The 1935 Social Security Act made federal funding of rehabilitation permanent.

The 1936 Randolph-Sheppard Act authorized operation of vending stands by visually handicapped on federal lands and funded research of rehabilitation for visually handicapped.

The 1938 Wagner-O'Day Act required the federal government to buy certain products from sheltered workshops that served the blind.

The 1943 Barden-Lafollette Act expanded rehabilitation to psychiatrically handicapped and intellectually disabled individuals and expanded rehabilitation services for the physically handicapped and blind.