Business Access (BA) is a social entrepreneurial venture developed by businesses working to increase their hiring of disadvantaged populations. Beginning in 1992, more than thirty major corporations including Bank of America, EDS, JC Penney, MBNA and others worked with BA founder, Kim Bunting, to develop regulations related to the Americans with Disabilities Act that would allow businesses to hire more people with disabilities. From there, the group provided input on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and the Workforce Investment Act.
In 1998, at the request of the aforementioned corporations and with a $450,000 planning grant from Bank of America, the group embarked on designing a government-sponsored training program that could be broadly implemented, effective for the participants, and would specifically meet the needs of employers attempting to utilize government job placement and training programs.
In 1999, a business model for an Internet-based program was finalized. It was determined that the enterprise should be operated as a for-profit business in order to continually re-invest in the technology required. Remaining donated funds were returned and Business Access was officially launched.
Since 2000, Business Access has successfully implemented the technology behind more than 180 government programs across 13 states. We hold U.S. Patent #6629843 for the technical platform behind our "In-Home Learning System." Over thirty programs use our administrative systems.