History of Blindness

Summary of the History of the Education and

Rehabilitation of the Blind
Beginning in primitive times, the blind were not regarded as being of much value to the societies in which they
lived. They generally were not expected to be able to throw a spear accurately in times of conflict, and it was also
assumed that they could not hunt or fish for food for basic sustenance. Add these assumptions to the natural "fear
of the dark," and it is easy to see how the destructive, negative social attitudes about blindness developed and
flourished.
It is reported that in many of the early great civilizations, blind babies were abandoned and left to die, either
from exposure to the elements or to be eaten by wild animals. Later, some blind men were sold into galley slavery
and some blind women were sold into prostitution. Others were used for amusement, but most lived their lives as
beggars or were simply kept by families.
By the middle ages, civilized societies (particularly in Europe) began to operate in the belief that it was an
obligation of society itself to care for the "less fortunate," including the blind. Alms houses (something akin to
homeless shelters of today) were established to care for the poor and disadvantaged, including the blind.
1784: The first "school for the blind" was established in France in 1784. Before long, schools for the blind were
also established in England and throughout Europe.
1809: Louis Braille, the inventor of the tactile reading and writing system for the blind, was born in France in
1809. He developed his tactile reading and writing system by 1820, but it was not embraced immediately as the
reading medium for the blind.
1829: The first residential school for the blind was established in America in 1829. It was the New England Asylum
for the Blind. The term asylum was used in the names of most of the early schools. Today, the New England Asylum
is the Perkins School for the Blind located in Watertown, Mass.
1831: The New York Institution for the Blind was established in 1831.
1832: In 1832, an institution for the education of blind children, now the Overbrook School for the Blind, was
established in Philadelphia, and the concept of residential schools for the blind swept rapidly to the West across
America.
1850: The avowed purpose of the early residential schools for blind children was to prepare blind students for
remunerative employment once they became adults. Therefore, they were taught the "blind trades" - chair caning,
basket weaving, rug weaving, etc.'so that they would be able to find work. However, because this plan failed and
the blind school graduates were not able to become self-supporting, the "sheltered shop" movement began in
America. The first sheltered shop for blind adult workers was established in New York in 1850. The early shops
simply carried on work in the "blind trades."
1858: The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) was established in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1879, APH was
made the official printer of school books for blind students in America.
1871: The American Association of Instructors of the Blind (AAIB) was created in 1871. This was the first
organization of blindness professionals in America and embraced those working in the residential schools.
1905: The American Association of Workers for the Blind (AAWB) was established in 1905. It consisted primarily of
the blindness professionals administering and working in the management of the sheltered shops. Eventually other

blindness professionals (particularly those who became involved in the vocational rehabilitation programs) joined
the AAWB.
The AAIB (the instructors) and the AAWB (the workers) joined together in 1984 to become The Association for
Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER).
1918: Braille was accepted as the national standard for tactile reading for the blind. Prior to 1918, there had been
several competing tactile methods, and there had been strong differences of opinion among the leading blindness
professionals of the day. The blind, themselves, had always preferred the Braille reading and writing system.
1920: The Smith-Fess Act (Public Law 66-236) established the National Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation
Program. Although a rehabilitation program for disabled veterans (returning from the First World War) had been
established by Congress in 1918, the 1920 Act created the first national vocational rehabilitation program for
private citizens. This was the first federal effort at investing federal dollars in a program to train the disabled to
help them become self-supporting. The concept behind the rehabilitation program is that it makes sense to spend
federal and state dollars to help people with disabilities become employable so that they will not need to live off
of the public dole.
In the original 1920 Act, an individual had to be "feasible" for rehabilitation in order to qualify for the program. In
laymen's terms, this meant that there had to be a reasonable expectation that, if the federal and state dollars
were spent, the recipient would become self-supporting.
In the early days of this program, it was assumed that blind people were "not feasible": that is, the myth had
grown up that no matter how many rehabilitation dollars were spent on the blind, they couldn't become selfsupporting anyway. Therefore, it would be a waste to spend rehabilitation dollars on the blind, and, thus, the blind
were generally excluded from the program.
By 1943, as blinded veterans were coming home from the Second World War, the blind were finally included in VR
programs and assumed to have at least some kind of employment potential. The 1943 law which brought the blind
into the state/federal VR programs was the Barden-LaFollette Act (Public Law 78-113).
1921: The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) was created in 1921 by the American Association of Instructors
of the Blind and the American Association of Workers for the Blind. These two organizations, meeting in Vinton,
Iowa., believed that programs for the blind could be enhanced greatly if there were one "national" entity to
represent the interests of the blind. There were four original purposes for the Foundation: to conduct research
into the causes of blindness; to work to find resources to improve the lives of blind people; to improve services for
the blind; and to represent the interests of the blind.
It was this forth purpose - to "represent" the interests of the blind - which ultimately led to a complete disconnect
between the Foundation and the blind themselves.
1931: The Pratt-Smoot Act was passed by the Congress in 1931. It established the federal program of providing
books for the blind. It created what was then known as the Division for the Blind of the Library of Congress, what
is now the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
1935: The Social Security Act was passed by the Congress in 1935. In addition to developing a system of retirement
benefits for seniors, it included a new welfare program, Aid to the Blind. In time, an effort was made to include
the concept of rehabilitation training within the Aid to the Blind grant program so that the blind could get off of
welfare and become self-supporting.

