Crippled Children. Some of them were tasked with removing rough edges from Y-shaped parts for engines by hand. Others were responsible for painting the parts afterwards. Because many of these women had weakened or paralyzed limbs due to polio or arthritis, these tasks allowed for standing or sitting as needed.

The Bell Tower Building, also known as the Allegany County League for Crippled Children Building, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Two groups of three men direct fire hoses that are blasting water at a high pressure. They are wearing civil defense helmets and heavy fireman’s coats.
Members of Wichita's 'totally deaf' auxiliary firemen unit in house drill. Manning the back hose, left to right, are Don Ivan Miller, William Doonan, and Archie G. Grier. Manning the front house, left to right, are Harold H. Maisch, Everett T. Wimp, and James B. Kaufman.

Courtesy of the Wichita Beacon, Newspapers.com.

US Civilian Defense Corps, Deaf Auxiliary Fireman Unit

Workers with disabilities also took on additional wartime responsibilities outside of defense manufacturing. In Wichita, Kansas, for instance, about twenty deaf men organized an auxiliary fireman unit in May 1942. According to the Wichita Beacon, it was the only “totally deaf auxiliary fireman unit in the United States Citizens Defense Corps.”[1] The group was created to improve relations between deaf and hearing people in Wichita, as well as to expand equal opportunities for deaf people.

Wichita’s fire chief and captain worked with a sign language interpreter to train the men in first aid, fire defense, gas defense, hose handling, ladders, and other skills. Many of the deaf auxiliary firemen assumed these duties in addition to their jobs at local defense plants, where some even worked double shifts. The Wichita Beacon described one firefighter who attended weekly drill after only three hours of sleep between shifts.

Because of their hard work, dedication, and attentiveness, the deaf auxiliary firemen received accolades from the local community as well as national attention. In September 1943, the auxiliary unit presented an exhibition at the state firemen’s association school. The group also attracted the attention of the Red Cross, which requested information about the first aid instruction that the men received. In addition to coverage in the local press, the deaf auxiliary fireman unit was also recognized nationally. In February 1944, the Civilian Front (a national weekly newspaper for civil defense) published a feature story about the unit.

The Secretary of the Interior designated Wichita, Kansas as an American World War II Heritage City in 2022.

Consider This:

Think about a different job or task you've performed in the past. What made or didn't make the experience meaningful?

This article was researched and written by Jade Ryerson, Consulting Historian with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education. It was funded by the National Council on Public History's cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

Part of a series of articles titled Disability and the World War II Home Front.

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Last updated: October 5, 2023