1936: The Randolph-Sheppard vending stand program was created by the Congress in 1936. This program had and
has two purposes; first, to provide employment opportunities for the blind in vending facilities located on federal
property; and, second, to serve as a visible demonstration to the public of the abilities of the blind to engage in
normal, competitive employment.
1938: The Wagner-O'Day Act was passed by the Congress in 1938. The purpose of this Act was to require that the
federal government purchase certain items - mops, brooms, mattresses, etc. - from sheltered shops for the
blind. This was clearly another federal effort to create more and better employment opportunities for the blind.
1938: However, the Wagner-O'Day Act was weakened somewhat when, also in 1938, Congress passed the new
federal minimum wage law, the Fair Labor Standards Act, which included a provision (Section 14 C) that permitted
sheltered shops to pay less than the new federal minimum wage to blind sheltered shop workers. Sub-minimum
wages can legally be paid to blind sheltered shop workers to this day.
1940: The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) was established in 1940. The organizing convention included
representatives from seven states; California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The Federation was the first nationwide organization "of" blind people and is far-and-away the largest such
organization today. It continues to represent the interests of all of America's blind citizens.
It was the National Federation of the Blind which came to understand that the real problem of blindness is not the
loss of eyesight itself, but rather is to be found in the wide range of public misunderstandings, misconceptions,
and superstitions about blindness held by rank-and-file members of the general public - both blind and
sighted. That is, it was the Federation which recognized that the blind are a minority in the same way and for the
same reasons that certain racial and ethnic groups are. Many people continue to think of blind people as if we
were still in the dark ages; that is, as helpless, incompetent, and unable to participate in the ordinary pursuits of
life.
However, the Federation came to know the all-empowering truth that blind people are not defective sighted
people but are nothing more than "normal" people who cannot see. The Federation also came to understand that,
given "proper" training and opportunity, the average blind person can live and work and play on terms of absolute
equality alongside the average sighted person, and that it is perfectly respectable to be blind!
(1943: As stated previously, the federal vocational rehabilitation act was amended specifically to include the blind
when Congress passed the Barden-LaFollette Act in 1943.)
1971: Senator Jacob Javits of New York was successful in 1971 in amending the Wagner-O'Day Act to require that
the federal government also purchase products and services from sheltered shops for people with severe
disabilities. Thus the law became the Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Act.
The original Wagner-O'Day Act required that 75 percent of the production work had to be performed by people who
were merely "legally blind." However, the new Javits provisions were somewhat more stringent: the 75 percent of
disabled workers in these shops must be "so severely disabled that they are not able to work in normal,
competitive employment."
1973: Congress took its first steps into the area of civil rights protections for people with disabilities when it
enacted Title 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Interestingly, civil rights protections for people with disabilities
were placed within the rehabilitation framework rather than in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited
discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, and national origin.
There were several important provisions in Title 5 of the 1973 Act:

Section 501 provided that the "federal government" itself could not discriminate against "otherwise handicapped
individuals" on the basis of disability and that the federal government must provide "reasonable accommodations"
for the known physical or mental limitations of otherwise qualified handicapped individuals;
Section 502 created the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. This entity works nationwide
on the general concept of accessibility for people with disabilities;
Section 503 required that "federal contractors" not discriminate on the basis of disability; and
Section 504 (the section which was most prominent) provided that "recipients of federal funds" not discriminate on
the basis of physical or mental disability and that "reasonable accommodation" be provided to overcome the known
physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified handicapped individual.
1974: The original Randolph-Sheppard Act had provided for the establishment of small vending facilities on federal
property to create employment opportunities for the blind. A 1974 amendment to this law proposed by the
National Federation of the Blind broadened the program to include full-line food service operations on certain
federal property. Under this new provision, many blind persons have earned significant livings running large
cafeterias.
1975: In 1975, Congress passed the first law requiring that public schools accept handicapped students in "the
least restrictive environment." This law is now known as The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and
has led to the placement of countless blind children in the public schools. However, mere placement in the public
schools, without more, was destined to fail blind students.
(1984: As noted above, AER was established in 1984.) This organization of blindness professionals became
relatively powerful among the agencies and schools for the blind, but, for many years, it steadfastly refused to
work "with" the blind, and there have been major controversies over best practices for training and teaching
techniques. Tensions are now reducing somewhat.
1990: The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed by the Congress in 1990. This Act greatly broadened the
protections offered by Title 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as Amended. Generally, it took civil rights
protections for people with disabilities into the private sector. The blind'speaking through the National Federation
of the Blind'supported this act only after a provision was added that said that a disabled person did not have to
accept a particular accommodation if he or she did not wish to do so. The blind were concerned that, for example,
they might be told that all of the "handicapped rooms" in a particular hotel were taken and that, therefore, they
could not stay in the facility. The blind wanted to be able to say that they did not want a "handicapped" room,
since none is required by a blind person.
1990: The National Federation of the Blind established the International Braille and Technology Center to secure
and evaluate all of the many rapidly developing pieces of Braille and other technology for the blind.
1990 and following: The National Federation of the Blind began passing "model state Braille bills." Blind youngsters
attending the public schools were having a very difficult time getting Braille books. The Federation's model laws
generally required two things: first, that text book producers wishing to sell books in a given state would be
required to provide "electronic" versions so that, using Braille embossers, the schools could produce their own
Braille books as needed; and second, that school districts would be required to provide Braille teachers who were
"qualified" so that blind children could learn to read and write Braille competently and routinely.
1992: By the early 1990s, the three NFB centers had become highly successful, but blind people in many of the
states had no apparent right to attend them for training. In 1992, the National Federation of the Blind was able to
convince Congress to include "informed choice" provisions within the vocational rehabilitation (VR) system. This
meant that, unlike the old days, the VR client could participate in selecting what program - training center or

school, etc. - he or she might attend. This did not mean, of course, that the client could tell the service provider
how to set up its programs or that the client could choose to take certain parts, but not all, of a service provider's
curriculum.
1995: The National Federation of the Blind established NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND. This is a system whereby blind
people can read newspapers and magazines using touch-tone telephones.
1996: Until this point in the history of the blindness system, permission from a book's publisher had to be obtained
before a book could be tape-recorded or transcribed into Braille for blind students or readers. This sometimes
resulted in long delays before production could commence, and blind students might be without books for months.
In 1996, the National Federation of the Blind was able to convince the organization of textbook publishers and the
Congress that the law should permit the transcription or Brailling of books for the blind without prior publisher
permission. This has speeded up the production process significantly.
1997: Even though the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Federation's Model Braille Bills
were in existence by this time, blind students were still experiencing difficulties in getting Braille instruction in
the public schools. Quite often, the special education teachers themselves were a large part of the problem since
they were not fluent in Braille and they thought it too complicated to learn handily.
Under IDEA, a team, including teachers, parents, and special education officials, must order an "assessment" of the
needs of each child with a disability and then develop an "Individualized Education Plan" (IEP) which sets forth
details about the services which will be provided. Even under this plan, blind students needing Braille instruction
were not receiving it.
Therefore, the National Federation of the Blind was able to convince the Congress that the IDEA law should be
amended to require that the IEP not begin with a blank slate but that Braille be included within the Individualized
Education Plan, unless it is agreed by the entire IEP team that Braille is not needed. While certain blindness
professionals opposed this provision, the Congress enacted it. The system to implement this provision is still under
development.
2004: By 2004, certain blind students were still being denied Braille instruction, so the National Federation of the
Blind offered yet another solution: the Federation proposed a law to the Congress which stated that every
publisher wishing to copyright a proposed textbook would have to submit an "electronic" version of that book to a
federal repository before the copyright would be granted. Congress passed and the President signed this legislation
in the fall of 2004. Plans are being finalized as to just how the new law will be implemented. The American
Printing House for the Blind (APH) is being designated as the central repository for the electronic versions of the
books - the National Instructional Materials Access Center. Schools are to be able to request copies as needed, and
they will produce their own Braille books locally. This process has not yet been perfected.
2006: In 2006, the Federation was able to convince the Congress to mint a commemorative Louis Braille coin to
recognize Braille's 200th birthday in 2009. The Federation will receive approximately four million dollars from the
coin sales to use for Braille literacy projects, if it is able to raise the matching funds needed to earn the Federal
dollars.

HRADUN: Not many know that the valley is home to the oldest school for the
visually impaired in the country the Sharp Memorial School for the Blind,
tucked away at the farthest end of Rajpur Road.

The picturesque location of the school at the Himalayan foothills is a reminder

of nature's beauty which everyone else can see, but not the students, who are
taught the written word through the help of Braille to be able to get a chance
to lead a near-normal life.
Over the years, the school has come to occupy a vital role in the lives of those
it has touched.

(TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)

"Our daughter has been visually impaired since she was two years old. We
had heard a lot about this institute and decided to shift to Doon for our
daughter," says Anita Bhatt, eyes brimming with tears. Bhatt arrived at the city
from Pithoragarh a week ago to get her daughter Manisha, now 9, admission
at the school.

(TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)

The present superintendent of the school, P M Samuel, took over in 1986

when it was on the verge of closing down due to financial constraints.

(TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)

"When I was asked to take over by the board members, I was hesitant. In
hindsight, I feel it was a good decision. We were able to keep the school
running despite the funds crunch. We intend to continue as long as we can,"
he says.

(TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)

Sharp Memorial currently has 109 visually impaired students. Earlier known
as the North India Industrial Home for the Blind, it has a history dating back to
the 1880s.

TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)Miss Hewlett, an Anglican missionary, lost her s

ight after measles as a child but recovered it after a year. She resolved to
help other visually impaired children. She requested her friend Annie Sha
rp to get special training in Brita
and come to India to teach.The school was officially founded in 1887 b
y Sharp at the compound of St Catherine Hospital, Amritsar, where Hewle
tt was working. It shifted to Dehradun, considered to have a healthier climat
e, in 1903. Ten days after it shifted to th
city, Sharp died of cholera.

(TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)

Her family continued supporting the school. In 1930, they handed it over to a
missionary group, the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship (BBMF), which
changed the name to Sharp Memorial School.
Today, Samual along with his wife Sumana and sixteen other staff members
continue to teach girls and boys from primary classes up to class VIII. Many of
the teachers are former students.

(TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)

"Education is imparted in Braille. Children who have some residual vision are
also taught to read print like normal students. Some students with vision from
nearby areas are also studying with us at the moment," says Samuel.

(TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)

Besides academics, the school also runs BEd courses under IGNOU. It
started a post-graduate diploma course in special education in 2004.
Young ones are taught with toys and puzzles at the beginning before
progressing to Braille in senior classes. Many are even taught the usage of
computers through Braille-specific software.

(TOI Photo/Sukanta Mukherjee)

Snehlata Singh, in her 60s now, came to the school as a child but her father
left her and never returned to fetch her.